Dose Espresso

187-191 High Street, North Willoughby. Ph: 02 9967 2552

North Willoughby comes alive with the emergence of the new cool kid on the block Dose Espresso. BariSTAR Sam Gabrielian’s latest project is the perfect showcase for this talented coffee professional. Sam has ticked all the boxes with his open planned savvy architecturally designed espresso bar neatly tucked in behind a new suburban food concept on High Street, North Willoughby.

Sam is responsible for the coffee brand Caffe di Gabriel a fast growing Sydney coffee business with a quality reputation. He has spent his coffee career as a barista in a busy Chatswood cafe where he created a good following and during this period he was also a competitive barista champion.

Dose Espresso is fitted out with a customised graffiti covered Slayer espresso machine specifically for delivering the black coffees. I can vouch for the single estate Guatemalan ristretto I had through this Ferrari of a machine which blew my socks off and gave me faith in Sydney coffee business again. He also has a three group La Marzocco for his line up of takeaway milk based beverage to keep the consistency levels in check.

The cool fit out is a mixture of very old wooden carpenters work benches with lots of workshop themed bits and pieces like old copper piping and coffee machine group handle hanging lights, very original. The cafe opens into a large sunny courtyard with lots of retro outdoor comfy furniture. You can park directly out the back and run in to get your morning coffee with ease.

The Cafe also boasts a small shop roaster where Sam and his team can roast single origin coffees to have through the various brew methods available at Dose.

Coffee is definitely the focus of the business but the light food offering backs up the champions brew. During my short visit I snacked on a craftsman built sandwich that was lightly packed with all the right health ingredients and enclosed in quality quinoa and soy thick cut bread from Brasserie Bread. After my “Sanga” settled, Sam kindly handed over an amazing gluten free, fat free, slice thingy that was definitely not fun free, it tasted great.

I can see a string of Dose Espressos springing up around our nation as it is a great concept built around high quality food and beverage service.

Congratulations “Team Gabrielian” we will be back again soon.

Canteen Coffee

23 Park Avenue Burleigh Heads, Qld.Ph: 07 5534 3877

Semi-hidden in a walkway between two streets, Canteen has a minimalist industrial feel. The shop is adorned only by a few crates, bags of coffee and a large grinder in one corner. Across the room, smaller grinders and a large espresso machine take pride of place on the wooden bar, giving the aura that you’re in a craftsman’s workshop rather than in a café. And you are.

“It’s how I wanted it to look,” says owner operator Brendan, “for the place to be so raw that it’s just about the coffee, with everything else stripped away.”

Canteen specialises in roasting their own coffee, specialty blends and single origin coffees. A different single origin is featured in the espresso bar every week.

Like the vintage concept of its namesake army dining area, Canteen is a central meeting place where soldiers meet each other, obtain supplies, and are entertained in a relaxed, easy-going atmosphere. People come and go buying takeaway coffees, a bag of beans or ground coffee, taking a coffee outside to sit on old cinema seating in the sun, or stopping to chat or ask questions of baristas Brendan and his brother Jermaine.

In a suburb boasting some of the best coffee on the coast, Canteen is a cool and sexy understatement that it’s all about the coffee.

Open: Mon – Fri 7am – 4pm; Sat – Sun 7am – 3pm

Credit: by Marj Osborne, Good Food Gold Coast.

This review is from Café Culture, issue 28

Addimi Espresso Cafe

257 Peel Street, Tamworth NSW

It's always nice to see a bit of slick styling in regional areas of Australia in the cafe scene. Addimi Espresso in Tamworth was the family creation of Adrian and his parents Michael and Dianne. Adrian - after years working away overseas, predominantly within the London hospitality scene - returned home to put his concept together with the help of his family.

Addimi Espresso is very coffee centric and you feel this as soon as you walk in the door and see the line up of grinders and the shinny La Marzocco perched in the central bar position. This espresso bar has become a local hit for those who are looking for that little bit of Europe in their daily lives with great coffee and simple fresh food served with style.

