New Farm Deli

Heading into New Farm. Ah! What a feast for the eyes. I passed a cool spot on Brunswick street that I’m definitely going to stop into, but for now, I know where I’m heading. New Farm Deli. I can’t really proceed with this blog until I’ve gone to a few of the really obvious places. And some of my favorites. New Farm Deli is up there for me, for a number of reasons.

Great location. You don’t just come here to have a coffee and a chill (both of which are easy to do), you can a have a fantastic hour or two of shopping, even just within the complex the deli is in. The surrounding streets offer a lot for anyone with some time to kill. And the deli itself is full of cheeses, cakes and kitchen things that could leave me penniless.

Good coffee. Once again, not the best I’ve ever tasted, but really strong, rich and smooth. Also there’s a picture of Al Pacino on the wall saying “we know our coffee” and I’m not going to argue with Al Pacino.

Delicious Food. When you look up at their fun blackboard menu, you do feel slightly overwhelmed with all the delicious options. Also, it doesn’t help that it’s counter service, so you don’t really have much time to peruse. I usually end up just going for one of the sandwiches in the window to save time.

One flat white and a delicious procuitto ciabatta sandwich for $13. Not too shabby at all.

The atmosphere I really like inside. There’s lovely art work on the walls, tables and flooring make me feel like I’m sitting in an Italian coffee shop, especially with they hype of activity going on. Also service is friendly. And a lot of good looking young gentlemen, which one can never complain about.

It’s busy in here too, considering it’s midday Tuesday. Always a good sign. If your coffee shop is empty, it can only mean that your location is lacking, or your coffee is lacking. But in my experience (in the shop I work in), a mediocre location does not mean you aren’t full of people. Quiet usually means: not good.

So, New Farm Deli is high on my recommendations. I love it too because it doesn’t feel pretentious. It was here long before all these hip, boutique, sit-on-a-milk-crate places opened, and the coffee is just as good. The food is fantastic. And you get a table to sit at where you can get out a laptop and look out the window. Win-win.

My only negative is the counter service. Not my favorite. I totally understand counter service, it saves time and can be efficient. But I do always prefer table service. From a staff perspective, I’ve always found it just as efficient as doing counter service, and I get to control when I see customers and take their order. From a customer perspective, I prefer it hands down. I get to take my time looking at the menu, and I have more of a relationship with the waiter.  Just on a side note, for any business owners out there!

In a nut shell, if you (for some crazy reason) have not already been, New Farm Deli is a gem. But take a full wallet!

Coffee:

Great

Food:

Delicious

Atmosphere:

Relaxed, comfortable

Value:

Sandwich and coffee: (both filling and good size) = $13

Service:

Counter, but very friendly. 

Sucker Punch

Desperate to see it. 300 and Watchmen are two of my favorite movies! Yeah, sure, the ads look a little weird…but I will not be deterred, I will see Sucker Punch and it will be amazing!

Alas. My enthusiasm and hype was not enough to create the movie I was hoping for.  I tried to ignore the bad reviews I was reading….the 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. No, I will make up my own mind!

Ten minutes in, I am absorbed. We are met with an incredible opening montage, done to a beautiful cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, performed by the film’s star, Emily Browning. It’s quite mesmerizing. The montage depicts the unfortunate beginnings of Baby Doll (Emily Browning) who kinda sorta accidently kills her sister, trying to threaten her abusive step father. It’s a brilliantly done opening. It’s simple, stylish and gets straight to the point. We understand the plot, the aesthetic of the film and our directors intent. Flawless opening.

Emily Browning looks fantastic as a blonde. I can’t get over it. I also can’t get over how damn skinny and fragile she looks. But I know that’s all part of the look. I understand the aesthetic. My brain, however, cannot stop thinking about what she must have had to eat (or more importantly, not eat) to look that tiny.

The moment we get into the real film, the beginning of the story is when everything goes down hill. Mainly because, you spend most of the time trying to figure out what’s actually going on.

Basically we have these beautiful girls, trapped in a mental asylum, escaping into worlds of fantasy to cope with the reality of their situation. The only problem is, you find yourself constantly wondering what is ACTUALLY going on in the real world. Of course, escaping into a fantasy can be a brilliant device, but as long as it’s mirroring a real world struggle and the audience understand the parallels. The main issue here is that the girls fantasize their escape, meanwhile I’m not sure how they are actually escaping in reality. We watch an entire fifteen minute sequence of a war fantasy where the girls battle (what look like orks from Lord of the Rings) to steal a key. But the entire time I would really just rather watch them actually steal the key. Because now I don’t know how they actually did it. A very flawed plan on the directors side.

