2042 cafe and deli

Scores:

Coffee: 13/20
Whole experience (cafe + coffee): 28/40

Saturday: It’s cold, wet and feels very like winter. I think I’ve said it once, but I’ll say it again, King Street gets crazy busy when it is wet and cold. Now I’ll admit I’m in a bit of a bad mood this afternoon, so really wanted to hate on a place. Luckily, for us all, I’ve been keeping a place in mind for just such an occasion - Café 2042. Well reviewed, well liked and constantly busy, Nerd 2 and I have been here on multiple occasions and each it has been shit. Perfect… I think to myself doing some sort of Doctor Evil-esk laugh.

Oh, before I go on, Café 2042 is a huge cafe deli kind of place (as the name suggests). And is well known for its inviting looks and has a good mix of tables and sitting areas.

I walk in it’s busy but am quickly seated. Shit, that’s nice. A hostess comes over quickly, with water and a menu. Shit, that’s good again. Well, I think to myself, I’m sure it was the coffee and food that let me down before. I take some time and order an egg meal thing and a latte (bruch at 2pm, why not?).

My latte comes to me quickly by a chirpy guy who asks me how my day is going. This is not helping my bad mood at all.

From first impression I must admit the coffee looks good. Nice bit of relaxed coffee art, it’s also a well proportioned drink, effort was made and a nice finishing touch - the spoon was not on my side of the glass.

Heat, something some people have asked me to comment on was good. Hot to the point where it is uncomfortable to hold a glass, but not impossibly so. Perhaps perfect? I choose to think not.

The aroma of the coffee was quite earthy and chocolaty, maybe nutty, not totally sure on that, there were also notes of the roasting process in the aroma. It’s an unusual tasting coffee for Sydney, but we all love a Caribbean like beans.

Taste wise, it was quite a sweet drink, with a medium level of acidity. In slurping on it, those earthy flavours I found in the aroma tended to be the dominant ones in taste, followed by a sweet leveller, which is noticeably chocolate like in taste. I found the flavours did tend to last longer in the middle of the mouth far more than your average coffee, yet not unpleasantly so.

Pausing as my food arrived I had a look around the place, this is certainly a destination for your Newtown meet up. Most tables were full of people meeting one another, it’s a large open and wooden space, the buzz of chatter tending to be dominant in the room, but I don’t mind.

Going back to the coffee, in letting it cool I found some more of the flavours of the drink. A nutty undercurrent was uncovered. The drink also markedly sweetens, so warning - don’t add sugar!

Overall, I wanted to come in and slam the place but I can’t. Service was good and efficient. Meals done well, tables well spaced and large floor to ceiling windows great for Newtown people watching cafe. Coffee whilst not amazing was good and made well and Sonoma breads and muesli on the menu a good addition to someone far more health conscious then I for a breakfast. So in the end I do recommend the place, just don’t get wintered spinach, maybe that was the reason I hated the place so much last time…

Scores:
1. Coffee score
Style (look and feel): 7/10
Experience (taste and smell): 6/10
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Coffee total: 13/20
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2. Cafe score
Style (what’s it feel like): deli meets cafe
Cool?: 7/10
Service: 8/10
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Cafe: 15/20
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Whole experience (coffee + cafe): 28/40

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Random - Cafe Newtown

Cafe Newtown, Newtown @ 12:16pm, Saturday 28th of July.

Find my old review here.

Random - St Malo Bakery

Latte, St Malo Bakery @ 8:12 in Crows Nest

Random - Luxe Bakery Cafe

The always delightful Luxe Bakery Cafe @ 12:13 - Newtown.

Service, is as reviewed before still brilliant.

La Piadina

Scores:
Coffee: 16/20
Whole experience (cafe + coffee): 30/40
Bean: Caffe Diemme

Does it go without saying that the best places are those that only locals know about? My naive knowledge of Bondi may have been made evident by my last post, however, on for me on the second leg of my Bondi adventure I had the knowledge of a Bondi local to give me the inside word.

True to Bondi local form, my mate Saava mets me without shoes, quite hung over and highly confused as to why I had chosen to get a coffee at Sonoma earlier ("come on man, Inner West crap"). He, having grown up in the area (and remaining so), often tells me of the failings coffee from the Inner West (Campos take note on your cold take away coffee – Saava recommends asking for extra hot). He decided to take me to a café, which he assured me has some of the best coffee in Sydney.

As an Inner West kid I remained sceptical, but kinda excited that I'm finally getting into the Eastern Sydney coffee scene.

From Gould Street, we started walking north and slightly west, heading up Beach Road and then down Gleneyr Road to a little hole-in-the-wall cafe La Piadina. You'll notice La Piadia by the small seats and tables by the road or the queue going out the door.