5th Season - Specialty Coffee Kiosk

144 Elgin Street Cronulla Mall, Cronulla, Sydney T: 0417 843 933

Tristan Creswick and Simon Favorito (owner/operators), have created a unique space where well prepared, specialty coffee can be experienced beachside. The cafe houses a modest 30+ seats and also offers a generous range of house made pastries, baked goods and gourmet sandwiches. Tristan let's us know that they also provide a diverse range of quality coffees for an ever passing "take away" crowd. Being a beachside town, it's no wonder people are wanting to grab their coffee to take with them while they enjoy the outdoors. As coffee drinkers become more discerning 5th Season are ensuring that specialty coffee is readily available. They are quickly becoming the take away coffee specialists in Cronulla.

The 5th Seasons house-blend (roasted by Delano Coffee) is a popular choice with milk based coffee customers and for those who prefer their coffee straight up there is a range of single origin coffees that can be prepared as an espresso or through a Trifecta. The Trifecta is a filter coffee machine with super control over more than 11 parameters. This allows you to pin point the 'sweet spot' within a bean more accurately and produce a brighter beverage with flavours that are sometimes lost in other brewing methods. The boys at 5th Season can offer their coffees via the best methods for each bean, ultimately delivering it to their customers to take on their way for a truly ideal coffee drinking experience.

The Specialty Coffee Kiosk is open 7 days a week from 7am till 4pm.

This review is from Café Culture, issue 26 2011.

Campos Coffee Espresso Bar Melbourne

144 Elgin Street Carlton VIC T: 03 9347 7445

Late in 2010 and after almost 2 years of planning Campos Coffee opened the doors to its long awaited espresso bar in Carlton, Victoria. The espresso bar offers several types of brewing methods including Syphon, Pour Over, 22hr Japanese Cold Drip and the much prized Slayer espresso machine, which is used to produce the most stunning espresso results with it's ability to pressure profile each and every shot individually.

Campos Coffee Melbourne understands that to succeed in the very discerning Melbourne market your offer not only needs to be of the highest quality but also needs to be unique. With planned trips to various origins all year round the guys at Campos are able to secure some of the best coffees available in the world at any one time. Not only do origin trips allow them an opportunity to source quality beans but it also enables them to contribute back to farms, families and communities that play such big part in our daily coffee.

The espresso bar in Carlton is open M-F 7am-4pm and Sat 8am-4pm

Maison Ama Lurra

123 Howard Street
North Melbourne
VIC 3051

Recently opened coffee and teahouse café Maison Ama Lurra is a welcome addition to the area's cafe scene. Its open plan design is lending itself to a meeting space for many of the new boutique corporate offices popping up. The design of the café has included a private meeting space equipped with the latest techno AV equipment ideal for those small corporate, classy gatherings. The space is very open and is quite organized, not like other cluttered retro trends that we have seen in many Melbourne coffee businesses, which is a nice change.

The café menu has strong links to co owners Giles and Phillipe with their French heritage which includes culinary options like the French signature dish being a Tartine, which is a version of our style of open sandwich with a French slant.The tea being served is a French brand, Mariage Frères, which is skillfully prepared by the well trained staff at the correct temperature for each estate and blend. It’s nice to see tea be prepared well and served in style.

Maison Ama Lurra has a definite point of difference and has covered all the bases with its beverage and food service. The business has a very grown up feeling and you don’t have to have the tats and the funny hat to feel cool when having a brew here.

This review is from Café Culture, issue 26 2011.

Open: Monday – Friday, 7am – 4pm; Saturday – Sunday, 8am – 4pm

The Bean Barn

217 Sturt Street
Ballarat VIC 3350

When you first walk into The Bean Barn it looks like any other café where people sip coffee while reading literary magazines, chatting with friends or watching the world pass by. On closer inspection, you notice that there isn't a food menu.

The Bean Barn specialty coffee roastery is a coffee shop in the truest sense of the word. Here, coffee isn't a side line – it's the main event. Three grinders offer a choice between the award winning Mopoke blend, a single origin coffee of the week and the Swiss Water decaf blend, but customers can request any coffee offered for sale. This gives a choice of 4 house blends and 22 single origin coffees in total.

Owner Richard Emery established The Bean Barn in 2005, keen to provide regional Victoria with quality coffee. He's quick to point out that good coffee isn't restricted to capital cities, and that regional roasters can compete on the quality of the coffee as well as price. This passion for quality is passed on to retail and wholesale customers alike, in the form of information and education about coffee.

