Posts Tagged cafe
Coutume – cafe joy in Paris
Walking down Rue de Babylone a couple of weeks ago I noticed a cafe with startling resemblance to what one might find in Australia (apart from the ice cream cart at the front). It was closed that day and I took a mental note to return next time. As I entered Coutume a week later, I noticed torn paint work, light bulbs hanging naked from the ceiling, siphon apparatus with the unmistakable halogen heat source (Hario) and the tall, cold drip coffee maker. At the back of the shop was a roaster separated from the cafe with transparent plastic. I have no doubt I have found my favorite bench to sit on. Perfect to do some cooking school homework when they are not too busy.
A mini ice cream cart on the right
“Hello, how are you!?” one of the staff said to me as I waited to order. Sounded like someone who knew me. And it was. Antoine, who I met in Melbourne a few years ago, used to have a coffee roasting shop in the suburbs of Melbourne. I remember he said that he wanted to open a cafe in one of the French colonies in the tropics. He would have his own roaster and espresso bar by the beach. I didn’t remember he was going to Paris. But here we are few years down the track under the same roof. I call it coffee foot prints. He introduced me to Tom from Canberra who, together, opened this cafe. They serve single origin, blends, siphon, cold drip and milk based espresso drinks in all its glory. A piccolo latte (my favorite) was easily done. Milk well textured and served without being burnt. For purchase are beans and brewing equipment (pour over, siphon, espresso machines.
Paris as a whole is just beginning to realize coffee is far more than the swill they are used to. A ironic fact is how a city ( or nation) so obsessed with food, drinks and leisure is so late in coffee development. Their deep worship of tradition and the respect of how things are done as they used to be (thinks of chopping vegetables in triangular ‘paysanne’ shape at school) is proving to be a major contributor to their slow embrace of the coffee movement. The competition will heat up though and I really wish Coutume the best in leading this revolution.
Piccolo
75007, Paris
Tuesday – Friday 8am – 7 pm, Saturday – Sunday (10am – 7pm)
Broadsheet Cafe – A better reason to visit Crossley Street
A empty shop converted into the best house to serve roasted beans - Broadsheet has organized 11 days of joy to the city when 6 cafes takes turn to showcase their beans and brew. What a delightful idea and place to enjoy an expertly made coffee. Today was hosted by 7 Seeds and I had the Kenyan Kiangombe pour-over (if wasn’t too sleepy to forget) with my all-time favorite almond croissant. This is the line up for the rest of the days, straight from the Broadsheet website:
Fri 4: Seven Seeds
Sat 5: Five Senses
Sun 6: Dead Man Espresso
Mon 7: Market Lane
Tue 8: The Premises
Wed 9: Seven Seeds
Thu 10: Five Senses
Fri 11: Proud Mary
Sat 12: Dead Man Espresso
Sun 13: Proud Mary
Mon 14: Market Lane
24 Crossley Street, Melbourne (between Bourke and Little Bourke, Exhibition and Spring)
On my way out, I organised the rest of my day and spotted this
Picture cafe
Posted by tzuyen in Photography, cafe on December 28, 2010
Love cafes, wood, glass and just the general feeling of goodness. Needless to say, good coffee is important. According to a comedian I heard on TV yesterday, having kids late is not good because we forget what kids enjoy. She said “look at a cafe with mums with their young kids. Have you heard the f@cking screaming they do?”
A Bottle of Milk, Lorne.
Dandelion & Driftwood
It’s in a suburb with quite a few doctors’s homes. You might be able to point around the street and say that’s a radiologist, that’s a ophthalmologist, that’s a anaesthetist and the dermatologist is next door (R-O-A-D to medicine). I was lucky enough that my friend who works in a couple of cafes in Brisbane told me about the opening of Peter Wolff’s new cafe. What a lovely place – bright, cosy and waitering staff in colourful and chirpy ties. I really like the “dandelion” lamp and incidentally on the same day I went to IKEA and saw the same (or very similar) design. The work bench is a bit small for the number of machines and equipment – the wall of grinders is like a fence between the bar and the customers.
