Cafe @ 36 Cowick Street

The thing that's noticeable about this little cafe in St Thomas - fitted into what used to be a narrow shop-front - is the art nouveau typeface and lettering of the nameplate above the front door and window. You don't expect that in St Thomas, one of the more drab districts of Exeter, on the western side of the River Exe.

It is like injecting a tiny little piece of Paris into St Thomas, not Paris Street in the city centre where you might expect. Light, sky blue nameplate with gold lettering, all in that characteristic style of the Paris Metro. You half expect some ornate, leafy entrance arch, too.

Cafe @ 36 Cowick Street has been in operation for about six months, I would guess. Today, flush with two thousand pounds of HA money, I decide to try out the place. It is expensive.

I enter and am greeted by a black and white, chequered and tiled floor. There are a few dark brown tables and chairs running down the length of the shop, about 20 ft long. And some interesting jazz music.

The menu is the usual cafe stuff: toasted, Panini sandwiches, various fillings (£3.25); BLT; various breakfast dishes, crispy bacon, etc; tea (£1); the usual twenty varieties of coffee you get these days. I go for my usual tea; cake is £2.20 for a slice of iced Victoria sponge. A bit pricey. Burts Crisps (made in Totnes, or Ashburton, or somewhere in south Devon).

They have a newspaper (the Independent), which is refreshing, certainly for reading about the great Sunday of football for Chelsea.