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The Welsh business that started in a tiny stall and now wakes people up around the world

Two Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduates started a coffee pop up a decade ago, now you'd never be able to imagine the UK coffee culture landscape without it

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(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Sometimes there's a brand that, all of a sudden, you see everywhere and this is has never been more true than for one Welsh coffee success story whose cute little red cup you'll see across south Wales, London, Dublin and even Japan and Australia!

Coral red mug mascot, Cuppy, is the face (and arms and legs) of Cardiff founded coffee roasters - and epic caf diner, Hard Lines who started a decade ago. Their modest beginnings as a pop-up coffee and vinyl bar "anywhere that would have them" have been built on to become a hugely popular roastery business fulfilling coffee subscriptions around the world and possibly Cardiff's coolest diner, Hard Lines Caf - inspired by the bustling coffee houses of San Francisco, that sees queues out the door most weekend mornings.

The company, run by Aberdare boy, Matt Jones and Sophie Smith from Newport, is at the heart of Canton with the caf, has a roastery in Gwaelod-y-Garth and a spot in Cardiff Central Market. While it sounds like Hard Lines have a pretty sweet situation going on it's not been without ups and down - but from just the two original staff members they now have 35 people across the group working for them.

Speaking to Matt it's impressive to see the journey of the pop-up from back in 2016 - then called Outpost. He and Sophie, both 24 at the time, had spent their post-uni years working on various jobs, Matt in production with National Theatre Wales and Sophie in sound production at events like Glastonbury. But a break in Barcelona brought into focus that they wanted something a bit closer to home.

Matt said: "There was a lot of hotels and we weren't home a lot, at that point we'd had some pretty big Christmas jobs, both of us, and we came out of Christmas, into January, which is always like relatively quiet, and just thought 'why don't we just go away and just like hang out and see some stuff?'

"So we did that, and it was on that trip we were realised 'I don't know if we're like super happy with what we're doing." So Hard Lines - or Outpost as it was - was born out of that trip, Soph's probably more into music, and I was super into my food and drink. We wanted to control our own destiny a bit and build something. And get something into Cardiff that we know we would have liked to have seen. We've not really looked back"

They really haven't. Coffee and vinyl graduated into just coffee as the pop-ups became permanent and larger in scale, first at the long-gone Castle Emporium on Womanby Street before they set up in the newish unit on the site of a former police station. The Canton caf opened in 2019 just a few months before the pandemic, they quickly pivoted to become a roastery and if you were part of the lucky few within walking distance were able to take advantage of their breakfast burritos and baps as well as fresh coffees.

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Hard Lines cafe in Canton was inspired part by San Francisco coffee houses and Welsh Italian cafes

Adapting during Covid wasn't Hard Lines' first pivot - you may wonder why they are now Hard Lines and not Outpost, well, thanks to a cease and desist letter from another Outpost brand they landed on a much better name influenced by the perhaps lesser used phrase for 'tough luck'. This was on the cusp of opening the Cardiff Market hatch. After that they were on course to open their first roasting spot, they'd crowdfunded the cash and the building they were due to take on was condemned.

Hard lines indeed. "We had the idea of creating a new space, which was an all-encompassing coffee roastery, come down, have a coffee, watch us roast, kind of vibe," said Matt. "So, we raised a bit of money around that time to buy our first roaster. The space that we had in mind was actually in the city centre. We were about to crack on and then we were back to square one."

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On a weekend morning this shop front will be heaving(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

But fortune favours those who brew brilliant coffee and the Cowbridge Road East venue has turned out to be a Canton destination for locals and tourists who often get directed there by their helpful airbnb listing. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here

It's been the home to Cuppy since opening, Gruff Rhys has made a music video there, it's got a well-established running club, sponsors local kids' football team, works with Welsh charities - Hard Lines recently gave 10,000 to Cardiff food bank - and you'll always have to queue for a table at the weekend (if you've not booked).

Inside is a like a less sinister slice of David Lynch Americana crossed with the flicker of valleys Italian caf with cool, creamy-brown booths everyone always wants to sit in, a cake cabinet that draws your eye and, currently a big framed picture of Tom Jones next to a Billy Bass fish (remember them?).

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Cakes are a must(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

The menu is certainly diner-esque with a breakfast plate crammed with pancakes or fried potatoes and if the hash brown is on the specials it's not to be missed. When the late afternoon sun peeps through the drawn blinds the light almost turns the place sepia in real life - it pulls in a lot of big screen, American nostalgia but is, in this postcode, unique.

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The diner breakfast

Don't let that cool uniqueness put you off, at the heart of Hard Lines is a mission to get great coffee to the masses who want to drink it.

Matt explained: "We've always kind of said within the coffee world, we want to be that gateway, that accessibility into coffee. Coffee at points, and certainly actually when we started 10 years ago, could be quite snobby, quite elitist in places. There was a lot of for sure, 'you can't have milk in that' or 'no sugar in that..." And that was never really our intention. Our intention was to zone into diner culture..in that, people visit here that hospitality, that warmth, that like welcoming atmosphere. Good music, good food and coffee is definitely key and a big part of that, but it's not the only piece of the puzzle in the total Hard Lines world. Even with our coffee, the bags people have at home, [we're] always trying to keep that where possible at a good price point, allowing people to enjoy different coffees, but equally, we have coffees on the range that people are just like super dedicated to and just buy religiously."

Hard Lines' flagship coffee is House Party - which comes from Sitio Cachoeira farm in Brazil, an integral part of the Welsh company's product line as those who love House Party, really love it and the farm sells 10% of its entire crop to Hard Lines. The coffee roaster arm also uses farms in Colombia, Rwandam Mexico and Peru, too.

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House Party is Hard Lines' flagship brand(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

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Look out for constantly rotating specials(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

"We have plenty of subscribers that have a new bag of different coffee every month delivered to their door," said Matt, "That's another thing I've realised is coffee's a very specific thing, what you might love as a coffee, somebody else might hate!"

So what's been the key to Hard Lines journey from a little pop-up to the operation that's over three locations and 35 staff members, some of whom have been at the caf since it opened - not a common story these days.

"There's plenty to learn along the way and being kind to yourself, obviously, and we've all in our own ways taken ourselves to a point of burning out, or unhealthy kind of work balance," said Matt who added that Hard Lines and its staff holds itself to the "3 Cs" coffee, creativity, and community. "So we're very fortunate as we grow and have some success to be able to bring people into certain roles, which lightened our load a little bit, then what I've realised is the team is so important, and a lot of the time, the team are far better at doing that job than you are!"

And while the idea of more locations were slightly teased in the future there are no definite plans yet, though, the Hard Lines ethos will continue in Canton, the Market and up at Gwaelod for as long as possible.

Matt concluded: "We just love to collaborate, I guess, and to share.. with no pretence or snobbery, we just want to work with people, in the community. We love being here in Canton, we hope to be here for a really long time. I think we're a part of people's routine, we're very fortunate to have people who come here once, twice, three times a week maybe and eat and drink with us. We owe it to them as well."

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