Pushing our way in, we spot two seats by the window and make as much of a bee line as the space allows. Saava, being the great host offers me the shout (I go long black) and I sit back and take the place in.

The first thing you’ll notice about the place, the size excluded, is the humour the owners have, shown in their shop. I always find it funny that Italian coffee shops in Sydney often take themselves so seriously. While I’m sure this attitude this does wonders for the culinary side of the experience, it makes just coming in a grabbing anything but a full meal or a take away coffee a little intimidating (at least to me). La Piadina is anything but. The wonderful wood fire smell says ‘come in for a meal’ whilst the humour and quirkiness of the place (plus random dinosaurs) says ‘or just a coffee’. The second thing you’ll pick up is that this is a local’s local. Far enough away from the beach to get rid of the tourists close enough to make it cool for locals post surf. You’ll see the old espresso drinker, mixing it with the lycra clad cyclists with ease.

Saava comes back to the table and we pry open the huge window and take in Bondi like locals - just shooting the shit about life the universe and what not. Our convo goes on and it was at about the 5 min mark that we remember we should have coffees on the way. The line for takeaways had not slowed down one bit since our arrival and a quick check that our coffees were still in the production line confirmed they were not far off.

Our coffees come out with an apology and a large wave of the arm, gesturing at the ever-growing queue going out the door, ‘that’s cool’ we replied and we got stuck into the drinks.

My long black from first impression looked fantastic. The drink had a nice even and well distributed crema, with some great colouring to it, ranging from a darker brown to a golden to white yellows.

The aroma was deceptively good, initially I found it quite simple with a singular roasted aroma (Italian Roast) at which I assumed - oh shit another old dark roast. However, I found as I was putting down the cup that I was getting interesting whiffs of a nutty chocolate undertone.

Tasting wise, the roast did play a big role (as you would expect from an Italian style roast) however it was far less aggressive than you may expect from such a style. Mixed with this were some fantastic nutty chocolate flavours. It sat with a medium to full body.

Letting it cool (a Savva no, but a Rob yes) I found it developed something which could be a floral (maybe fragrant is a better term) flavour developing alongside the increasingly dominant nutty chocolate tastes. I found the drink to be reasonably well balanced, if perhaps a little acidic side.

I noticed, as we were finishing up, that the guy next to us had gotten a mug of coffee and whilst I do not endorse the large mug, its handle was that of a golden revolver. I would recommend.

Overall, it’s hard not to love this Italian hole in the wall. The service whilst slow, I am assured they are ridiculously friendly. I really like the attitude of the café, the look and feel, to me, gets the Bondi with a bullseye. The food looks great, although I did not try it, but would be down for a sneaky piadinas or two in future (keen Saava?) and the coffee captures the perfect Italian style roast. Whilst this kind of roast is ridiculously out of favour at present in Australia, any true coffee nerd would love the cheekiness of the flavours that emerges from this bean. It’s not my favourite coffee, but then again I am an urban yuppie and like less roast and more bean to my coffee. I do rate this as the best Italian Roast I’ve had to date.

Scores:
1. Coffee score
Style (look and feel): 8/10
Experience (taste and smell): 8/10
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Coffee total: 16/20
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2. Cafe score
Style (what’s it feel like): Italian dinosaur hole-in-the-wall cafe
Cool?: 8/10
Service: 6/10
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Cafe: 14/20
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Whole experience (coffee + cafe): 30/40


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The Moody Chef

Scores:
Coffee: 14/20
Whole experience (cafe + coffee): 27/40
Bean: Vittoria

Monday: Working in the Lower North Shore two cafes tend to be on many office workers lips, some café which serves Campos on Willoughby Road and the Moody Chef (which is in fact two different cafes – I’m at the main one, my coworkers go to the small one off Pacific Highway). I thought if it’s the vogue place to go, let’s give it a go.

Found on Atchison Street, just up from the station (near the IBM building), it’s location is as CBD as St Leonard's gets. Maybe it’s this city feeling, the hour or perhaps it’s just St Leonards but Moody is a reasonably inviting space. It reminds me a lot of Taste Baguette at Sydney University (memories…).

I walk in and expect the place to be quiet, hey it is 8am, but even at this time there is plenty of action here. A large group of serious persons occupy a big wooden table; you can hear the click of high-heels skidding across the worn wooden floor (just thinking about it there is a lot of wood ambiance here). An awkward breakfast meeting beside me just gets worse as someone drops a sausage against one of the huge windows, leaving a grease smear across the newly cleaned windows. And in all this action is centred the noise of the steam wand constantly kissing milk for the steadily growing line of takes away coffees.

