plug: coffee culture

Guess what!  I've finally -- finally! -- found my favorite coffeeshop in Sydney:  Coffee Culture in Crow's Nest.  Having lived in Grand Rapids for four coffeeshop-filled years (Common Ground!!  and the Fish House!!  and Four Friends and Kava House and Grinders and Beaner's and Starbucks and I'll count Panera, since I used it like one), I was used to lots of selection of reasonably priced hot chocolate (goodness knows I don't actually drink coffee) in places open late -- i.e., past 5 pm.  Though really they generally lasted until about 10 pm, give or take.

In Sydney you are hard pressed to find a coffeeshop, period, but much less one opened past 5 pm.  I will give an honorable mention to Clippers on Glebe Point Road because the place is very cute and has a nook -- a nook! -- you can sit in and sip tea under, but they fall prey to the peer pressure and boot you out before dinner time.  It's fantastic in the afternoon, though.

Coffee Culture, though, stays open to a tolerably late time.  I'm not exactly sure when, but it was dark when we left, so that's got to be a good sign.  But not only that, their decor is what I'd call casual classy and they have comfy (i.e., padded) seats available.  Their prices are on par with everyone else's (sigh), but at least you get the best deal for your money.

Here's the best part, though:  they'll give you free whipped cream on your hot chocolate (!!).  This, while par for the course in many Grand Rapids coffeeshops, is virtually unheard of in Sydney.  Furthermore, they will give you lollies with your tea.  They serve the tea cups served upside down and under them -- !! -- are 2 little lollies.  Or, if you ask specially, they will let you have the chocolate-covered coffee beans instead of marshmallows with your hot chocolate.  (Definitely the better option.  The marshmallows are Australian marshmallows.)

And the portions are reasonable.  Maybe not quite American, but much closer than the miserable excuse for drinking containers (3 inch high clear glass things that look like shot glasses they expect you to fit a $4 hot chocolate inside!) found most other places.

The hot chocolate, while not in the vein of a San Churros or Max Brenner actual, literal "CHOCOLATE" drink, is definitely one of the better ones I've had in Sydney.  You can tell it's real milk and it gets those lovely oily patches on top so you know it's terrible for you but twice as delicious.  Come to think of it, they might have been from the whipped cream.  No wonder I hadn't seen them anywhere else.

And finally, the people are friendly.  They don't begrudge you taking your time and offer helpful (not sales-conscious) ideas.  And they're very willing to make reasonable trades (coffee beans for marshmallows, for instance).

The place is clean, convenient and open -- but, as they say on Reading Rainbow, don't take my word for it -- check it out!