{"id":27948,"date":"2015-11-19T22:56:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T22:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=27948"},"modified":"2015-11-19T22:56:02","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T22:56:02","slug":"cardiff-character-rob-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2015\/11\/19\/cardiff-character-rob-cooper\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Character: Rob Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of independent Cardiff coffee shop The Little Man Coffee Company is 6 ft 4 inches tall. In his words, he’s\u00a0\u201cOne inch from being medically classed as a giant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having just celebrated the coffee shop\u2019s first birthday, Rob Cooper (35) opens up about himself over a cappuccino.<\/p>\n

Rob is a big man, but in no way arrogant or intimidating. Jovial and optimistic, he has an air of hospitality about him and a youthful, good-humoured expression.<\/p>\n

A former bar-manager for Revolution Vodka Bars, he is content with having swapped late nights for an early morning. This also suits his future role as a dad better – he’s expecting his first child\u00a0in March.<\/p>\n

On a typical day his alarm goes off at 05:15. He has a quick bowl of porridge, mounts his bike and gets into work at 6:30. After that, he starts to tick things off his checklist in the small office he refers to as his “cupboard.”<\/p>\n

Big Personality<\/h2>\n

Rob is particular about what he does and doesn\u2019t like. He doesn\u2019t limit himself to coffee and appreciates the occasional PG tips. Because he believes in recycling, he made himself\u00a0a desk out of a door he cut down. He\u2019s had the same big, black diary for\u00a0ten years despite encouragements to go\u00a0digital and\u00a0still prefers pencils, rubbers and sharpeners to pens. By no means an art-aficionado, Rob also\u00a0regularly promotes local artists\u2019 work in his coffee shop because\u00a0he likes\u00a0trying to help people.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Apart from pronounced opinions about his preferences, Rob also has a few obsessions, amongst which feature Star Wars, cricket and addictive games on his phone (for which he refuses to show the stats). Despite his switched-on, practical personality, this reveals a child-like side to his character which becomes increasingly apparent.<\/p>\n

As well as owning every Star Wars lego key-ring, his wife gave him Lego Death Star (a 275 kg Lego-kit which takes 16 hours to build)\u00a0when they got married, which he still hasn\u2019t completed. As for cricket, he once quit his job to watch\u00a0it in Australia and it\u2019s his dream to watch\u00a0cricket in every test-playing nation in the world.<\/p>\n

The Little Man Coffee Company is about\u00a0elevating the status of the underdog, Rob explains.\u00a0Big businesses\u00a0frustrate him\u00a0and it annoys him that global corporations can flout the rules. \u201cI\u2019m quite an angry man\u201d he says, \u201cperhaps it\u2019s because I drink so much coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite an angry man. Perhaps it\u2019s because I drink so much coffee!\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He does, however,\u00a0occasionally engage in some competitor analysis at a local Starbucks under the guise of drinking a far too “heavily roasted\u201d coffee.<\/p>\n

Slap them with kindness\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If there\u2019s one thing Rob lives by, it\u2019s being nice to people. During the Christmas period, he encourages customers to buy a present, wrap it and put it under\u00a0The Little Man\u2019s Christmas tree. These are then collected and given to Cardiff\u2019s children\u2019s services. Thinking globally but acting locally is what makes a difference according to Rob. Things have been going really well for The Little Man since their first birthday and he intends to keep it up. The coffee cart he intends to build in 2016 is another step in that direction, as he\u00a0wants to donate any profit he gets to charity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An alphabetic guide to coffee:<\/p>\n