Category Archives: Black coffee

Black coffee from around Brisbane and where ever I am.

Black coffee, Cafe Review

Matthew Thomas at Sandgate

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Long Black at Matthew Thomas in Sandgate
Long Black at Matthew Thomas in Sandgate

Not many cafes in Sandgate look out over the ocean. Matthew Thomas does. At least as far as the trees on the other side of Eagle Terrace allow. The cafe itself is in an old house and occupies the ground floor, along with a gift shop and a counter given over to selling fudge. The front of the cafe opens out onto the road and provides a great view of trees and some blue stuff between the branches.

Big Breakfast at Matthew Thomas
Big Breakfast at Matthew Thomas

The decor was interesting and seemed to feature a lot of clocks and they use Toby Estate beans and make a reasonable coffee. While not especially awesome Matthew Thomas does a good long black coffee. Their big breakfast however is more remarkable.

Swapping out eggs was not a problem, and the home made baked beans were really very nice. Their service also really stood out, with attentive and cheerful staff taking care of a reasonable late breakfast crowd.

Matthew Thomas is in a good location in Sandgate, with nice decor and a cute gift shop. The coffee is good and the food is better and the fudge is certainly worth trying. Matthew Thomas is certainly worth visiting if you are nearby and in the mood for a light meal.

TL;DR

  • Great service
  • Nice coffee
  • Interesting menu and good food
  • Kind of overlooking the ocean

Matthew Thomas, Sandgate
Phone: 3869 4807
http://www.matthewthomas.com.au/
50 Eagle Terrace, Sandgate
Brisbane
Queensland

Black coffee, Cafe Review

Reverends Fine Coffee in the Valley

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Reverend's Fine Coffee
Reverends Fine Coffee

Fortitude Valley is not much of a destination for cafes currently. If there was one place that could claim that distinction, West End would be it, with honorable mentions going to Teneriffe and a few suburban outliers. The Brunswick Street Mall in Fortitude Valley is certainly a wasteland as far as good coffee goes. Recently though a few new places within easy walking distance of the centre of the Valley have opened up.

Only three weeks old, Reverends Fine Coffee is one of these. The cafe is practically a hole in the wall, with only a narrow street front. However Reverends Fine Coffee uses their space well with the counter at the front and a reasonably sized seating area tucked away in the back. Inside it feels roomier than their small street frontage would lead you to believe.

There are seats and tables
There are seats and tables

Like a growing number of cafes they do roast their own beans, and sometimes other cafes, such as Moray, even use them, at least according to their Facebook page. The coffee they do is good, and they offer single origins alongside their own blend. As a black coffee it is very drinkable, and makes it easy to consume multiple cups in quick succession.

Reverend's menu, food to come soon
Reverends menu, food to come soon

Reverends Fine Coffee is not serving food just yet, but getting a license to do so is one of their plans. The cafe is close to the Brunswick Street Mall and is good for early weekday morning catch ups. The seating area out the back is far enough from the street to cut out most of the road noise, and there was even a roaster in one corner, though it didn’t appear to be in use.

TL;DR

  • Coffee in the Valley is getting better
  • For now only coffee, with a kitchen coming soon
  • Their blend is rather nice
  • They have somewhere you can sit

Reverends Fine Coffee
Facebook Page
@reverendscoffee
372 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley
Brisbane

Black coffee, Cafe Review

Pour Boy Espresso

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Black Coffee at Pour Boy Espresso
Black Coffee at Pour Boy Espresso

Even on the edge of Brisbane’s CBD it is not hard to find a cafe. While not as common as they are further into the CBD, it still seems like there is one in every third office building. Like Pour Boy Espresso.

Pour Boy Espresso is a reasonable place to go, and what you come to expect from a city cafe. They sell food and coffee, and from the look at their set up, they can probably handle the busier parts of the day well. Though I did not get to test this hypothesis, because I was there a little ahead of the lunch rush.

I wasn’t there food, but I did get to try their coffee. Perhaps my expectations were raised by what I’ve heard others say of the place, but I was a little disappointed. The coffee was OK, like a lot of other cafes. For a black coffee it was served a little hot, and the flavour was fairly light, probably more suited for a milk coffee. In theory at least.