Ultimately, I got a huge guilty pleasure watching Vanessa Hudgens escape her High School Musical persona, and she wasn’t bad at all. Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone are two of my favorite young actresses, so I was pretty happy with all the casting. Poor old Jon Hamm somehow ended up in this film for a full three minutes. What a waste! Were all his scenes just deleted?

Overall, such a disappointment. Obviously the film looks stunning. The aesthetic is quite mind-blowing. But who cares when the story makes no sense. I always come back to the same theories: you cannot save a bad script or a bad story. If the writing and the story isn’t there, it doesn’t matter what you do in post, it’s not gonna work.

Campos

A day off in Brisbane.  It’s a Tuesday. What to do? 

Confession: on a typical day off I will actually go to my work. Why would anyone do something so crazy? 

Because I work in a coffee shop, of course. A nice, quaint, simple spot that do fantastic Belaroma coffee. There’s a small menu, a friendly clientele of locals and a consistent standard.

I dropped in for a takeaway coffee…. and now, with nothing on my important “to do” list (apart from the obvious…pay my Vodafone bill, go to the gym) I decide to do one or both of my favorite things.

1) Go to a café and write;

2) Go see a movie alone.

Where to start? Considering I love coffee, I haven’t gone to an enormous amount of celebrated coffee spots in Brisbane. But that’s good, because now I have a lot of exploring to do.

I get in my car, Friday, (that’s her name) and I head off for James Street. My friends and I have been going to James Street Bistro for years, but as we got a bit older and wiser, we realized we had no idea why we were being loyal customers. The coffee is not that great, the hot waiter we all loved stopped working there ages ago, and the service got steadily worse and worse. 

But nevertheless, I decide to hit James Street and have a proper explore. Though I have a vague idea where I’ll end up....

Campos Coffee. 

Of course I knew the coffee would be good. It’s Campos. They supply coffee to an incredible spot near me, “The C Word”, which only do bagels and coffee. But that’s okay, because they do both perfectly. The coffee I had here at the actual Campos café, I have to say, I think that “The C Word” may actually make it better. I said it. It didn't have the same flavour explosion that I experience with my coffee from "The C Word". This coffee tasted much more subtle. Not necessarily bad, but for myself personally, it wasn't quite as nice. 

Service at Campos was professional and slick. Not a bad thing at all. I, however, prefer to go somewhere where I feel like the waiters are enjoying themselves and are pretty relaxed about their work. That’s, after all, why people go to cafes so much these days, isn’t it? To relax, chill out, take a break from the mundane work their days are filled with. You get a caffeine fix and have a chat or read the paper. I felt, sitting at Campos that the atmosphere may not be for me, exactly. While getting my Mac out, I felt a little awkward; as the tables are so close together inside I was sure the guy next to me was reading my every word. But still, it’s full of people and there’s a line waiting for takeaways, so they are doing something important right. Coffee.

One of the waiters just delivered my Orange and Poppy seed muffin. I gave her a nice smile and a “thanks” and I got nothing back. Not a smile or a "you're welcome". 

I think that service is as important as coffee. There’s no point in having a delicious coffee if you don’t even feel welcome where you’re having it. And having said that, I just took a break to have a bite of my lovely looking muffin, and I dropped it on the floor. (Important to know about me, I’m a complete klutz.) And, here’s why that’s important. Because I SAW a waiter SEE me…DROP my muffin. And…did nothing. Quickly averted his eyes and kept walking. Now, I wouldn’t be so judgmental about this, except that I do his job. I work in a café, buddy, and I tell you, if I saw a customer drop their food, I would go straight over and help them, offer them a new edible item, etc.  But hey, maybe his girlfriend broke up with him this morning and he REALLY doesn’t want to be at work.

Coffee:

Delicious, smooth. But I have had better.

Food:

On the floor. 

Value:

A muffin and coffee only cost me $7. Really great value. 

Atmosphere: 

I am the kind of person who likes to sit in for a decent amount of time, writing or reading. I don't think Campos is the best spot for this.

Service:

Professional.

Now, to fill the rest of the day!