Sable and flea ... worth it, if you can find it.

Stirling has no shortage of places to get coffee and cake. If you add in the surrounding towns and villages within a few minutes drive, the number of places to take yer Maw for a 'fine piece' is probably enough to ensure that you could go to a different one every week and not have to make a repeat visit before old age has ensured you have forgotten how good/bad/indifferent your first visit was.

Even this coffee drinker's rule of (mostly) avoiding the big chains - Starbucks, Costa, Nero and the increasingly ubiquitous Patisserie Valerie (use of the abbreviation Pat-Val will not be tolerated) can be adhered to without too much of a problem. Full endorsements of the town's top venues - Ciscos and the Port Street deli will appear elsewhere, but we are nothing if not thorough in our quest to unearth every secret corner wherein lovers of the bean might hide themselves.

So to Sable and Flea - at once in the centre of town and also tucked away out of sight. It's on Friar's Street, Stirling's answer to the Strip. By day, a pleasant enough pedestrianised town centre street, it changes after darkness and alcohol consumption to become a noisy and threatening pathway between pub and nightclub.

S + F is immune from this, in an odd corner between a music shop and a buffet diner. It sells itself as a genteel and comfy coffee and cafe shop, with antiquey bits and pieces to buy. They are particular about the blend and the bean and cakes are lovingly laid out on the counter in neat rows.

The sticky-toffee cake (warmed) had the authentic flavour and the coffee was smooth and full flavoured. Throw in the broadsheets laid out for patrons' amusement and your retreat is complete. Seating includes a comfy sofa through the back. That's the kind of place you could have a serious conversation with your partner. The front shop is more functional, but comfy enough and you are surrounded by curios for sale, including 60s tea/coffee sets. All very diverting.

We were £11 for two coffees and two bits of cake. Pricey, worthy of a more lengthy stay to get your money's worth. Fortunately, that's no hardship.

And the name? No, me neither. I assume there is some deep significance to it, but I am not sure what its historical or literary origins are, other than the fact that sables were often flea ridden. So here's a picture of one of them ..

*Sable Antelope (Bull) *Photo taken and submitted by Paul Maritz. Photo taken near Kafue River in Zambia, 2004