A girl comes over to me reasonably quickly as I take a seat, I order a latte (which I had to enforce would be small, it was checked) and a bottle of water is brought to my table. While I was ordering I asked the girl about the big poster on the side of their building which proclaims 'Vittoria 2010 local café winner' or such, I asked her if non-Vittoria cafes could enter. She was quite unsure.

The latte came over to me at surprising pace, given the ever growing line of takeaway coffee orders near the door. Proportionally the drink was good, which is nice, I’ve had a lot of shit latte’s recently. There was some nice colouration in the foam, and it had a bit of latte art happening, bit of an heart, which was a little to the left of centre, but hey this is the Lower North Shore.

As you may have picked up this is a Vittoria suppled coffee shop, so bear with me. Tasting it, it is more or less as you would expect a Vittoria coffee to be. A little chocolate like with some sweet fruity undertones the roast ruling the flavour. The taste tends to linger on the sour and acidic side.

Letting it cool, it initially has an interesting and pleasant milk chocolate flavour (yay, an ok Vittoria!), however (oh no…), this is soon replaced by a dominant sour, acidic aftertaste (arrr shit), it all seems like the milk is fighting the Vittoria again. The barista was clearly good and machine fine with some history on it but it’s a total bean fail. I would rate this as close to one of the better Vittoria coffees you can get, take that, as you will.

In the midst of my nerdy coffee analysis I checked out that awkward breakfast meeting beside me again, things were about to get worse. Their two coffees had arrived in normal ‘super giant’ large size. Such was the quantity of milk that one of the drinkers did not anticipate its weight and dropped some on herself (oh no).

Overall, whilst it's no inner city or inner west place (although it seems to be trying) Moody has it’s own vibe and really captures as cool as a CBD cafe in St Leonards can be. The vibe is inviting and interesting, the coffee is good and the clientele ridiculous (I feel my experiences were unique to that 8am hour). The major letdown was the bean that did not do the experience justice.

Scores:
1. Coffee score
Style (look and feel): 8/10
Experience (taste and smell): 6/10
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Coffee total: 14/20
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2. Cafe score
Style (what’s it feel like): corporate cool
Cool?: 6/10
Service: 7/10
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Cafe: 13/20
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Whole experience (coffee + cafe): 27/40

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Sonoma – Bondi Beach

Scores:
Coffee: 13/20
Whole experience (cafe + coffee): 24/40
Bean: Single Origin Roasters

Bondi is a funny spot, a true melting pot of Sydney’s people and culture. It should come as no surprise that with this blend you do get some of the truly best with some truly worst. Bondi to this nerd can be unbearably cool.

My morning started in a bit of a state of desperation, tired, cold and in need of a coffee. Here I was walking along Campbell Parade and I could just see (and smell) crap coffee emanating from the multitude of tourist cafes along the beach. I quickly gave up on the well known street and headed one street back and to my suprise came across an Inner West favourite, Sonoma. Sonoma the award-winning bakery has always been the Inner West’s answer to Burke Street or is it the other way around? Regardless, seeing it here just shows the melting pot that is this suburb is.

Found near the corner of Curlewis and Gould Street, behind the Bondi Hotel. Sonoma is a modern place, totally capturing that Inner West vibe. Chalk boards, steal and glass make up the look and feel, with bread heroing the whole shop. Noticing that most people where jumping on the flat white thing, I did the same, was given a number for my coffee and took a seat under a heater outside (unfortunate thing about Sonoma is the lack of morning sun).

My order was not happening at a speed so instead of putting my head into my iPad, I played the role of a tourist (or weirdo) and stated people watching. It’s such a different crowd here then you would find in suburbs I am use to. People are far more confident here, louder and seemingly more at peace with the world (many peeps were rocking no shoes). I found convos washing over me ranging from the surf (not at Bondi…), to what their husbands were up to, to what designer they were wearing, or how big last night was and so on.

As an old guy on skateboard with French bulldogs in tow sailed past me my coffee finally made an arrival on the scene and I should say it looked pretty good. There was a nice bit of latte art to it with an unstructured heart on top, even better than the art, which was not to bad at all, was the laying of the drink, which they totally nailed for a flat white.

Smell wise, the coffee had a rich, fruity and sweet roasted aroma, it worked well, particularly with the smell of bread occasionally wafting over me.

Tasting wise there was a very fruity and spicey flavour (cherry?) to the drink and it came across with a medium to heavy(ish) body to it. The fruitiness of the drink did a good job cutting through the acidity and the milk. You could also taste little hints of what could be a caramel or toffee flavour that did mix well with the milk.

Letting it cool it took on the full cherry-come-toffee sort of flavour. It tasted great, although sadly finished with a bit of a chalky sweet aftertaste, which was really enviable coming from strong the toffee flavours, some people love it, some don’t. I fit into the later. I reckon Single Origin was trying to do a little too much here.

