Thanks to everyone who made it to my 30th yesterday: it was great to spend time with so many people. Special thanks to those who made it for the entire crawl, from 9am to 11pm: Kel, Jonathan, Chan and Jord, and Paul, who kept extending his stay, and who bought me my tenth coffee of the day. Thanks to Catherine Read – the person who travelled the furthest to be at the cafe crawl (from Orange). Thanks too to my aunt, uncle, and cousin who dropped in after dinner despite a very busy day.
Photos of the crawl are on flickr.
Where did we go? First stop was the divine monkey lounge: I arrived about 5 past nine, and there were already around 20 people there. Most of the kids who made the cafe crawl were there for breakfast, and I met Chloe and Niamh for the first time, and also caught up with other friends and their children. A latte, eggs and turkish toast, and another latte with late arrival Simon, and we were off.
Most people left after breakfast: especially those with children who were finding the pace of being in a cafe a little hard to bear, but the faithful remnant persevered, and we headed down a few doors to Well Connected, a cafe I first visited in 1997, and one that I’ve kept returning to over the years. A quick coffee, some more conversation, and we had a go at the puzzle in the Good Weekend magazine, and then we headed further down the road to our lunch destination.
I certainly learned that when you have a group of eight people who want a seat in a cafe, it pays to give them a bit of notice. If you’re trying to run your own cafe crawl, it’s worth appointing a scout who will go to the next cafe, and warn them that you’re coming.
The lunch venue was home-dot-cafe. We had the whole courtyard to ourselves, although with the numbers that actually showed up, we probably needed a bit less: this was the only part of the day that wasn’t cramped!
After lunch, the faithful remnant trekked to a further point on glebe point road, and into le petit tarte, a patisserie and cafe that has become a recent favourite. To break up the run of lattes, I had an affogato: this is where you pour a shot of espresso over a scoop of icecream: it’s a mix of hot and cold drink, and also has more sweetness than a normal coffee.
It was here that most of the day’s drop-in visitors appeared: by having this turnover of people, it was easy to keep the conversations going: especially when there are a number of years worth of events to catch up on.
With the sun beginning to set, it was time to head to another cafe: the only one for the day that I hadn’t visited before: Le Mille Fleuille on Glebe Point Road. Here we were joined by Brit (who had another present for me despite having already given me some excellent coffee already) and witnessed the early arrival of Dan and Bron. The staff here were truly accommodating given how hyped many of us were after all our coffee consumption.
Note – if you are trying to run your own cafe crawl, don’t enter into any sibling rivalry as to who can drink the most coffee in the day.
With the sun well-and-truly set, we headed for the e-lounge, where we spent a couple of pleasant hours in close proximity (twenty one people, plus a few visitors right at the end) having all-you-can-eat gourmet pizza and salad brought to us. The only trouble with this – the most crowded of the day’s venues – was the difficulty in reaching the people in the back of the room: some people proved impossible to have a conversation with, because there was no room to reach them.
Having finished dinner, we went to the seventh cafe of the day for dessert – cafe otto. This was a place that was out of my price range in my uni days, but people managed to share desserts between them.
It was here that the faithful remnant began to depart, and with eleven coffees under my belt, I thought that one more wouldn’t make that much difference, and so I grabbed a takeaway coffee from Badde Manors on the way back to the car.
Overall, if you can find the time to have a party in this format, and you can manage the RSVPs and warn the cafes accordingly, I would highly recommend this as a way to celebrate an event.
The Coffees:
- pre-breakfast latte, divine monkey lounge
- post-breakfast latte, divine monkey lounge
- macchiato, well connected
- cinnamon latte, home dot cafe
- latte, home dot cafe
- affogato, le petit tarte
- macchiato, le petit tarte
- latte, le petit tarte
- latte, le mille fleuille
- latte, the e-lounge
- latte, cafe otto
- takeaway latte, badde manors cafe