From pub scene to cafe culture

My little jaunt in Australia is nearly at an end, but I feel that before I leave I need to make comment and reference to one of my most favourite aspects of Brisbane that I've come to love and depend on over the last two weeks. I am of course talking about the city's strong cafe culture.

When I say 'strong' I mean this on two levels - that there is first and foremost a stronghold of nice cafes in the city that serve good coffee and it's hard to walk more than 10 metres without crossing many, many coffee shops; and on the other hand I also mean that they do indeed serve strong coffee. Or maybe it's not that strong, it's just that it's good, decent coffee that I'm not used to because I'm too acclimatised to the piss-poor weak coffee of a certain American chain, which interestingly I learnt the other day failed in its attempts to take over the cafe scene here in Australia with not so much as a "see you latte" from the local, Aussie coffee connoisseurs. I salute you, I just wish we could do the same back in the UK.

Since arriving here, every morning has started the same way: me and The Boy get up, then we mosey down to one of the many coffee shops within spitting distance to where we're staying, order two flat whites (not yet a popular brew of coffee in the UK, but is just starting to take off in Costa's and I highly recommend it), bit of breakfast then peruse the papers. *Sigh* It's such a chilled out way to start the mornings. Good coffee and friendly company, and everyone that stops in is friendly. I've lost count of how many strangers have struck up conversations with me over a coffee and that is usually a figure I can count on one hand when I'm back in London.

There have been a couple of people that I've spoken to here that can't believe we don't have a big cafe culture. I explain that we only have big corporate chains and there are very few independent cafes where you can get a good coffee. One older lady was truly shocked by this and then she could barely console herself when I told her that most people just pop into a greasy spoon for a cuppa and they only serve instant. I guess for us Brits we're more of a pub scene kind of people rather than hanging out in cafes. Maybe because we think cafes are just where older people go for "a nice cup of tea", or it's a bit chinsey or maybe there's something a bit more snobby about it? I dunno, it's a tough one to call, but I can say that back in the UK I'd rather suggest meeting a friend for a pint rather than going for coffee because I have an arm's length list of good pubs we could go to and only a handful of places I'd bother stopping in for coffee. Difference is obviously that here in Aus there are literally loads of places to go for good coffee and they're all full of young people, and you just hang out, and it's cool, and it's cheaper than the pub.

I love it and if I could continue starting my days with a couple of coffees back in the UK I'd be happy - not least because after these two weeks I now think I've built up a dependency on it. It's true, I will be returning home with a caffeine habit. It's helped me understand The Boy a bit more too. There are back in London only two coffee shops that he'll happily go to, both in Soho and both run by Australian's and New Zealanders. Now when he suggests heading all the way there just for a cup of coffee I get it, because it's good coffee ad both cafes have friendly atmospheres that capture and remind him a bit of home. At least I think that's why, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I know that I'll be all the more happy to go out of my way now to continue experiencing this little bit of Brisbane-like life.

RoseC -x-