There are some days that are destined for mishaps, writes Milo Boyd.

Last Thursday was one of them - both for me, and a waiter at Coffee Barker. 

Having cycled out of the town centre for a meeting the rain caught me on the way back. Light drizzle turned into a downpour, soaking through my freshly dry-cleaned suit. Bracknell Station and the warmth of a train could not come quick enough.

It was therefore with a growing hollow feeling in my stomach that I sat on the platform, water dripping from my hair, as one train, then two, three and four in a row were cancelled. A group of probably lovely but certainly noisy school children hemmed me into the platform shelter’s corner. A stray string of lunchbox spaghetti fell onto my trousers. You get my point. I decided to cut my losses and walk down to The Lexicon. 

For the past two weeks one place has been on the lips of most discerning Bracknell shoppers - Coffee Barker. Opening in the week after the grand unveiling, the coffee shop rode the crest of a second wave of town centre enthusiasm, photos of its cream and doughnut milkshake stacks saturating local social media groups in their absurd chocolatey magnificence. 

As someone who does not drink or eat dairy products and is as happy with a cup of instant coffee as a deep roasted bean venti, such shareable cow-product based content typically leaves me cold.

With the full weight of a wet and miserable weekday afternoon bearing down on me however, I ventured inside. 

What is immediately striking about Coffee Barker is the smell. Clouds of steam waft up from the tamping stations, bringing with them a hearty aroma that hangs over the tables. While the floor plan of the shop is much larger than a typical coffee house, it is broken up by numerous partitions which create nooks, crannies and private places, in which to be indulgent or gossip. Exposed bricks line the walls and theatre style lamps hang down from the ceiling.

I gave my order to a slightly flustered looking waitress and hung around for coffee in the jumble of people surrounding the till, before a black americano with slab of cake side arrived. The cake is without doubt delicious, heavy with fruit and perfectly moist. The coffee is also good.

A couple of friends sat at the table across as I waited for the rain to pass and the trains to get up and running.

Regretfully removing themselves for calorie and wallet based reasons from the gelato freezer, they ordered two mojitos which arrived and are ‘excellent’. They then worried about the prices eating too quickly into their student loans, before ordering a jacket potato and beans. It was at this point that the waiter joined me in my day of mishaps.

After a ten minute gap he returned to the table to inform the couple the jacket potato had been dropped, and it is the last in shop. A replacement panini is offered which, the truly apologetic table server informed them ten minutes later, had also found its way to the floor. 

While two dropped dishes for one cover may be the stuff of waiters’ nightmares, the mishaps are largely irrelevant in the face of Coffee Barker’s quality.

It has a bustle and excitement I have not experienced elsewhere in Bracknell and, once whatever teething problems it may have are ironed out, will be a warm refuge for pre-university couples, soggy journalists and everyone in between.