Just as you enter Garden City main gate, the first thing your eyes will meet when you look on your left handside is the coffee shop labelled Dorman’s Coffee Experts. It is such an appealing name for a coffee lover. It is like it is beckoning you to go and taste the coffee.
There is a notion that Ugandans do not take coffee so you will not find them at the shops. Those who do are branded posers and snobs. And there is some truth to that because the regulars at coffee shops are usually whites. I am no different from the average Ugandan so I went to Dormans out of FOMO (fear of missing out).
At the coffee shop’s entrance are a number of eye catching mugs. Placed on a rank, they are an assortment of cups in different colours written on with different inspirational messages.
“Those cups are not used for taking coffee, they are decorative, our customers can read the quotes as they wait to be served,” says the Outlet Manager, Mr Joseph Ssekitoleko.
Unlike what it’s name might suggest, Dorman’s serves a lot more than coffee. They also serve fast foods and a variety of drinks. A couple of high profile people as customers. It might be something to do with the prices that might not necessarily be alarming but are above average, its location might have something to do with this.
“Our customers are always regular, they also have specific seats where they always choose to sit, one of them is gospel Artiste Exodus, he comes in almost every day,” said the Manager.
Peak hours
“The coffee shop is always full during morning hours, Lunch time and evening. Besides that time, we always get customers who come in one by one,” says the manager. He adds that in the evening, the coffee shop gets full inside and at the balcony. Dorman serves as a meeting point for friends and business associates.
Food and drinks
When I looked at the menu, it had more than three pages of different food stuffs; it varies a lot and a customer might be spoilt for choice. They have soft drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic wines as well as local beers and spirits.
Parking
Garden City has a wide parking space; it is free for everyone who visits the place for whichever business. Parking on the first floor of the Parking lot is convenient for the people who are visiting Dorman’s Coffee Experts, there is a door that leads from the parking lot to the coffee shop, so you don’t have to go to the ground floor to access the coffee shop.
The prices
Sodas: 2K
A glass of juice: 8k
Local beers: 5K
Food: 15K to 25K