While some turn their noses up at JD Wetherspoon, I am a big fan of the budget pub chain. The business has invested considerable sums of money in renovating old pubs over the years – and created many new ones out of interesting disused buildings (like the Prince of Wales in Cardiff that used to be a theatre where, if you get there early enough, you can drink with friends in your own private box).  

I also like the fact you can enjoy a changing range of beers from across the world – supporting independent breweries – at the chain’s outlets. At Wetherspoons there always seems to be an ale festival on and that’s something that should be celebrated. The hot food is getting better as well.

And having conquered the beer market, the pub chain now seems insistent on becoming the UK’s biggest coffee shop. The group already sells around 50 million coffees and 24 million breakfasts a year (the latter being more than that of Caffè Nero or Pret a Manger), but at its latest results Wetherspoons said it wants to triple its coffee and breakfast sales over the next 18 months. 

To entice customers through the door, from Monday it will offer filter coffee (with free re-fills) for 99p or less – as well as deals on breakfasts – to its morning customers in around 880 of its pubs. 



While some may indeed take up this offer, I won’t be one of them. In fact, I can’t think of anything worse than sitting in a dingy pub first thing in the morning, drinking a coffee on my way to work. Great as they are in the evening, I have never been to a Wetherspoons pubs for beers and thought this would be a good place to relax with the newspapers before a busy day.

And then there’s the coffee. Wetherspoons uses a Lavazza coffee but it comes straight from a machine. You don’t get the same experience that is created when a trained barista makes your coffee for you from freshly ground beans. It’s for this reason that I also choose to have a coffee at an independent store – especially those with plenty of natural light – or at a Costa Coffee where I am pretty partial to a flat white made from their special Paradise blend.    

Wetherspoons has my vote for a night out, but I will be drinking coffee elsewhere.