An eclectic playlist hums through the speakers as coffee machines grind carefully selected beans, silverware clinks on Steelite crockery and overdue catch ups over oat milk cappuccinos get animated. It all feels quintessentially Mancunian, minus the Staffordshire pottery, of course, but at least the North has taste.
Set inside the Grade II-listed Sevendale House, on Lever Street, to a backdrop of white tiles, hexagonal wooden tables and hanging house plants, is Foundation Coffee House - one of three in Manchester City Centre, though the Northern Quarter venue predates its Whitworth Lock and Portland Street sisters.
The 3,500 sq ft cafe is moderately busy when I arrive at 10am, the perimeter taken up by those who have escaped working from home life for a change of scenery, laptops on desks, coffees of varying sizes beside them.