On the espresso front, there are two blends: Dandelion (more females like it) and Driftwood (more males like it). As expected, just like in perfumes, the stereotypical scent/aroma profiles of feminine (more fruity, floral) versus masculine (earthy, bitter) are portrayed. There are other methods of brewing available, including cold drip, siphon and a fairly new machine called the Trifecta. It’s a more manual kind of the Clover in my opinion. The machine allows adjustment to parameters such as time, pre-infusion, pressures, agitation and aeration. The coffee looks and taste a bit like the Clover. Compared to a Siphon brew, it’s a little murky, more on the acidic/fruity side and less earth. I’ll pretty much leave you to decide on what you think about the results.
Speaking generally, there are more and more different methods of brewing coffee and cafes are trying to be a step ahead all the time with new machines and gadgets. Consistency will be a big issue when there are so many different brewing methods which potentially require different roasts.
Cold drip and siphon
It's bright and cosy
The bench table facing outside
tea set
The dandelion
Trifecta brewed coffee
De Clieu
Finally, a good place for coffee near St Vicent’s Hospital! Unfortunately I will be in Kew and Peter MacCallum till the end of the year. Gertrude St has been getting a food-lift in the past few years with a pizzeria , bakery, tapas bar and a fine dining restaurant added to the bookshop with only food related books. It’s about time coffee was added.
Created by the owners of 7 Seeds, good coffee will be expected from De Clieu. Day 2 of opening and people are already populating this place like it’s been there for a while. The food menu is short (good), interesting, and acknowledges individual suppliers for quality products. They are going to very busy on the weekends. I hope they allow people in scrubs to walk in too.
Interestingly, while I was browsing the web, I found out that 7 Seeds is also the title of a manga series about life long after a meteorite destroyed most of life in Earth. A side track anyway. The 7 seeds of cafe name refers to the story that a a pilgrim named Baba Budan smuggled 7 coffee beans from the Middle East to India and subsequently spread it from Africa/Middle East to the rest of the world. Gabriel de Clieu was known to transport 2 coffee plants from Europe to the South American Island of Martinique, from where coffee spread to the Americas (according to Wiki).
With coffee demand growing so rapidly sometimes I do think about the sustainability of coffee as a crop.
You think the Slayer is the new black?
You think the slayer was the new black?
A bit more on the cafe trends of Melbourne with the help of my friends.
The blindingly obvious – free pour latte art is the expected topping now days. I still remember in the good old Maltitude days where latte art was only found in very few cafes. And the dozen or so others trying to learn were serving wilted rosettas on their lattes.
Being a barista no longer means that you are either: still at uni and just wanting to make minimum wage OR you are old, probably from southern Europe and still believe (truthfully) 6 month old beans roated from Italy produce dark, full bodied and bitter stuff. There is more recognition (shit… I can see the word “celebrity baristas”) of the hard work some baristas put in.
It came as single origin coffee with the Synesso, different brewing methods like the Clover, siphon (which by the way, the Japanese and Taiwanese have using already). Roasting lighter and lighter to suite the non-espresso methods. Murmurs about paring food with coffee have remained just that for a long time. I think an all dessert menu would suit better. And moving on from coffee are single origin teas (The Age). And notably, Intelligensia are offering exotic mineral water.
We’ve talked about the $37 Aesop soap, th single origin raw sugar, the communal table with a large flower center piece and the industrial, bare brick look. A couple of cafes have coffee plants in pots too. The Age seems to have caught on the coffee craze a couple of years after it started and apart from being rather under-informed, it has mobilized masses of people on weekends to choke up the ‘best’ cafe’s in Melbourne. how many years ago was it easy to walk into your favorite cafe and not thinking about reserving a table or waiting half an hour while 4 groups get seated?
Where can I add a few cents? I think milk. Already there are a few brands of milk catered for the cafe industry. I can see good potential here as the majority of the coffees ordered are still milk based. When 80% or more of the drink is milk, the quality and taste would have a huge impact on the final drink. On my trip to Japan this year, they have a graph of the seasonal variation in the fat content of the milk. Milk could taste better, sweeter and creamier. Get the cows to eat acorns. Where is single estate milk?
three bags full
Food: fine and decent price (Edit – third time – love the fig and raspberry bread)
Coffee: nice but luke warm (second time now). (Edit – third time – good!)
