I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Shaek Zaman from The Meet Point Coffee in this episode of The ClusterCast.

We’re usually like two ships in the night (he runs a café so is always up early and I hate mornings) also we are rarely both sitting still long enough to have a proper chat, so this one was well overdue… and, thankfully, well caffeinated!

I first met Shaek when The Cluster was barely The Cluster. We had no name, scaffolding everywhere, and what felt like a metric tonne of paint waiting to go up on the walls. Where others saw an old gatehouse that had very much seen better days, Shaek saw my slightly wild dream of a café that would become legendary amongst the local community. And here we are, 15 months later and it’s officially the top-rated café in North Oxford on Google and we are so chuffed to have The Meet Point Coffee fuelling our Clustomers here at The Cluster.

Shaek and his brilliant team built their first proper branch of The Meet Point Coffee here at The Cluster from scratch. In this episode, we dig a bit deeper into how they made it happen, what drives him (apart from coffee), and why his natural chai and Bengali street food should probably come with a warning label: highly addictive. I’ve also had the joy of getting to know Shaek’s family and I proudly appointed myself Chief Taster of his mum’s Bengali street food recipes (a role I take extremely seriously, purely in the interests of quality control, obviously).

Shaek has seen The Cluster grow. He’s seen my highs and lows, endured my optimistic visionary phases and my slightly grumpy “why is nothing simple?” moments and he’s still here. It’s a cracking conversation about belief, graft, community, family, and what happens when two slightly stubborn dreamers decide to back themselves and their brands. Have a listen, oh and do yourself a favour, come and see what happens when ridiculously good coffee and scarily delicious food meets a genuinely brilliant co-working space. Start your morning at The Meet Point Coffee, book your desk at The Cluster and let the caffeine, community and creative buzz do their thing.

Subscribe to @TheClusterOx on YouTube for more relaxed chats with brilliant Oxfordshire indie businesses. And if you’re feeling generous, a rating and review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen) really helps other lovely humans find the show.

This episode is brought to you by The Cluster, a co-working and event space in Oxford. Find out more at clusteroxford.co.uk.

Recorded and produced by The Pod Collective, the team behind the PodBox OX podcast studio at The Cluster.

This episode is brought to you by The Cluster Co-Working and Event Space in Oxford.

Visit clusteroxford.co.uk to learn more.

Subscribe on YouTube and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.