2204, on Addison Rd opposite the laundromat & barber. Great place for coffee, the de-rendered brick interior is fantastic to look at, just like the house at various times during renovation, only, designed, not accidental. And more finished - they presumably were paying the guy who knocked the render off the walls, unlike me relying on voluntary labour. Makes a big difference. It's cleverly lit, too, there are angles, shadows, highlights and glow as in old timber. Fantastic seats, comfortable, stylish, not overcrowded. Great coffee, a cappuccino which actually combines the flavours of milk & coffee successfully. But, but, but but but - the food is ordinary & not cheap. I had a croissant there which they wanted to heat up for me; I found out why when I declined - it was at least a full day stale. At the milkbar over the road I can buy a fantastic fresh daily croissant for $1.30. OK, maybe I'm a cheapskate, but $3.50 is a big mark up for the chair. I don't think it's fair to eat someone else's croissant, so 2204 misses out on my coffee dollar if I'm feeling peckish. Also, the milkbar has legendary snails for the same $1.30 price. If, that is, you get there in time - recently someone else has discovered them who gets up earlier than I do. Still, in pure coffee terms, 2204 can't be faulted.
Update on 2204 - it has acquired a license & a chef. The menu is a touch generic (but so are customers, what can you do?), although having said that the BLT, hold the lettuce, add grilled haloumi is a fantastic idea. A hot cheese sandwich. Cool. Well, now they have some significant points of difference.
The local newsagent also sells coffee at three tables outside the shop & to a couple of stools perched around the espresso machine. His pricing is right ($1 for a long black) & his croissants are fair at $2.50 - you expect to pay a loading for the seat - especially as they are always fresh as well. He has a sensational almond croissant for those who might not be counting calories. Prior to 2204 opening I was semi-regular here because coffee, croissant, newspaper & low key is a perfect quadrangle for me. The problem was, and is, that the coffee is very weak & milky. You can ask for it to be stronger, but then it's very bitter/acorny. In fact, here is the reason I have started drinking cappucino after a lifetime of long blacks & macciato. I'm not such a news addict at the moment, so I've given up this traditional (since about 1977 for me) morning. In fact, even if I were still a news junkie - impossible since the SMH turned tabloid & the Australian lurched to the gutter right - I'd probably pay the extra dollar and read the paper in 2204 because, after all, what's a dollar? If I skip the croissant I'm still ahead of the financial game. It's a bit sad, because there's an quality of accident to coffee at the newsagents which a coffee place can never have. But it doesn't offset the coffee issue.
For the serious minimalist, there's a bulk coffee roaster - Coffee Alchemy - at the other end of Addison who sells coffee by the cup for consumption on a very hard bench or two very hard chairs outside for the smokers. This is pretty hard to fault, except that they only do one blend in the espresso machine, so in-shop experimentation is not possible . They do have other blends available as drip filter for taste testing, if that's your form. I like both the espresso blends I buy from them, they probably get about 30% of my domestic supply. No mucking around with food. There's a lot going on some days; you can get a big batch roast happening in the back room while an experimental roast is happening on a spare corner of the front counter - times, temperatures & aroma notes scribbled down on stock notes. As well as the smell of the coffee coming out of the machine (harsh to call it a cliche, because it IS a great smell, but as an ambiance note it is a lazy tick for most coffee shops) there is the faintly sour, somewhat grassy smell of green beans roasting.
If you turn left at Enmore Rd halfway up the hill is the Bus Stop coffee shop. It has good coffee, but it mainly has stools. I don't sit on stools except at Pellegrini's, so I haven't adopted it. I could in theory, I pass it about 6 times a week walking up to Enmore. One thing that I do like a lot - but not quite enough to overcome stool-phobia - is that there is automatic drinking water with every coffee. I'm a big fan of water. Note - last trip there was no water, and the coffee was milky. It will be the last trip now in both senses of the word. Note to note - still no water (compelled to use it to kill 30 minutes waiting for my bike rims to be drilled to fit the bog-standard tyre valve which is all you can get on the antique 27" tubes I have to use) but, but, they have a bookshelf. With stuff that is actually worth reading. And a table with chairs rather than stools. Recalibration of the coffee universe occurring. Hear the cogs grinding as the increasingly aplastic neural matter rearranges itself.
Turn right, and walk for maybe 400 meters and you get to the Bourke St. franchise in Mitchell street. This is a bakery first and coffee shop second, but they get the majority of my local coffee spend because their food is fantastic. The pies are superb - not hot enough for my taste, I like to burn my tongue on the first bite & these are actually perfect temperature for immediate consumption - but superb anyway. Likewise the sausage rolls, which contain meat. Their croissant/danish/pain au choc/ are all OK, priced at Paddington boutique rather than Marrickville baker prices (there are two bakeries that don't sell coffee in Marrickville which do fantastic croissants/danishes at $1.50 & $1.30, walk for another 10 minutes). However Bourke St.s killer bread is their sourdough & rye loaves. It is impossible to leave without buying one. They've nearly got me to give up on Vienna loaves. Ah, and another thing. The custard in their tarts is unbelievable. I have no idea what they are doing, but it is superb. Stunning. More than makes up for the rather biscuity tart, which I don't like, but is low in shortening if you pay attention to that kind of thing.
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