This review is from Café Culture, issue 25 2011.

Coffee Basics – Castlemaine

1 Halford Street
Castlemaine Victoria 3450
T: (03) 5470 6270

It was a pleasant surprise whilst driving around the back blocks in Victoria to come across Coffee Basics in Castlemaine. We were greeted by friendly staff in this unique roasting and espresso bar facility.

Coffee Basics is set up in an old Hospital just outside the Castlemaine business precinct and they boast that they have the biggest flue pipe on their bank of Probat coffee roasters after tapping into the 20 metre high brick chimney of the old hospital morgue.

Owners Edmund and Elna Schaerf–Trauner have brought years of coffee knowledge with them from their homeland of Austria. The espresso bar has a central European feel with lots of great treats including German sausage and Bier. The wall of the cafe is adorned with modern art that spills into the great choice of imagery on the retail coffee packaging.

Coffee Basics supply a large range of fresh roasted coffee beans throughout the Daylesford tourist area and they have a very good local following. Edmund is a passionate trainer and makes sure his accounts are well serviced with good coffee skills and fresh product and the espresso bar and cafe back this up.

The old hospital grounds have been converted into lots of arty cottage industries so Castlemaine is not just the beer capital of central Victoria it is now a little coffee Mecca.

This review is from Café Culture, issue 25 2011.

Di Bella Roasting Warehouse

2/50 Holt St, Surry Hills NSW

Surry Hills has another reason to rejoice with the opening of the Di Bella Coffee retail flagship store in Holt Street. Discover everything you ever wanted to know about coffee from passionate and informed staff who profess the virtues of single origins vs blends, of cold drip vs espresso, of beans that are organic, sustainably produced or fairly traded.

Designed as a very interactive space, you feel a part of the coffee making process from all vantage points. An industrial roaster allows aspiring baristas and discerning coffee drinkers to experience the theatre and spectacle of onsite roasting. A Showcase Coffee Board displays different single origin beans on offer from around the world, while a Blend Board shows the depth and variety of the profile-down blends. All are available to sample in house or to purchase for consumption at home. Taking centre stage on the communal table is a towering cold-drip filter, offering yet another caffeine experience.

Not to be upstaged by the coffee, the kitchen menu is just as impressive. Chef Gemma Blow brings the best quality ingredients to her breakfast and brunch menu, with a modern twist on old favourites. Also, with a short yet quaint wine list, this cafe has every sensory and culinary pleasure covered. Enjoy.

This review is from Café Culture, Issue 25 2011.

Tea Therapy

Shop 3, Conomos Arcade
281 Logan Rd. Stones Corner
Brisbane QLD
P: 07 3113 3185
E: tea.therapy@optus.net.au

Located in Stones Corner Brisbane, Tea Therapy is a brand new retail store for quality loose leaf tea, with a difference. Founders Carley Borman and Peter Markwell have a combined 25 years of experience in the natural health industry. When looking for options for their patients to compliment remedial health treatment they found themselves looking more and more to the benefits of herbal teas. The high antioxidants in quality tea combined with the many medicinal uses of herbs and spices became a hit with their patients for both health and taste purposes. The teas quickly became their own entity and on December 1st 2010, Tea Therapy, the retail store opened its doors.

Tea Therapy offers a range of 95 different types of tea ranging from the finest unadulterated greens, to deliciously blended blacks and of course, features a wide selection of herbal teas. Also in the range is a selection of lesser known oolongs, whites, and pu-erh teas along with fruits, florals and rooibos infusions.

This review is from Café Culture, Issue 25 2011.

Don Campos

21 Fountain St
Alexandria NSW 2015

Opening hours are
6:30am - 3:30pm Mon – Fri
8:00am – 4:30pm Sat & Sun

Opened in November 2010, Don Campos is the second company-owned Campos store in Sydney (with the company’s flagship store located in Newtown) and it serves only the finest coffee of the highest quality.

Set in a renovated warehouse, the mix of concrete and wood gives the café a trendy atmosphere and there is a tasty range of sweet delights to have with your coffee. The daily specials written on a ream of butcher’s paper hanging on the wall adds a quirky touch.

