The barista diligently cleans the dirty coffee utensils after making two women an iced matcha and espresso latte.
Her dark brown hair is tied in a pony-tail with a black scrunchy, tight at the crown of her head, while her blunt bangs stick to her forehead.
The woman’s movements are quick as she speed walks around the cafe and counter, taking orders and delivering: Cappuccinos and lattes.
The barista walks over to the customer’s table and without hesitation, sets down their drinks which sit in clear thick plastic cups, designed for one to be satisfied and see the swirly drink vibrant drink. The ladies sip with metal straws.
Young, colorful people take up all six tables in the coffee shop, seeming to be with their friends stopping by after university classes.
Spanish is all that’s spoken and heard at this hour, 6 PM (18:00).
The sounds in Faraday Cafe are of people speaking to each other and the clicks and clator of metal and glass. The cafe is not laptop friendly, but it music is deeply prevalent. Jazz plays in the background of human conversations.
A 30-inch rectangle loudspeaker is on and fills the small but high ceilinged cafe with low modern jazz.
On four shelves and on the floor underneath in open wooden boxes, there are dozens of vinyls available for purchase between 22 and 42 euros from genres pop/rock to reggae to electronica: Nick Drake, Pink Moon; Junior Marvin, Happy Family; Boards of Canada and Tomorrow’s Harvest. Golden warm light illuminates all of them.
A young man, around 5 ‘6 with brown tanned skin, dark hair and a beard, wearing a form fitting black button down and grey dress pants with leather shoes, sits at a table with his untouched coffee and attentively waits for someone.
Walking in and moving towards him, a lady of his age and height kisses his cheek and greets and hugs him, before predictably pulling out a seat to sit.
Her light mildly highlighted straight brown hair is cut to her shoulders, and her saturated green turtleneck sweater is worn, mixed with her brown pants and hair, making her resemble a tree in spring.
Two larger brown beauty marks dot her beige face, near her eye and red glossy lips. She speaks to the man in Spanish and they seem to know each other, looking comfortable as they sit relaxed and sigh and smile.
Potential customers come and go, realizing there is no more space to sit and lounge. The menu they check out has four categories: “Caliente (hot),” “frio (cold), “filtro” (filter), “bakery” and “extra.” A hot espresso with whole milk topped with a hand design of milk foam costs the cafe goer 2.2 euros. 2.8 with oat milk. A double V60 pour-over coffee sits at six and nine euros depending on the portioning.
The shop offers drinks from a simple but classy espresso to a chai latte which does in fact include caffeine since it contains black tea.
Created and owned by Michelle Bailetti and her husband Rodrigo Caretti, in 2018, the couple have been the sole employees and managers for seven years. Now, Bailetti boasts about hiring a full time employee, which she believes will ease the workload her and her spouse experience.
Inspired by the Faraday cage, which is an enclosure that’s used to block some electromagnetic fields and named after the British scientist Michael Faraday, Bailetti and her husband named their cafe after this invention, Fascinated by the concept of being shielded by external substances and entities.
Hopping from the Alonso Martinez metro station, one can stroll about seven minutes to the cafe located in the Chueca area known as Madrid’s gay neighborhood. The coffee and vinyl shop which also sells water bottles, coffee jugs and beans and more, has its doors open from 10 to 7 PM (19:00) and is closed on Mondays for the owners to prepare and rest for the week.
