Café: Equal 9 Cafe
Date: 1 July
Time: 8am
Location: 18 Queen Street, Melbourne CBD
Drink ordered: Cappucino
Price: $2.50 small/$3 for large
Coffee rating: 4 cups (beautifully crafted and presented, great taste)
Service: Genuine, friendly and warm
Book: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolber
What’s on the menu: Full café menu
Why go: Sit on a stool at the window and look out at the old Victorian buildings across the street, people passing by below and sigh and take it all in
Observations: This cafe is located in a little art-deco masterpiece, a narrow black tiled building with a mast like a ship at the top. The café is up short flight of stairs with a row of stools to sit on at the window.
When I get my coffee from the very sweet friendly and warm guy behind the counter – you get the feeling he is genuinely interested in wishing you a good day – and take a seat its possible to really relax, look out across at the two brown-grey ornate Victorian buildings across the street, one of which is called the Lombard Building.
With Melbourne’s yellow cabs driving past and seated in the boxy little art deco coffee bar my mind drifts back to a little coffee bar I visited in Manhattan last year in the middle of winter. It was also a pokey place with the ornaments made out of recycled paper and a funky feel.
I could spend the whole morning in this cozy place.
Outside the café there is a blue plaque with details about the building which dates back to the jazzy 1930s. Imagine having a coffee here back then!
