140 Coffee, a true social media cafe in Preston?

The view inside 140 Coffee on Friargate

Had a meeting on Thursday night about covering the Preston Tringe Festival and we met in 140 Coffee on Friargate.

It used to be called Harbls, and probably numerous other names before that, but it’s been taken over by a new owner and we got chatting with him before we left and he’s got interesting plans for the place.

Instead of just selling you coffee, it also plans to host a range of events and be a true social media cafe – using tools such as twitter, flickr, last fm and wordpress to reach out to the Preston community and create a community around the cafe.

It’s also stocking Orangina (remember that!), selling handmade cards, has a rather relaxed approach to being a library and the owner controls the music playing via a Last FM application on his iPhone.

Franky, the owner, has put a lot of time into doing the place up and establishing a good (free for customers) wireless connection. The place has the feel of a real independent coffee store and the ethos to match in its aims and hopes.

If you fancy a coffee and a place to surf the web, 140 Coffee is the place to go – especially if you’re sick of Cafe Nero, Costa and Starbucks.