There certainly wasn’t much latte art going on in Cambridge 15 years ago, says Simon Fraser, owner of Hot Numbers. We’re sat at the coffee shop on Trumpington Street, two flat-whites and two pour-over coffees in front of us (one Guatemalan, the other Peruvian). Fraser’s passion for coffee, from its growth to the barista’s hands, is evident: he explains the notes behind each cup, shows me a coffee bean as a visual aid, and talks about their use of 50% Brazilian beans in most roasts. “It’s an art and a science,” he tells me, “and that keeps it exciting.”

Fraser didn’t always see himself in the coffee business. In fact, he had been quite comfortable at an engineering apprenticeship and subsequent job just across the street from where we now sit. It was his colleagues at that job, older and more experienced, who warned him against dwelling in the comfort zone. “‘I wish I’d taken more chances and risks and done more crazy things,’ they said. ‘You don’t know what real life is.’ And, well, I wanted to go and see what it was. I was being too safe.”

“If you know you have your vision, just believe in what you do”

That’s not to say Fraser’s given up engineering entirely. “We’re hoping to expand with a fire engine,” he tells me. I’m baffled at first, before he goes on to explain his latest engineering project. “It’s an emergency coffee service,” he continues, “everyone wants a good coffee.”

It was that call to “take a risk” that triggered Fraser to travel across south-east Asia with a saxophone, and eventually find himself studying jazz and working various barista jobs across Australia. “Australia was about 10 years ahead of us,” he says. Inspired by the Australian coffee scene and his boss, Fraser returned to Cambridge with a vision in mind.

Determined to establish his place, Fraser tells me: “I worked through the night in an engineering job to get the money together to actually start with.” He had no clue, at this point, how great a success his project would become. “It felt like more of a risk,” he explains, “not to do it.”

Our conversation at this point is interrupted by Fraser’s shoulders being patted by the café’s smiling baristas as they walk by. “I try and come out to work shifts when I can,” Fraser says, and the convivial atmosphere he seeks to create between members of the team and customers is clear.

Fraser is dedicated to fashioning an experience, taking care of every aspect of the coffee shop’s environment. “It all adds up, you know? And then people have a nice time, but maybe they don’t know why.” Hot Numbers becomes a hub for day-time chats and night-time music, such as with their ‘Freedom Sound’ events on a Friday, when Fraser DJs with his collection of over 3000 vinyls.

“People may not want to go to the pub so much, so they’re going to the coffee shop”

“Some people told me after it was successful, ‘I thought you were mad,’” Fraser tells me. “But they just didn’t get my vision yet,” he continues, “and the moral, I guess, is just, if you know you have your vision, just believe in what you do.” He hesitates slightly before sharing motivation that may come off as cliché. But sat among the success of what was once a passion project, squeaking at the back of his mind, the statement rings true. Some advice is overused for a reason.

It’s this constant process of developing and questioning that allowed Fraser to create a business and a community he’s now proud of, and that keeps out-growing itself and expanding. He continues with advice on how to keep a project alive, telling me that it’s important to ask “what it is that motivates you and keeps you driven. Always keep that in your mind, so that what you do is always true to yourself.”

Now that Hot Numbers is widely loved, Fraser can delegate and bring in a wider team to work on that vision together. Cooking, for example, is not Fraser’s strong point, he tells me. If you are a fan of the brunch, he concedes “that’s not from me.”

Drinking a cup of coffee, then, becomes an act where so many lives intersect, from those who made it to those who sit around the table. “It’s self-fulfillment. It’s an affordable luxury,” Fraser tells me. “People may not want to go to the pub so much, so they’re going to the coffee shop.”

What strikes me about Fraser’s story is the emphasis he places on the people he has encountered who have left indelible marks on his life. From his colleagues at the engineering job to his boss in Melbourne, Fraser speaks with fondness about how relationships have fostered in him a better understanding of himself and his values. Even discovering the roastery site in Shepreth was the result of a chance encounter, starting with a conversation with a stranger about their matching motorbikes, and ending with a new venue and loyal friendship.

The very name of the business comes from a legendary Cambridge DJ, Maxwell Rees, ‘godfather’ to the city’s underground soul scene in the 70s. Fraser had asked Rees if he could honour his old record shop in using the name, to which Rees responded by telling him to “keep it rocking!”. Fraser tells me that “we’re doing a soul night coming up in memory of him.”

Hot Numbers is a homage to all those people who have crossed Fraser’s path, and with “new faces being brought in every day” to share the space, the stories will certainly continue. At the close of our conversation, one of Fraser’s colleagues points us towards the café’s window. We note the faded colours from the previous owner’s stickers, visible when the sun hits them exactly. Fraser responds with a grin, happy to see the overlapping traces of the past that hint at the venue’s history.