Coffee on the Kingston Foreshore

The Kingston foreshore is rapidly setting itself up as one of Canberra’s dining destinations. Eateries from the increasingly well known Morks Thai restaurant to a Mex Brenner shopfront are opening their doors, not to mention the local institution of Brodburger just across the street. Of course, restaurants and chocolate shops aren’t the only ones popping up; Canberra’s love of coffee is showing through as cafés make their presence known.

38 Espresso

A family-run café, 38 Espresso is so named for the family’s lucky. With their blackboard menus adorned with coffee-themed jokes and sketches of the daily specials, their walls decorated with the works of local artists and maze-like drawings on street signs, and their coffees accompanied by mismatched collectable teaspoons, they have created a friendly and quirky vibe for their café. While they aren’t among the numerous Canberra cafés that have taken to roasting their own coffee, they do have their own blend that is prepared especially to their tastes. The results are impressive, and easily pour the best flat white you’ll find in the area. Unusually for a blend, their coffee also presents well as a long black. Even more unusually, they offer Vietnamese style iced coffee for anyone wanting a reminder of their last trip to Southeast Asia. But their standout coffee is their cold brew. Although I’m not generally (or ever, actually) in favour of adding syrup to coffee, I can’t deny that the hint of vanilla they add to their cold brew complements the rich, almost chocolaty, drink perfectly. Food at 38 Espresso is reasonably good and varied, but coffee really is their standout specialty.

Mrs Sackville

Mrs Sackville is a cute café whose mismatched chairs, small antique stall and quiet ambiance might seem at odds with the trendy image of the foreshore. It is scarcely tucked away but, facing onto the glassworks rather than the boat harbour, it seems almost unnoticed by most passersby. Rather than making it feel uncomfortably different, it instead feels comfortingly like visiting a friend’s house for a chat and a cuppa.
While their organic coffee has a pleasantly delicate complexity to it, tea is the beverage of choice here. Handwritten menus at each table—each of which tries to be tucked into a corner, even when sitting in the open—lay out the range of loose leaf teas on offer. The food is prepared fresh in front of you, and has a pleasantly homely feel to it. Free range and organic are the catchwords on the menu. Trying an open chicken, avocado and bacon roll off the specials blackboard, I was struck by the intensity of the flavours, the ingredients perfectly cooked and presented to highlight each one. Like the café itself, the unassuming descriptions on the menu belie the quality of the food on offer. For a hearty café meal in Kingston, this is the stop of choice.

Paleo Perfection

The most recent café to arrive on the Kingston foreshore, only having opened its doors at the start of March, Paleo Perfection’s first few weeks have already built a good reputation and strong following. The owner previously sold her paleo-friendly chocolates at the Bus Depot Markets, where their popularity convinced her to set up a permanent shopfront. The café aims to provide food that is both healthy and delicious, and succeeds well at both goals. Whatever your dietary requirement, the odds are high that there are a few options on offer to suit. The gluten and dairy free muffins are a taste sensation, exploding with flavour. Lines are already forming for the tomato and bacon fritters in the morning. Their drinks follow the same ethos as the food, using some of Australia’s best milk to accompany their organic coffee beans. They have no bottles of “chai” syrup or powder on the counter, instead offering brewed chai sweetened with a dash of honey. Paleo Perfection has succeeded in making its healthy alternatives taste as good, or even better, than the originals. 

Remedy

Remedy is the latest of Lonsdale Street Roasters’ shopfronts, set beside the canal-mouth between the lake and harbour. Here, the usual Lonsdale displays of wall-mounted bicycles have been adapted to the local vibe, an old timber boat hanging from the ceiling instead, but Remedy is as welcoming toward cyclists as are its city cousins. They provide one of the only bike racks in the Kingston Foreshore area, conveniently close to their large, sunny outdoor eating area. Flute Bakery pastries sit tantalisingly on display, their backdrop a menu of different paninis. While the pastries are as excellent as ever, the paninis here don’t yet live up to their Braddon counterparts. Lonsdale’s single origin coffee beans continue to be their strength, pouring better than their blends as both black and milk coffees, although they are best enjoyed as long blacks.