Coffee Brothers, Mona Vale

Island coffee near the beach

From a suburb with few cafes, suddenly Mona Vale has an embarrassment of places. Opened in March 2012 next door to the bus depot, this place has bundled together all the good things you’d like to find in a cafe: sensational coffee, made expertly, an edgy feel (cable spool tables and hessian covered stools) matched with laid-back cosiness, and just enough go-withs (panini, wraps, salads, soup, cakes, pastries) to make a good excuse for a return at lunchtime.

Coffee preparation is taken uber-seriously. The coffee is tasted every hour and several factors are rated by the barista, and only filtered water is used. The coffee is grown in Vanuatu, purchased as direct trade, and arrives as green beans which Coffee Brothers roasts. It is single origin organic and there are plans to introduce other single origin coffees over time.

And if your home machine is playing up, this place also does repairs. Although, if this place is near enough, you almost wonder why you’d bother. Better to come in and let Tom and Dan, the barista team, work their black magic for you.

Coffee: Coffee Brothers
Street and carpark parking.
Bus transport.

1/54 Darley Street, Mona Vale
@coffeebrothers1
http://www.facebook.com/CoffeeBrothersAustralia
+61 2 8411 2190

My Favourite Cafe

Contrary to what my kids think, I’m not silly.

They thought I was – and their dad, too - when they heard about us schlepping around for weeks, visiting 200 cafes during Sydney’s hottest summer in, ooh, about a century!

That part wasn’t fun, but it was all in a good cause. We were looking for great cafes in a city that is becoming well-known for its great cafes, creating our new iPhone and iPad app, Sydney Café Culture.

It wasn’t easy, deciding which to include.

We settled for a wide range that would suit everyone from surfers wrapped in towels and in need of a caffeine jolt, to weekend breakfasters or mums with prams and littlies in tow.

Tough job, but we chose to do it. And now the inevitable question keeps coming from people I meet: which is your favourite café?

That’s a loaded query, and one I am not silly enough to answer here. Mainly because there is no single adequate answer, except for ‘it depends’.

What works for me depends on my mood: whether I am craving coffee or the food that goes with it; whether I want books, art, shopping as a side serve; whether I need a cheery crowd to keep me company, or an endless sea view.

It might depend, too, on who I am with: a young family, an older friend – or my dog!

However…………after all those cafes, all those coffees and notes and pictures and discussions with baristas (and yes, I know , if you speak Italian, it should be bariste) I do know what I like in my  favourite café.

I like  (in no particular order):

• a genuine and relaxed welcome
• a comfortable place to sit and just be
• newspapers and recent magazines to browse
• a bowl of water outside for my dog
• the best coffee the café owner can buy, made by a skilled and careful barista
• cleanliness
• fresh water in a bottle or on tap nearby so I can pour my own
• something extra – tiny biscotti or even a chocolate freckle to accompany my coffee
• The good aromas of lunch cooking or muffins fresh from the oven

So that’s my list. What’s on yours?