Service: great
On a separate note. I walked into the Aesop shop at QV and asked for the hand soap, the one with the Atlas Cedarwood. She told be it was $37. I said i’ll think about that really hard. Hmmm which cafe uses it? 7 seeds, Cumulus, I think Bistro Vue and maybe Cafe Vue. Three bags full had it too.
What’s the next Melbourne cafe trend? It was the Synesso and the industrial look. The single origin beans became the standard and at once there was even single origin hot chocolate. Then different brewing methods came about with the clover, then the siphon followed quickly by the filter drip. Inevitably some cafes have to give a 2 min (pre-recorded) speech about different methods of brewing and how to drink each coffee before letting me order. Beakers became the new vase. A communal table with a large flower center piece was stuck in somewhere too. Fresh blended juices became the new juice. Recently single estate sugar is appearing (which I must admit taste really good so I spoon a heap into my finished coffee cup to eat on its own). To top things off, today someone ordered “chai latte” and was asked by the waiter “if it was with normal milk?”!
I am not keen on the idea that soap was $37 a bottle. Just give me more French butter on my toast.
A photo tour:
A long communal table
Sweets and stuff
I want the cup and saucer lights!
People, chairs, tables and lights
Steak sandwich
Crossing the latte line to a twin that no doctor should separate
I was made note by one of the doctors that I have crossed the latte line while driving to Hamilton (not Island) – the place I will work for the next 9 weeks. On my few days break, I have returned to Melbourne to pick up my coffee machine. The first stop was Seven Seeds before I even got home. It wasn’t the caffeine I swear. It’s the smell and vibe and tingling when I see smooth and silky milk mixed with crema.
Today I went to Proud Mary, owned (as far as I know) by Nolan who used to be the ex-owner of Liar Liar. The most impressive thing is the metallic grey-blue, custom built, 6 group Synesso based on the Hydra model. This is a conjoined twin that no doctor should try and separate. Together with the deep baby blue cups, it’s a sight worth a detour. The blue beast even has foot pedal switch for steam. Around the bar, th whole set up included a syphon area and a Clover machine. It wasn’t so busy this afternoon and the coffee was great. I wonder when the place becomes packed will Nolan and his team be able serve all the different methods of brewing consistently. Lucky for them that there are not so many seats. Grab them while you can.
Open 7-4 weekdays and 8-4 weekends. 172 Oxford st, Collingwood
Auction Room
I immediately felt the presence of St Ali or Brother Baba Budan when I walked into the Auction Room. Warehouse, industrial and humour in the decor. Unpolished wood, raw brick walls contrast with a small front section with freshly painted wood. For 3 pm on a Saturday this was not busy. This is how I like my cafes
My flat white was 7/10. Good flavour but foam was a little thick in texture and also amount. The long macchiato was nice. The menu looked playful and pushing the envelope for a cafe. We missed the breakfast menu by minus 15 minutes (assuming they ran out of food by 2:45pm). The lunch and dinner menu was very attractive and I am definitely returning for an AM treat. Dinner with a few friends would be great too.
I had the fig tart with caramalized red onions and peppered ricotta with walnut, radicchio and balsamic dressing. Absolutely delicious. The charred flavour was so good with the sweetness and acid from the onions. My friends had a chorizo soup in apple cider and parsly; tahini yogurt soup. The desserts were made on-site and we shared a pistachio, fig pudding.
I could sit there for a long time…
St Ali
St Ali has just about everything I want in a cafe – the abundance of wood, flow of light and disorder. The first thing that hits you is the resinous yet delicate aroma of frenshly roasted and ground coffee. They offer their house blend and also the special coffee of the day. Clover machine too if you like a delicious cup of brewed coffee. Food is rustic cafe style with a hint of Middle East and Mediterranean.
Last time I had some great sardines on toast that were well spiced. An air dried beef salad was another winner. A French toast (sourdough) with mascapone cheese was so well done that sharing seemed difficult. I wonder why they dont do it the French toast anymore.
Coffee last weekend was ok only. Used to be excellent. Although I can’t judge on one coffee, there has been a change of owner and the usual barista was in the Australian Barista Competition in Gold Coast. I am sure there are still some excellent baristas on the job though. The past owner has opend Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke St and is planning another cafe named 7 Beans not far away.