Maybe I missed something. A quick search on the cafe’s name online will return a decent number of enthusiastically positive reviews. There is even a Courier Mail article in there too. While I am sure that some people like this cafe a lot, and the food did look interesting, I am not sure that I agree. Pour Boy Espresso was a nice cafe, like so many more.

TL;DR

  • The coffee was ok, though served a little hot
  • Very open layout
  • Reasonable in a city full of reasonable cafes

Pour Boy Espresso
Phone: (07) 3172 1141
www.pourboy.com.au
26 Wharf Street
Brisbane City
Queensland

Black coffee, Cafe Review, Reviews

Coffee from Ripples on the Creek

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Coffee at Ripples on the Creek
Coffee at Ripples on the Creek

40 kilometres outside of Kyogle is a long way to go for a coffee. It is also a very unlikely location for a decent cafe, let alone a restaurant. However there it was, just over the New South Wales and Queensland border by Lions Rd.

Ripples on the Creek restaurant
Ripples on the Creek restaurant

“Cafe 100m” painted onto the side of a building was not the most promising first impression. It got better once we got there however. The restaurant is a single storey building with a wrap around veranda set on a rise facing a hill across a few fields. We sat outside on the veranda, with a view of the occasional cow and the faint sound of bellbirds in the distance.

Mint and chocolate cheesecake
Mint and chocolate cheesecake

Ripples on the Creek’s menu is interesting, with most of the ingredients sourced locally and the coffee supplied by the Byron Bay Coffee Company. As attractive as the lunch menu was, I settled on a chocolate and mint cheesecake and a long black.

The coffee itself had a light flavour which seemed more fruit than chocolate. The cheesecake was exactly as described. Mint with chocolate base, and with a mint toffee garnish. Unfortunately I could not post any of this to Foursquare or Instagram, as it seems that just north of Kyogle has poor wireless coverage.

Just north of Kyogle
Just north of Kyogle

I was not expecting to find something like Ripples on the Creek in country New South Wales, or any other state. The quality of the food and coffee that I had was good, and the location picturesque. Just outside of Kyogle is certainly a long way to go for a coffee, but if you are in the area, at least it is there.

TL;DR

  • Suddenly, Restaurant!
  • Was not expecting a good coffee in country NSW
  • Interesting menu, with nice cake
  • Checking in on Foursquare is problematic

Ripples on the Creek
http://ripplesonthecreek.com.au/
Phone: 02 6636 6234
602 Grady’s Creek Road (also known as the Lions Road Tourist Drive)
Grady’s Creek via Kyogle
New South Wales

Black coffee, Cafe Review, Reviews

Queen Bean Office Coffee

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Long Black at Queen Bean Cafe
Long Black at Queen Bean Cafe

One of the best things about working in Brisbane’s CBD again is that there is no shortage of cafes, even out towards the Valley. It is hard to be more than a block away from a cafe in most buildings, and some office blocks even have their own on the ground floor. The building where I am working is one of those.

The cafe is called Queen Bean and occupies a largeish space just off to the side of the building’s foyer. The coffee was not remarkable one way or the other, but the food is good. The cafe’s layout caters to their takeway and sit down customers, though in the morning rush it does seem to get crowded around the counter.

The coffee they serve is from a company called Green Bean Coffee, though unfortunately the roaster’s website has turned into a domainer’s landing page recently. The coffee has a lighter flavour than most commodity coffees, and does not become overpowering with every extra shot.

Queen Bean Espresso is a nice cafe, and if you are tired of wall-to-wall Di Bellavazza d’Oro, the brand of coffee is different enough to be worth trying. The worst I can say is be careful that when you order an extra shot, you don’t end up with a mouth scaldingly hot coffee.

TL;DR

  • Their coffee is OK, the food is good
  • They do not use one of the more common coffee brands
  • Apparently ‘extra shot’ sounds a lot like ‘extra hot’ at times

Queen Bean Espresso
http://queenbean.com.au/
545 Queen Street
Brisbane