By Haley Cohen Photos Included
Whether you’re hankering for a soy mocha with extra foam, a half-caf iced latte (hold the ice) or just a classic cappuccino, in the coffee-crazed cities of Sydney and Melbourne, you won’t have to walk half a block to find it.
However, it was not until recently that smaller Australian towns joined their cosmopolitan counterparts and jumped on the café caravan. With tourism to smaller towns in Australia on the rise, chic coffee shops are popping up in some unlikely locales.
One such establishment is the sophisticated Wharfside Café, appropriately located on the main wharf in Eden, an industrious fishing town of 3,000 500 kilometers south of Sydney.
The Wharfside was not always so sleek – until 9 years ago when Stojanovic purchased the space with her husband, it served as a take-away joint serving fried fish, chips and lollies. However, Stojanovic and her husband, an interior designer, had different plans for the café. They completely redecorated the storefront – adding floor-to-ceiling windows, sponging rich navy paint on to the walls, and inserting small nautical-themed details such as decorative lights shaped like portholes – to give it what they hoped was a “retro-maritime” feel.
The Wharfside's Chic Interior
Stojanovic also stopped offering a take-away option and filled her menu with more up-market dishes such as fresh mussels steamed in tomato broth ($25) and tuna nicoise salad ($22). But perhaps most importantly, Stojanovic introduced high quality espresso to Wharfside’s repertoire.
“Prior to Wharfside, no one in Eden served espresso of the caliber you can get in the cities. Some little bakeries may have offered coffee but it wasn’t good coffee. We’re trying to offer Eden locals and tourists the same standard of espresso they would find in a cafe in any big city in the world.”
Stojanovic admits that the bulk of her clients are tourists but adds that the Eden locals are slowly becoming receptive to café culture. “It’s going to take time but café society is building among the local populace,” she explains as a young female police officer orders a flat white at the counter. “Its just a new idea to them. Most locals are used to drinking coffee at home, or at a friends house where it’s free.”
Graham Hinkley (correct), owner of Twinkle’s of Omeo, reports that his business is similarly tourist-based thanks to his café’s location on the scenic Great Alpine Road and his quality menu that includes fresh soups, omelets, sandwiches and of course, coffee. Like Stojanovic, Hinkley also founded Twinkle’s to fill what he perceived as a gap in the Omeo culinary and caffeine markets.
“We’ve got a bakery and a few take-away joints with fried foods but before I founded Twinkle’s 2 years ago, there was nowhere in Omeo that travelers could find the higher standard of food and coffee that they were used to.”
Situated in a quaint wood cabin with a rustic interior, Twinkle’s is also a great place to enjoy views of Omeo’s rolling golden cattle fields where the majority of Omeo’s 452-person population make their livings.
“As people from small towns start to travel around Australia more, and become more educated about coffee, they’ll come to expect higher quality and café culture will expand.”
Hinkley’s prediction seems to have come true in Cobargo, a small farming and artisan community in the southeast of New South Wales where partners Kerryn Davey and Erin Tatnell operate the Valley Edge Café.
“While it’s gradual, coffee culture in Cobargo is definitely increasing. In our first year we were surprised to see the local farmers in here enjoying coffee and cake. Now, its not surprising at all. We get as many, if not more, locals in here as tourists,” Davey comments, motioning to the filled wooden chairs in her café.
In addition to its convenient location on Cobargo’s main street, Davey believes that Valley Edge owes its local following to the public becoming more knowledgeable about food quality.
“As they’ve started coming to us, locals have started to realize that its worth it to pay a couple dollars extra for high-caliber food and coffee instead of paying a little less for stale food and bitter coffee. Now that they know what quality tastes like, they’ve come to require it.”
The rise of coffee in Australia can be attributed to a few forward looking Italian immigrants who imported the first espresso machines in 1956 in preparation for the Italian team’s arrival in Melbourne for Olympics. Since then, café culture has taken Australia’s cities by storm. To qualify just how popular coffee shops have become: the Yellow Pages currently lists around 2000 cafes in both Sydney and Melbourne.
Just as coffee has become inextricably linked with the cultures of Australia’s larger cities, the development of café culture in small town Australia is not likely to be a passing trend. The way things are going, very soon you’ll be able to get your paws on an soy mocha with extra foam, a half-caf iced latte or plain cappuccino just as easily on Dalrymple Creek Road in Allora (population 923) as on George Street in Sydney (population 4,284,379) - news that is sure to perk up caffeine-addicts all across Australia.
| Eden: Wharfside Cafe Shop 3
253 Imlay St
Eden 2551 NSW Phone: (02) 6496 1855 Hours: Daily 8am -4pm, with extended hours during the summer Located directly on Eden’s stunning operational wharf, the Wharfside is a great place to enjoy a salad or grilled fish while watching the fishing boats tow in their catches. Specialty coffee: Muggachino, the Wharfside’s version of a Cappuccino Specialty meal: Catch of the day topped with coconut shrimp and garnished with rice |
| Omeo: Twinkle’s of Omeo 174 day Ave
Omeo
Victoria 3898 Phone: 03 5159 1484 Hours: from 7.30am 7 days a week, as well as dinner from 6pm on Friday and Saturday nights and long week ends. Groups catered for, some meals are available for takeaway. Specialty coffee: Cappucino topped with chocolate stars unique to Twinkle’s Specialty meal: Homemade pumpkin soup and any of the Foccacias |
| Cobargo: Valley Edge Café 59 Princes Hwy Cobargo 2550 Phone: 02 6493 6007 Hours: 9am to 4:30pm Specialty coffee: Cappucino Specialty meal: Homemade Paninis |
No comments:
Post a Comment