cafes, communication, and more
Campos Coffee. 112-116 Broadway, Chippendale. In what was a car detailing place there’s now a cafe, and a new co-op bookshop. There’s a wide choice of sweets and pastries, and a choice of indoor or outdoor seating.
Coffee is well-made – yet another Campos venue that’s churning out good work.
Movie: Red Cliff
I’d long heard of this John Woo movie, but not thought that it would be very good. It was only the offer to borrow the Blu-ray discs, and a rare consecutive free nights solo that meant I could take in both discs of this extravaganza. At 286 mins, it’s worth trying to split it up into two viewing sessions: the two discs make for a natural break. Woo has his trademark style on offer – there’s a lot of doves flying around, and even a (swords, and bow-and-arrow) Mexican stand-off!
It’s a Chinese historical epic, set in the 3rd century AD: there’s political drama, war action, western-style dialog, wire martial arts, and even a little bit of a romantic sub-plot. Visually excellent, moments of humour, great action sequences – it’s a great movie, and well worth a look.
A friend recommended this book, and I managed to find a library copy and work my way through. It’s an easy enough read, with some profound things to say about the way that dialogue works, especially in the US political debate.
In putting forward an idea, the framing is more important than the facts. If you disagree with someone, don’y accept a frame with which you disagree: change the frame before giving an answer. There are two ways of phrasing political ideas – the strict father, and the nurturing parent (the latter is deliberately gender-neutral).
Short, easy-to-read chapters, George Lakoff has put together a book that is straightforward for political operatives to apply: US democrats at the time of writing (2004) were at a significant disadvantage from the conservative media machinery – they have spent decades creating think tanks, research centres, and media channels that reinforce their framing of the issues.
If you want to think through the effects of language choice on persuasion, this book is well worth a look.
Five Senses coffee. 85 Dunning Ave, Rosebery – not much of a street frontage – you need to head through the arch to be able to find your way into here, but it’s an enormous place: there’s a furniture and toy store attached too.
If lunching in a converted warehouse appeals, this is one of the better places to do so.
Pepesaya butter is there in abundance, and large slices of bread ($12 per loaf to take away). The food here is expensive, to say the least, but it’s of an excellent quality. The pork belly is fantastic, and the salads are really well balanced, with rich flavours.
There’s no shortage of coffee grinders here, and – while the ordering process is a little unclear to new visitors – they will bring the coffee to your table, and the babycinos are free.
The details are what makes the place: the sugar cubes are rough-hewn and sitting in open jars on the table.
Coffee is good: the decaf is well made, and they know their way around the milk preparation.
Nails it.
Buying this thing will make me happy.
Umami Coffee. 93 Cronulla St, Cronulla. I’ve been here a couple of times now, in search of somewhere to eat while in Cronulla. And this place fits the bill – they even have high chairs, and bathrooms down the back of the cafe (an unusual feature for the suburb).
It’s an unusual space inside – lots of exposed brick and wire, and the chairs have amazing detail work in the upholstery – all around the cafe’s “Ink” theme.
Their breakfasts are solid: good egg work, and a small, but solid range of choices. Staff are friendly and helpful.
Coffee is surprisingly good: in the town where Grind and other contenders are duking it out for best coffee in Sydney, I didn’t hold out much hope, but the decaf is fresh ground, and a pleasant drop indeed.
Aaron Walter – lead user experience designer for MailChimp – is a short book (less than 100 pages). It covers the notion of emotional design – thinking about how you can make interface and copy decisions that will help shape the emotions of website users.
Loaded with case studies and background research, it’s a good read. Thanks to Paul Tagell for the recommendation.
Nano Espresso Coffee (roasted by toby’s estate). 28 Albion St, Surry Hills. Apart from this sandwich board, I wouldn’t have noticed this place. I saw it on my way to Single Origin roasters, which is only a block away. This is a surprising place to set up a cafe that takes its coffee so seriously – there’s a sense that the coffee purists will be drawn back to Single O.
Inside there are all manner of great little touches, the mini cups and saucers, miniature sauces: it’s a quirky, playful space. One wall is covered with astroturf, and there’s a chandelier made of takeaway coffee cups.
Staff are friendly – the barista in particular is up for a chat, and the coffee is well made and very pleasant: it even comes with a free chocolate freckle, another good touch. I wish them every success.
Mecca Espresso, 239a King St, Newtown. Where for so many years “The old fish cafe” had been pouring coffees, with its signature cords of garlic hanging from the ceiling, a new cafe has emerged. The boys from Shenkin (a little down the road in Erskineville) have created a new venue where the emphasis is not on Israeli food, but on coffee, and exceptional pastries.
If you’re trying to watch what you eat, this place is not for you – free samples of a few of the pastries await you right next to the cash register, and a single taste will have you keen to purchase something.
Coffee is really good: it’s all ground to order, lovingly made, and ready fairly quickly. A strong contender for the best coffee in Newtown, and certainly the pick of the cafes in the immediate area.
A short post on the death of blogging resonates with many of my reasons for saying less here.
It seems that the easier methods to publish (twitter, instagram) are winning the battle for attention. One work project of mine, Ultimo Coffee Mornings involves a lot of reading and curating links, but they only make it to the email list, not the web. It’s been a good discipline in a lot of ways, but has limited what I have to say about social media and such topics.
