We’re all over the Lodge, the Cottage, the re-wazzed Workers, Balmain and East Village Hotels, not to mention Wilhelmina’s. And now there’s this ace little courtyard café, tucked just behind Balmain’s newest bar. Will it ever end? We kind of hope not.
It’s here at this mostly-outdoors-but-also-magically-under-cover cafe that you’ll find excellent coffee like their expertly extracted ristretto, all super oily and made on Golden Cobra beans. There’s pour-over too if the violent punch of a regular espresso doesn’t ring your bell. Oh, and sorry drinks junkies, there’s no fresh juice, but there are carafes of house-made sodas (we have the grapefruit and lime, but there’s also strawberry).
There’s no kitchen here either, which means the majority of the eats are salad-or-toast-based. But that’s cool. Not every day needs to be a bacon and fritter day. Most of what’s on offer is vegetarian, some of it’s vegan but all of it can be pimped with a few slices of ham. Smashed avocado, caper mayonnaise and crushed toasted almonds peppered up with rocket leaves on rye and caraway toast can be ordered by the piece - handy, if you’re flying solo.
This is a cute little café staffed by nice guys. Service can be a little haphazard at times and it’s a fairly limited menu, but in a way, that’s also part of the charm.