This Lotus Elise Is A Fully-Functional Mobile Coffee Shop

This Lotus Elise Is A Fully-Functional Mobile Coffee Shop

Words: Jack Shepherdson
Photos: Georgia Griffiths

Where was your morning coffee made today? Mine was made in a Lotus Elise.

This morning we made our way down to Southside Hustle, a cars and coffee gathering held each month in Wimbledon, where a first-gen Honda Jazz rubs shoulders with Ferrari 250s, and everything in between.

It’s also where we bumped into Café Elise, a 2001 Lotus Elise S2 that’s been converted into a mobile cafe. When Lotus developed this featherweight sports car as a pure-driving instrument, I can guarantee you they didn’t intend someone to turn it into a coffee shop. Despite the tiny cabin and luggage space, its owner Josh has managed to Tetris in a coffee machine, a coolbox, a coffee grinder, homemade sweet treats, a shop sign, menus and powerbank along with all the trimmings to run a coffeeshop - cups, milk, sugar, ice and the rest. It may have had to lose its passenger seat in the process, but the Elise has still retained all its cool.

Josh perches the La Marzocco espresso machine above the mid-mounted engine on the back deck of the Lotus. He stands behind it and pulls a seriously respectable espresso, whilst chatting with customers at Southside Hustle as other classic cars cruise past him. Understandably, given the spectacle, Café Elise pulls quite the crowd but he works fast so the line moves swiftly.

Josh and I had a chat about this mad idea whilst he made me a flat white. I was curious about what came first - the idea or the Lotus? “It was the idea,” Josh told me. “I had the concept and originally wanted to use a Porsche 928 but I was worried about their reliability issues. Then I found the Elise and it was love at first sight. It all came together in about two weeks.”

I can understand the love. The Lotus Elise is one of the best driving cars ever made. It’s not overly powerful, but weighing just 800kg, perfectly balanced and tuned, it’s all you can ask for in a driver’s car - plus you can take the roof off! The Lightning Yellow Pearl paint takes it to another level. It’s a super rare colour that only a handful of Elise S2s were painted; it really pops in the sun with a chrome coffee machine on top. You can’t help but smile looking at it.

Josh has been running Café Elise around his seaside hometown of Margate for around a month, posting up in different spots in town most weekends with the occasional trip to London to make coffees, serve homemade sweet treats and shoot the breeze. He’s been overwhelmed with the support and excitement for the Café Elise concept - jump on the Café Elise Instagram to see where he’ll be popping up next. Rest assured that even for an Aussie coffee snob, he makes a hell of a good espresso.