Lounge33

  Lounge 33 is one of a kind, in a city filled with record stores and cafes Lounge 33’s owner, Jess Roberts has curated a style of business that you just can’t find anywhere else in the city.  

 

  The business, located on Leith Walk is a hybrid cafe-record store, where customers can browse their favourite artists vinyl's while waiting on their morning coffee. As well as this the cafe offers a selection of hot and cold drinks, pastries and even hot food meaning you could genuinely spend hours in the company of good food and music – as I have made sure to do since first visiting.  

  When speaking to Jess, she told us a bit about the original idea for Lounge 33 and their ethos: 

 

  “I guess the ethos of Lounge 33 was to be able to create a space that first and foremost I wanted to spend my time in and therefore I knew other people wanted to spend their time in.” 

 

  “I’ve worked in hospitality for a long time... and I kind of took from all of those places that I had worked, what I wanted to have in my own place, and that was really to have a sense of it being very welcoming... comfortable... a space that anyone and everyone could use and it being about the community being able to have somewhere to go.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Looking around the cafe/store, it is absolutely filled with products from other local businesses in the Leith and Edinburgh area. From the bookshelves which are stocked with books from Argonaut books to the calendar hung up - which is from a local charity, Staffie Smiles - you can really get a sense of the community feel that Jess set out to build.  

 

  “I’ve been fortunate in the fact that they’ve [the local businesses] all approached me... we opened on the 28th of June and to say it was a bit of a baptism of an opening and trying to get ourselves up and running, it was a lot of work. So as much as I knew I wanted to work with other businesses and people in the local community, it wasn't an immediate thought, because my immediate thought was, I just need to get open.” 

 

  “So, the collaborations with the different businesses have really been a result of them asking if we would want to work with them, which I do conder to be a massive compliment especially as we haven’t been open for very long.” 

 

  Although the partnership and continued support that Lounge33 provides for local charity ‘Staffie Smiles’ was a conscious choice from Jess, who has her own pup at home. 

 

  “I used to have two staffies; I still have one and I got them both from Staffie Smiles, so it is a charity hat I have known about for probably over a decade it's where I adopted both of my dogs and I knew when I started the business that I always wanted to do something where I was raising money for local charities and charities that were important to me.” 

 

  As we were discussing the charity Jess also told me she aims to work with other local charities as the business gets older and grows, but for now Staffie Smiles is the chosen charity, which made a lot of sense as we watched dog owners bring in their own dogs to Lounge, grabbing coffees before their morning walks. 

  While Jess paused to see to a customer, I couldn’t help but browse the selection of vinyl's they had on offer, with it a hybrid store/cafe the displays don’t take up too much room the building but somehow there is still a wide selection of records, which would satisfy any vinyl-loving-individual and if not, Jess explained that she often has people request specific records, which she does her best to source for them specially. 

 

  “I try and buy a little bit of everything, for everybody as a record store we definitely focus on; soul, jazz, funk and hip hop, because they are my favourite genres and also again when I was doing my research on the different types of vinyl's stores in the city, there wasn't another vinyl store that was specifically concentrating on those genres, especially hip-hop" 

 

  “I have go to the point where people will regular come in and ask us to bring stuff in for them, which is no problem at all and we tend to just stick to the classics because they are things we know will sell and that does then help with over consumerism, because we know that the stuff that we are bringing in are the classics, the big sellers, the heavy hitters, that people are going to again and again, want to buy which I do see when I’m restocking”