New Colchester café Roots and Grooves has cause for optimism

Despite it being an overcast Saturday afternoon in Colchester, the city centre was busy, and so too was Baz Briggs’s new business.

There was hardly a table to be found at Roots and Grooves, even if the lunchtime rush was, supposedly, winding down.

The new business only opened in St Nicholas Passage last Wednesday, but its prime retail position on the way to Primark means it should see plenty of footfall most days of the week.

Rather than wait for a table, I decided to have a wander around the first and second floors, where there is enough vinyl to keep an enthusiast occupied all afternoon.

Some of the vinyl on offer in Roots and Grooves (Image: Newsquest)

Music of all eras is on offer here, and on the top floor, Mr Briggs tells me he could not have hoped for a better start – he hardly has a spare moment to smoke an sneaky cigarette outside, such has been the pace of trade in the business’s early days.

There are improvements Mr Briggs is keen to make already, namely a dishwashing unit which can handle the fast-paced catering side of the business, plus an improved extractor fan on the ground floor.

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As well as records – there must be hundreds for customers to flick through – there’s an actual record player in one of the small cubbyholes on the first floor, though my uncultured ear can’t work out what’s playing (maybe looking closer at the record label might havbe helped).

The clothing on sale in Roots and Grooves (Image: Newsquest)

Back downstairs, I order a toastie known as ‘the Reuben’ – sliced salt beef, cheese, sauerkraut pickles and Russian dressing, with a small side salad.

At a cost of £8.50, it may not be a snip, but it is of a very good quality, there’s no doubt about it.

So is the Persian love cake which, at three tiers tall, really does top off the afternoon nicely with its gentle aroma of freshly ground cardamom.

Plants on sale in Roots and Grooves (Image: Newsquest)

All that said, there are plenty of other choices available which one iamgines would have been just as good, including the Roots and Grooves ‘salad selector’, and the breakfast smoothie bowl, which is served until 11am.

On its first Saturday open for business, the kitchen staff were certainly kept busy. Hopefully, this will remain the case in the months to come.

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