Alma

Alma took over the basement space on Bartholomew Street West that used to be 130 Basement, the specialty coffee shop Tony Isaacs and Rosie Lamb opened in 2020 a few doors from the Picturehouse cinema. The coffee itself traces back further, roasted since 2015 by Dave Stanton, and when the space relaunched as Alma its own social media promised it was keeping the best bits of what came before rather than starting again from nothing.

The room keeps the cosy, plant-filled feel that made the old cafe a fixture - wooden furniture, local art on the walls, and the smell of baking drifting through from the kitchen. Coffee, filter and espresso both, and handmade cakes are the daily draw, but Alma is as much a small live-music venue as a cafe, with a programme of gigs and open-mic nights that its Instagram highlights document year on year. It's open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm and Saturday from 9am to 4pm, tucked into a corner of Exeter's West Quarter that's easy to miss unless you already know it's there.