Overall, if you can win the battle for a table under a heater and don’t mind mixing with some of the best dressed people close to a beach before 10am, it’s hard not to think of Sonoma as an easy beach adjacent coffee option. Whilst not my favourite roast by Single Origin I reckon some people would love these flavours. Oh did I mention they do amazing bread?

Scores:
1. Coffee score
Style (look and feel): 7/10
Experience (taste and smell): 6/10
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Coffee total: 13/20
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2. Cafe score
Style (what’s it feel like): Alexandria hangout by the beach
Cool?: 6/10
Service: 5/10
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Cafe: 11/20
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Whole experience (coffee + cafe): 24/40

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Random - Corelli's Cafe

Corelli's @ 10:44. A Newtown favourite, I've not reviewed. Just down King. Vittoria Coffee, but you can forgive them for the wonderful crema.

The Book Kitchen

Scores:
Coffee: 16/20
Whole experience (cafe + coffee): 32/40
Bean: Single Origin Roasters

Surry Hills on a Sunday afternoon around lunch is always a bit of a challenge. The suburb always seems quiet compared to some of Sydney’s other suburban shopping centres, accept when it comes for looking for a table to grab a coffee where there is a huge battle occurring for table space. This can be magnified – the further you head towards Cleveland Street where lines, outside doors start to occur. The great thing about this is that it forces you to walk beyond what you know, to find somewhere new.

This Sunday my mate Chris and I were in this predicament. Spud, Gnome, Bourke Street Bakery, etc were looking erratic and busy, however, luckily a café which was managing itself far better then most had the table we were looking for, The Book Kitchen.

The Book Kitchen is found on Devonshire Street, pretty much across the road from Bourke Street Bakery. The Book Kitchen, as a non-Surry resident is new news to me (although not Nerd 2, who keeps up to date with food developments). Have to say, it looks good from the outset.

Walking in we were greeted with that great smell only a place that is pumping out coffee and cooking a late breakfast can do, I love it. We grabbed a free table nearer to the back, walking past Surry residents talking about the bike lanes, graffiti or the Sydney Morning Herald’s Rinehart take over and skirting past shelves full of cooking books and prams to eagerly start the ordering process.

A waiter guy quickly over, picked up our coffee orders and gave us menus to see if we felt like a ridiculously late breakfast or early afternoon tea (who has lunch these days?).

I went a latte, which seems to be a trend of mine as of late (I’m enjoying the interesting glasses which coffee gets presented in), while Chris went a flat white.

In the space between coffee ordering and delivery, Chris and I chatted about Aussie politics, cars bikes (see we fit in to Surry well). While we were chatting people just flowed in and out. Coffees beside us were ordered, a steak meal with a red (wine) was happening behind. It’s an interesting idea for café to be doing a bit of everything and transforming itself into some more formal as the time gets closer to 6pm (dinner).

The coffee came out to us quickly and we were presented with two sharp, near identical looking coffees (bar the fact mine was a latte and Chris’s a flatwhite). You can tell the barista either likes consistency or is trying to work on a style of artwork because they both had a rather cool, very similar looking bit of latte art. My latte was served in an egg shaped glass and was a little thin on the foam for a latte, but did look sharp indeed.

I had some issues working on the aroma of the coffee, not due to it being a bad coffee, but rather, due to all the ambient smells of the café, it was not until I had my nose right within the glass that I could even try and work out what I was smelling (I got foam on my nose). The aroma was very delicate and had almost a vanilla creamy smell to it.

The taste of the coffee was really interesting. It was a really quite delicate and balanced drink. I found it to be of light to medium body but still a little punchy. The tastes were simply fantastic with a strong fruity overtone to the drink (almost passionfruit like) with a really cool milky vanilla undertone, which later transformed to play the main role of the flavour as the aftertaste. It is easy to pick that this is from Single Origin Roasters down the road (after my moment of brilliance at picking the roaster, Chris pointed out that they advertise this blend origin in the menu). It’s not however the Single Origin House which you may know, but rather something a little different, house blend with a twist?

Overall, I am a big fan of the place. It has a fantastic vibe with the right mix of warehouse to café with that added charm of selling a huge library of cookbooks. The café has super friendly and efficient staff, tasty and mostly healthy and organic (…come on this is Surry) food, although I only went for banana bread so cannot completely confirm the food, and best of all a great, interesting and consistent coffee in a place that does not have unmanaged Sunday line out the door… yet. I rate it.

Scores:
1. Coffee score
Style (look and feel): 8/10 (let down by to little foam)
Experience (taste and smell): 8/10
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Coffee total: 16/20
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2. Cafe score
Style (what’s it feel like): foodie warehouse
Cool?: 8/10
Service: 8/10
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Cafe total: 16/20
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Whole experience (coffee + cafe): 32/40

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