Pico Lounge

One of Glossop's latest cafe bars to open is Pico Lounge and it's the first place to serve a vegan breakfast. We left it a few months to settle in but seeing as I've now been a Glossop resident for a week, this morning we made our first visit. We'd read mixed reviews in the past, some excellent and some that mentioned long wait times so we made sure we got there early. In fact we were the first customers athough by the time we left it was nicely full.

Our wait time was around 18 minutes and the service was good. The staff were friendly and checked back with us to see if everything was ok and empty plates were swiftly cleared. From the outside Pico Lounge is really unassuming. It's a large unit on a new retail park housed next to the likes of M and S Food, Edinburgh Woollen Mill and a Wetherspoons. Once inside though the back windows face out onto a lovely riverside setting.

The exterior does not at all prepare you for the interior! Although Pico Lounge is part of the Lounges chain it's not your typical type of chain and they've deliberately gone for a vintage, eclectic look for the decor and it's done really well. The place is crammed with vintage and upcycled decor and furniture. Check out this wall of paintings that anyone who lived through the 70's will be familiar with. I fell in love with this painted table.

We'd seen on the website that they served vegan food and were a bit alarmed when there didn't seem to be anything on the menu. Never fear, the vegan and gluten free menus are kept at the bar.

We went for the vegan breakfast for our first visit as it always feels like the breakfast should be a good benchmark of a place. For drinks, Matt had coffee which he declared good and I went for a pot of tea which I got around three cups out of. Soya milk is also available.

Onto the breakfast, I was a little alarmed when it was brought out as for £6.95 it looked small compared to the vegan breakfasts I'm used to from the likes of Mod's Cafe and Fuel. However, it was on a very large plate and I must add that it did keep me going until lunchtime. Fair play to Pico for also trying something different. The purists may not agree me with but I'm not the biggest fan of veggie sausages and was quite pleased to try something different. The protein in this breakfast comes from humus served alongside spinach, fried potatoes, tomato, baked beans and a slice of unbuttered toast. The humus was just the style I like, home made and slightly grainy with lemon rather than garlic being the dominant flavour. It was great spread on the toast topped with the spinach. The only thing I wasn't keen on was the mushrooms that were a bit watery and tasteless. We didn't have a lot of time today but I can see us coming back for breakfast and spending a good couple of hours there with the papers. There's quite a few other vegan choices on the menu including the holy grail of a vegan dessert that isn't fruit in the form of a chocolate torte and also a selection of vegan friendly tapas. Tuesday are Tapas Tuesday where you can get 3 tapas and a glass of house wine for £9.95 so we'll definitely be back to try that out.