Cafe Čokl (slightly disappointingly, I believe it’s “Sokl” rather than “Cockle”), Krekov trg 8 (a few doors down from the bottom of the castle funicular, across from the outdoor market)
Opening hours appear to be Monday-Saturday 7am to 9pm and Sunday 9am to 8pm.
The flat white
€2.50 . An 8 with potential for a 9 (I was so hungry that I knocked this back far too quickly, hoping it would silence my stomach’s disconsolate growling). The roast was distinctive and it was an enjoyable coffee. It wasn’t an aesthetic masterpiece by a long shot, even with the “Cup of awareness”, but it tasted good. Beans are roasted on-site.
Interior
Small, old-fashioned-looking coffee bar, no bright whites or industrial affectations. A functional non-sitting-at-a-laptop café with focus on the coffee.
General vibe
Transient, people coming and going, comfortable non-rushed busy, light jazz music at low volume, no eating as only a few brownies and similar available, not at all pretentious, bar stools and worn wooden high tables.
“Ooo, that’s nice” features
I liked the scruffy books and games shelf in front of the window, with a Slovenian calendar on the wall.
Other customers
A real mix of older, younger, children, someone with a flattened mohican. No hipsters and no laptoppers. Mainly Slovenians rather than tourists.
Staff
Very clearly into their coffee and very knowledgeable but without a hint of pretension. No uniform, no smart leather aprons, just normal studenty-type clothes, extremely efficient and calm with all the orders flying in. A real asset to the coffee shop.
Toilet
On the basis they serve coffee and alcoholic drinks and are open into the evening, I’m assuming there is a loo, though where it could be is a bit of a mystery (downstairs?).
Exterior
Quite a lot of outdoor seating with sun umbrellas (blatantly redundant at -1°c) and views up the side of the castle hill so you can watch the funicular gliding smoothly and slowly up and down its track.
Shoreditch rating
5 beards. Check. 1 moustache. Check. One non-spiky mohican. Check. Probably a smattering of tattoos, though all covered with warm winter layers. Yet somehow, there’s no way you’d see a photo and think it was in Shoreditch. Which to my mind was another reason why this was one of my favourite coffee shops on my extremely limited café-visiting map of the world.
Ease of finding café without Google Maps and GPS
Easy-peasy, especially if you know it’s near the dragon bridge, the market and pretty much at the bottom of the funicular to the castle on the hill.
Ease of finding café with Google Maps and GPS
Even easier, it’s not a difficult old town area to navigate.
Things to do around the area
Pretty much everything in old town Ljubljana is around the area, but the funicular (or, hey, once you’re fully caffeinated, it’s only about 10 minutes to walk up to the castle, saving you €2.20 on a one-way funicular ride and almost justifying the price of another €2.50 flat white).
