Today was a huge milestone on my coffee journey! I have completed a quarter of my challenge.. and what a way to do it and I still have almost 10 months to go.. so I'm definitely staying on track !!!
  |
| The sign to reveal the location .... its quite tricky to find... but soooo worth it! |
I realise the challenge I have set for myself is so easy. The cafes that I am visiting have already been judged, critiqued and compared against the 1000s of cafes Melbourne has to offer. I just get to sit back, relax, enjoy the company, the atmosphere and most importantly the coffee ! The hard bit has been done for me!
Thinking about it some more I realise this is what I should be doing - to finally feel pleasure and happiness again (even if its to do with that heavenly drink), to have purpose, and to take me to meet different people and open my eyes to parts of Melbourne and of myself I haven't seen before! And so far I like what I see!
The more challenging part of this is going to be getting myself around to the parts of Melbourne that are not familiar to me and ultimately improve that skill that has always been lacking: map reading!!!
So today I was heading south to see a friend so it made perfect sense I try some coffee on her side of the city! I don't go out there much....
 |
| My coffee - ahhhh zen |
First stop for Darby and I was Market Lane Cafe http://www.marketlane.com.au/ in the Prahran market. Silly Jane did not investigate her coffee tasting very well today. We arrived there, paid for parking, only to find the market closed and deserted and the cafe closed on Mondays! (I put that in my memory bank in case down the track I decide to visit it on a Monday, which could most likely happen!!)I was looking forward to the highly regarded coffee here too, so I will have to come back on a Thursday!
I couldn't decide where to go as my next stop for coffee.. I was curious abut a place so decided to give it a go I could never remember or pronounce its name correctly: Monk Bodhi Dharma http://www.monkbodhidharma.com.au/ http://www.monkbodhidharma.com.au/blog/in Carlisle st. I managed to get a great park in front on the St Kilda Police station and wandered with Darby around the corner. My MCR application said I was right at 202 Carlisle St where MBD was meant to be but all I could see was a women's dress shop and a dentist, certainly not a hip vegetarian cafe,(if it was here it was certainly a convincing disguise) I wandered up and down Carlisle street tearing out my hair and getting stressed. It was then when I saw a sign on a lane way and I hit the jackpot! Hooray I wasn't going crazy after all. We wandered up the lane to the rear of the dress shop and dentist to Monk Bodhi Dharma. Being so well tucked away I didn't expect there would be anyone inside. To my surprise the place was packed ..Darby and I managed to get a bench seat overlooking the coffee machine, ! Perfect for watching the wonderful and eccentric Barista (loved his hat) work his magic on the Synesso machine. I took a deep breath and I felt instantly calm ahhhhh
 |
| Darbys babycino - how cute!!! |
Darby's Babycino arrived with a happy smiley face, and that summed up the visit we had here, the wonderful karma of this place has stayed with me so it makes such sense that the Buddist monk BodhiDharma is credited with introducing Zen to parts of the world! I certainly felt it here! The staff were friendly and chilled out, they knew how to make a great coffee (mine was blissful), they rotate their coffee beans from other speciality roasters and they serve healing and sustainable vegan and vegetarian cruelty free foods. (I quickly phoned Laura as she would love it!)
The decor is bohemian and has a woody and earthy feel, and they have a retro Tin poster I just have to find! (Im on the hunt for one now!) An elegant 50's housewife sipping her coffee with eyebrows raised - In bold letters next to her COFFEE! The most necessary of all Evils!! - email me if you know where to get one!!!!!
 |
| The masterful coffee machine |
On the way out I picked up a business card (part of my next challenge!) and also another bookmark on the bench, I turned it over and it was all the places in Melbourne MBD like to have coffee! Talk about good Karma.. I hope Ill do a good thing and spread the word about how fabulous you are ....
 |
| Coffee blends - which one shall I have! |
 |
| My elegant coffee |
After my lunchtime visit to Laura and Steve (and little Georgia)- The cue to leave was little Georgia's cry. I had forgotten how high pitched a newborns first crys are!
On our way home, I thought we could duck (pardon the pun to come!) into a cafe on our way home! Darby was only a few moments off nodding off, (how cruel am I) when we pulled over to visit another mouthful: Omar and the marvellous coffee bird! http://www.coffeebird.com.au/ in Gardenvale. The cafe was quiet (we were the only ones in there) , but I imagine it is all hustle and bustle on weekends and lunch times! My coffee has a lovely earthy taste, with an elegant hazelnut crema - I'm sounding more coffee expert every day ; )
The staff were very interested in Darby's rubber ducky http://www.rubbaducks.com/rubba.asp... and his awesome catalogue of 50 or more different ducks... they were soooo enthralled and why wouldn't they be... they are the coolest things ever!! OK, I'm off the coffee track now, but after a long coffee tasting day I was exhausted! Today there were certainly places worth coming back to...
Until next time xx
- My next little challenge as mentioned above - I am now collecting business cards of all the places I go to, so at the end of the year I can frame them somehow of how far I have come in 2011!
 |
| Darby and his Baseball Duck! |
YAY! Proud much?
ReplyDeleteAny out my way? I can be the guide? I think I may even have an outfit for such an occasion (think 'air hotsess'...)
Oh would love that( tour guide outfit included!) where is your regular hotspot??
ReplyDelete