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Aug 28th

food & coffee lover’s nyc adventure

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A friend who we visited while in New York told us; ‘you will find the best and worst of everything in New York’. This proved to be true in every sense, and food and coffee are no exception to this rule.

There are over 18,000 restaurants/cafes/eateries in NYC.  Adjusted for all the Starbucks, McDonalds, Donut Kings and Subways, there is still only about 1 great find to every 100 terrible ones.  Not to say that I would want to change this… it’s how you know when you have really found a gem! And while I think it is a good idea to have an idea of where you hope to eat/drink, otherwise you could end up overwhelmed, sometimes the best finds are the ones you just happen upon.  This is exactly how we came across Caffe Falai, our favourite food experience of the trip. (more…)

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Nov 16th

seven seeds coffee

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I am writing this post with the assistance of self proclaimed coffee expert extraordinaire; Joshua.

Josh and I recently visited the hip & happening city of Melbourne to celebrate my birthday and our 4 year anniversary!

Among many restaurants and cafés on our to-visit list over the weekend was the reputed caffeine depot in Carlton that is Seven Seeds Specialty Coffee. Run by Melbourne coffee king Mark Dundon (also founder of successful cafes Brother Baba Budan and St Ali) Seven Seeds is a boutique perfectionist coffee roastery /plantation / café complete with its own research lab.  The face of this coffee hub appears to be not much more than a hole in the wall … oh but it is so much more! If it weren’t for the many recommendations, we may never have discovered this little gem.

sneakysevenseedsdoor

Inside is a workshop, decked out with all the unique yet understated trimmings you would expect from a boutique café. Exposed beams and naked brick walls create a warehouse feel to the place; characterised by hanging lights with cute & quirky red knitted teacosy-like beanies, ecclectic ammo boxes on each table which store sugar and cutlery,  pneumatic piano rolls recycled into wallpaper, but most importantly, a sexy, shiny Synesso fed by three robur’s (the ferrari of coffee grinders).

triplegrinder

To top it all off, their music of choice was Fat Freddy’s Drop – they had me at hello.  They have gone to every effort to make this place the number one destination for coffee addicts (now all they have to do is find it).

ssdecor

Needless to say, the coffee was pretty good, although, with the beans retailing for $65 a kilo, you would hope so!

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Aug 28th

sardine tin

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sardine-tinSimon Livingstone now has a finger in every pie when it comes to the restaurant scene, with the opening of his latest addition to an ever growing clan of cafés and restaurants; ‘sardine tin’.

It is a small, understated eatery/drinkery overlooking the parklands, located just across from Simon’s french bistro ‘Piaf’.  Serving tapas size meals and offering a select list of wines, sardine tin is a great place to have a drink and tasty morsel, or conveniently, a great place to perch while waiting for your table at the ever busy Piaf.

sardine tin wall

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