Govan’s New Vinyl Cafe – By the Community, For the Community
Ran by cousins Ellyus and Jaxon, ‘Brown Sugar Coffee & Records’ is Glasgow’s newest viral sensation for coffee lovers and vinyl collectors alike.
Opened just down the street from Govan’s subway station, this unique cafe has a selection of vinyl records for customers to browse through and play. Visitors are also encouraged to bring their own records to share with other music lovers.
Brown Sugar Coffee & Records, Govan Road
Ellyus is a DJ/producer that loves brewing coffee, whereas Jaxon is a joiner. It was their shared love of music and vinyl records that brought them closer together and sparked the inspiration for the cafe itself.
They drew lots of inspiration from specifically cafes in Japan and South Korea, looking to bring some of their culture over here. They said: “Our baker just came back from Japan, and he said there’s lots of places that had the vibe of a cafe with vinyl records.
“But the inspiration we seen was a South Korean coffee shop online and I was thinking that’s a spot I would love to go to, why don’t we have something like that.”
The two had been thinking of starting up something together for years, just hadn’t figured out quite what yet. This cafe was the perfect remedy to that issue, with the idea combining two of the cousins’ passions into one.
Inside of the cafe, record player set-up
Now that they have nailed down the idea, ambition has started flowing through their bodies, with the ideas of expanding and potential franchising always popping up. They said: “Bouncing back and forth with ideas is good, it’s exciting. Because you can get wrapped up in just doing this I suppose, but we need to think of the bigger picture in business and move forward.
“Our TikToks are going crazy with people asking us when we are going to London and different places. You need to be forward like that otherwise you don’t get anywhere.”
However, it’s much less about their dreams and more about the impact they have on local communities.
They opened this up in Govan, to give a deprived area some life and joy. But Govan isn’t the only place they can positively impact. They said: “With this we’re doing something for the community, so why not bring that to another place?
“You could do that somewhere else where it’s not got a lot there, but there’s an amazing community living there and you can get to know all the locals.”
Brown Sugar Coffee & Records is a homely little cafe, with a special vibe unlike no other place in Glasgow. On top of that, it’s run by some very great people that care so deeply about local communities. Go visit when you can, you will not regret it!