Thursday, September 13, 2012

Jamie's Espresso Bar for Breakfast

Jamie's Espresso Bar
http://jamies.com.au/


I might have managed 1 or 2 weekends of 'sleeping in' by which I mean, I'd still wake up at 6 or 7am but not 'need' to leave bed and end up slothing till 10ish. Somehow this past weekend I reverted back to my old sleeping patterns. It was Saturday morning. I hadn't had a BIG night the night before but I'm pretty sure we went to sleep not that many hours prior to when my eyes snapped open again. I couldn't help myself... I NEEDED to be on the move. So off I went.



It was my dad's birthday on the Friday and I had a plan to pick up some cake from Jocelyn's Provisions on James Street. When I got there, my brain did a scramble because I thought it was Sunday and on Sundays, they don't open till 9am. It was about 7:30am at the time so I figured I had time to kill and may as well get breakfast on James Street. I ignored the 'Open' sign hanging on the door at Jocelyn's Provisions and marched on to locate a suitable breakfast destination. Press has been mentioned on The Urban List several times so I tried there first but they were just setting up and apparently the coffee machine hadn't been washed yet. I don't know what that means but if I can't get coffee, that place is of no use to me :).


Stumbling around half asleep and tired as hell, I got distracted by a graffiti wall and was literally drawn towards it as though in a trance (lack of and inability to sleep does strange things to the mind and body). Then I noticed the coffee shop right next to me. I stood there staring at the menu for a good 5 minutes while the owner was there making coffee and probably wondering what the hell I was looking for. There was an awkward moment where he just started asking "what can I get you?" as I turned away. Once I turned away I had no clear notion of where to head next so I stared at the graffiti some more and came back. I asked if they had anything with eggs on the menu... maybe that's what I had been searching for. I'm not sure. The answer was "no" but I didn't feel disappointment so I don't think I was in the mood for eggs anyway.

I ordered some avocado on toast, a cup of coffee and a slice of banana bread for something sweet.

I also asked for the name of the cafe so I could blog about it later (i.e. now). The guy told me it was called Jamie's and later when I found the place on Twitter, I noticed the profile picture looks a lot like that guy. The owner? Could he be Jamie? Jamie of James Street? Is that too much of a coincidence?

Whatever the case may be, Jamie's Espresso Bar is a little coffee store at the corner of James and Doggett St. There's a small interior eating space and a porch area that allows for sun, breeze and views of the graffiti art, if that sort of thing tickles your fancy. I was feeling chilly that morning so I ducked inside and took up a seat at the bar.

Latte

The coffee came first. As is usual with my first coffee of the day on weekends, I felt life energy re-entering my body. Yes, it was now possible that I could face another day. Coffee is good stuff, man.

Avocado spreading station

The avo on Turkish toast was great. It is, admittingly, the kind of thing I eat at home all the time because my body functions off avocado (and zucchini too; I won't play favorites here). But that shouldn't take away from how great it is.

My slice

I had a bit of a self-serve area set up with 1/2 an avo, the turkish toast and utensils to allow for my preferred thickness of avocado spreadage and pepper distribution. Neat.

Toasted banana bread with butter

The banana bread was a single thick toast served with butter. It was an extremely dense and moist loaf, everything I look for in banana bread. It had the 'real' banana taste, rather than the artificial banana drops that they put in some products (I tried banana bread from The Coffee Club one day. WTF is that?! That's false labeling. It should be called 'yellow cake made with banana Nesquik').

Texture shot

I didn't have room to finish the banana bread so I had it packaged away and ate it for breakfast on Monday and it was still delicious.

While I was eating my breakfast, I studied the cocktail menu opposite me. As I left to pay, I asked Possibly-Jamie whether that cocktail menu was describing cocktails that actually had booze. The reason why I sounded so blonde with that question is because in the past weeks, I've been consistently going to venues with close to $20 cocktails so I couldn't compute how an under $10 cocktail could be made from real alcohol. The answer is that they're not wanky rip offs. Their website describes Jamie's as 'perfectly uncomplicated', which I think can be applied to the decor, the breakfast menu and the late night bar offerings. I think it's a cool little establishment and I like that they keep it simple and keep it real.
Jamie's Espresso Bar on Urbanspoon

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