Some of the big stand-out features are the Siphon Bar (Sydney’s first!) that serves only select grand cru Single Origin coffees, as well as a specially modified Slayer Espresso machine. The baristas are all trained in specialty coffee and really make the place come alive. Treating yourself to a cup of Campos Coffee is sure to delight your senses!

Epitome Cafe Restaurant

Shop 1, 23-25 Burns Bay Rd
Lane Cove NSW 2066

Epitome, Lane Cove’s Premier Restaurant, has the dining experience to suit your needs. From our large alfresco dining area in the leafy plaza, where your kids can play on the shaded turf, to our casual downstairs, where you are able to partake of a relaxing cold ale, or the formal upstairs dining room and balcony, we have it all.

Our cuisine is Modern Australian and as such, we endeavor to provide a range of dishes that can tempt the most discerning of tastes. With Kangaroo, pasta, beef, chicken, seafood, vegetarian and more, I’m sure we have the meal for you.

From 8.30 every day we operate as a café with great Lavazza coffee and extensive breakfast and lunch menus and after 6pm we revert to our full restaurant menu.

We are fully licensed with a primary service authorisation, which allows you to have a drink without food, as well as being BYO for wine only.

Pearl Oyster

114 Miller Street, Preston
Melbourne

Located along a busy shopping strip in Melbourne’s North and offering a relaxed and funky atmosphere is Pearl Oyster - a favourite with the locals.

Pear Oyster offers all that you would expect from a great café, welcoming and friendly staff that deliver great service and most importantly a perfect coffee every time.

A spacious courtyard out back scattered with banana lounges makes it ideal to relax and let the day slowly pass you by.

8am – 4.30pm Mon – Sun (closed Tuesday)

Mojo Music Café

81 Brisbane Street Launceston
Tasmania

Mojo Music Café is renowned for excellent coffee and customer service, delivered by blonde bombshell baristas Kate and Kristy, whose fun personalities drag in the regulars by the droves. The girls have been trained by local roaster Peak Coffee, which provides fresh beans every week from ethical coffee growing regions of the world.

The deli cabinet is always full of sweet and savoury treats created from fresh produce out of Tassie’s famous food bowl.

Mojo Music is a great retreat for business people to have a quick chill out during their busy schedules, taking in some good food and coffee while listening to the great vibes coming from the music store.

Reviewed by Café Culture Issue 19, 2009

Café Pronto WA

Cnr Pinjarra Rd & Mandurah Tce
Mandurah WA

Great food, Great Service and Good Times is Kerry and Tracey Brown’s motto to sum up an approach to business which has made Café Pronto Mandurah’s most popular dining venue. Café Pronto was awarded with the 2008 Sugar Australia WA Café of the Year. It offers fresh local produce in a water-side setting and a gourmet experience for locals and visitors alike. Café Pronto also prides itself on offering the best coffee in town – now officially the case after winning the Peel’s Barista of the Year award. Reviewed by Café Culture Magazine Issue 16 2009

7am – Late Tue – Sun

Alen’s Espresso QLD

420 George Street
Brisbane, QLD

Located in the heart of Brisbane is the Sugar Australia 2008 Australian Café of the Year. Alen’s Espresso has a reputation of being a true espresso bar – matching great coffee with excellent customer service. All the staff are fantastic and highly motivated, and Al is slowly teaching all of them to become great baristas. What is obviously noticeable with Alen’s Espresso is that they are surrounded by well known coffee chains, yet they still get the great lines snaking out the door. Reviewed by Café Culture Magazine Issue 16 2009

6am – 4pm Mon – Fri

Zach’s Kafe Kitchen NSW

Shop 1/29 Christie St
St Leonards NSW

NSW Winner of the 2008 Sugar Australia Café of the Year, Kafe Kitchen has a contemporary and sleek design with all the mod cons. A friendly, funky and vibrant appeal that provides a comfortable and warm environment indoors and out. Owned and run by Zach and Katerina Hiotis, Kafe Kitchen has assembled a fabulous and polite team that caters to all of their customer’s needs – Reviewed by Café Culture Magazine Issue 17 2009

7am – 4pm Mon – Fri