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.
Canberra sports a wide variety of coffee roasters and cafes, which range from the Melbourne-esque Lonsdale Street Roasters to ONA Coffee's South American themed Cupping Room. There is Gus's, laying claim to Canberra's first outdoor cafe seating, and Sly Fox, erected on trestle tables and milk crates each morning. Amid all the choices on offer, these are a few of my favourite Civic and Inner North* cafes.
#1 The Cupping Room, corner University Ave and London Cct, Civic
A relatively new arrival in Canberra, The Cupping Room is the latest venue to be opened by the award-winning Canberra coffee roasters, ONA Coffee. As well as their exceptional house blends, they serve a wide variety of single origin coffees that are each matched to different brewing methods.
Service staff, baristas and roasters are all friendly, knowledgeable and happy to discuss every detail of the coffee process, from different bean varieties and farm locations right through roasting and preparation to the beverage in your cup. Coffees are delivered to the table with tasting notes and the background story for each batch of beans.
The Cupping Room’s kitchen produces a wide variety of experimental dishes and classic favourites with a South American twist. There are several vegan and gluten free options on the menu, and they are happy to modify other dishes to meet dietary needs. The Cupping Room does not offer muffins or other quick takeaway snacks, but makes for a superb venue for a sit-down breakfast or lunch in Civic.
#2 Wilbur's, 14 Hackett Pl, Hackett
A true hidden gem, Wilbur's is an unassuming cafe-bar located in Hackett. At first glance, it's just a bar with a lunch menu and a coffee machine. Second glance doesn't reveal much more, but give them the chance and they'll give your tastebuds a treat to remember. The menu offerings are mostly on the bar snack end of the culinary scale, but their cake fridge is another matter. Don’t be fooled by the setting; these cakes make for superb treats and would comfortably compete with a fine French gateau.
Wilbur’s brews coffee from a Sydney roaster, Di Stefano. Although Di Stefano is far from a renowned coffee roaster, Wilbur’s prepares the beans well in both their milk-based and black coffees. While its location makes it less than ideal for a quick lunch-break visit, Wilbur’s is a great place to stop in on the way back from the Saturday Farmers Market or on a lazy Sunday.
#3 Lonsdale Street Roasters, 7 Lonsdale St, Braddon
An outpost of the Melbourne hipster cafe scene, Lonsdale Street Roasters runs two cafes on the street that gives them their name. The roastery, at number 23, is focused on the coffee, with a blackboard outside giving only a limited range of food options. Wander a few shops down to number 7 and you'll find a markedly different venue. The walls are decorated with bicycles and a line of blackboards listing a more extensive menu. Retro light fittings illuminate a case filled to bursting with pastries from the Flute Bakery.
The menu at number 7 is largely dominated by a variety of paninis. The flavours on offer vary significantly, with a more exciting array than the usual choice of chicken & avocado, sundried tomato & olive, or ham, cheese & tomato. Goats’ cheese, lamb, braised pork, prosciutto and chorizo were some of the ingredients to make an appearance. However, the large menu offers only vegan cupcakes or gluten free fruit with yogurt for those with dietary restrictions. If your diet is unrestricted, you will find that the pastries on offer are excellent and the paninis are both varied and delicious.
Lonsdale Street Roasters serves excellent long blacks with complex flavours, using their various single origin beans. However, a few of the blends used for their milk-based coffees leave something to be desired. While palatable, the bland flavour profile is what might be expected from mass-produced coffee rather than a small roaster. Extensive hard surfaces and loud background music are certainly in keeping with the hipster vibe, but make it a poor choice venue for a sit-down lunch. Instead, take advantage of its pastries and paninis, coupled with its proximity to Civic, and grab yourself a quick takeaway breakfast or lunch.
#4 Sly Fox, Inner North cycle path between Macarthur Ave and David St, O’Connor
Sly Fox is quite unlike the other cafes on this list, being neither a roastery nor a hidden gem out in the suburbs. They accept bitcoins as payment—the first Canberra cafe to do as such—but the most significant difference from their rivals is their complete lack of either roof or walls. Patrick sets up his trestle table counter beside the Inner-North bike path to catch the weekday rush of commuters cycling to work. Sporting an awning when the weather turns foul and running off a small generator, Sly Fox is a “venue” worth visiting.
They serve Lonsdale Street Roasters coffee, and prepare it well, but don’t think of this as just another place you can stop in and grab a takeaway coffee on the way to work. While they’re presented in paper cups you could sip along the ride to work, it’s worth stopping for a few minutes and pulling up a milk crate. The resident bike mechanic can tune your bike while you breakfast on coffee and Sly Fox’s food of the day. There is no set menu, nor much chance of finding the same food there twice. Instead, Patrick brings in whatever has inspired him for that day. Perhaps you’ll find fresh fruit salad and yogurt, an upside-down cake, or even his mum’s secret recipe spiced date scones. Every time I catch myself dismissing Sly Fox as a gimmicky venue, more about the setting and convenience than the produce, I remind myself of the delicious food I’ve tried there.
#5 The Fresh Roast Coffee House, 30 Kemble Ct, Mitchell
While Jindebah Hills is easily Canberra’s most award-decorated coffee roaster, the small cafe attached to their roastery is not widely known. Visitors could be forgiven for underestimating it, given the semi-industrial surrounds and almost non-existent food offerings.
Little emphasis is placed on presentation, and latte art—seemingly a must in every cafe—is conspicuously and intentionally absent from their coffees. But even lacking a delicious menu or outstanding presentation, The Fresh Roast is made exceptional on the grounds of their coffee alone. Complex, rich and varying flavours abound in their single origin and blended coffees. The couple of staff members who keep the place going are happy to discuss their produce and the history of the business.
While the lack of food on offer makes The Fresh Roast a poor choice for a meal, they make an excellent stop if all you want is good coffee.
* I know there are many excellent cafes south of the lake—and have enjoyed visiting several of them—but reviewing those will have to wait until I've made a more extensive sampling of their ranks.
