Tre Espresso Bar
Shop 10
Hardwick Building
459–475 Sydney Rd
Brunswick
I find myself perched at a little table near the professional ‘help-yourself water station’ at a cafe I think is fairly new.
As I look around: Large table with a plant at the centre, chairs with backs, wooden Ray-like stools, small round table and small rectangle tables. Concrete floor with a matt-type lacquer finish. Five cactuses in pebbles in a long rectangular plant box which has a fluoro light over the top. Windows have clear glass panels, with an odd panel pink or blue. Wooden panelled roof. A section of retro wall paper, patterns in browns. Bricks walls worked back in some parts and not others, some remains of paint. Six over-sized tungsten light bulbs dangling from long lighting cables. A cord board is mounted on one wall with large lettering above: NOTICES. For some reason I see this as reinforcing the notion of cafes as ‘local message centres / communication points’ where people in the community catch up, chat or just hang out.
As I listen: behind the counter staff are talking and I hear the words USB and WIRELESS. Near me a parent is trying to convince her child that it needs a custard-filled donut. (The child later goes on to make a repetitive tapping noise at one of the wooden stools, and is left unchecked.)
I order a long mac and a salami/fetta pizza. The pizza comes out with some rocket on top and olive oil. It’s small, herby and very tasty. The salami is cut very thin, and as such is there for the right reason: taste only. The crust is crunchy at the edge and seems to be home-made. The long mac is served in a cup, not a glass, so you don’t get to see how it looks, but it is a well made coffee, good depth of flavour.
I like the variety of seating. It allows you to find a good spot out of a variety of options, and acts to make the layout interesting. Plastic orange seats surround gas heating pylons outside, with a large wide fold-out awning providing cover. But the wind lashes about today and no-one’s game.
Music is pleasant, set at an unobtrusive volume. A woman sits at the large table reading the Herald Sun. She is delivered a custard-filled donut and cappuccino. To my right two people sit opposite each other with their coffees and talk quietly. A girl has just arrived and places notebooks on a table and fossicks around in her hession bag for a pen. A young guy with a small leather sling-bag has propped himself up at the counter and speaks familiarly with the staff.
It’s Thursday 11.21 AM, perhaps the best time to try a cafe and avoid the rush. The atmosphere here is noticeably calm and relaxed. The break-up of people around the area set the scene right. It is much more welcoming than if a large loud group were to dominate the space. There’s a sense people have individually left their workplaces, or have stopped in on the way to somewhere else, to grab a coffee and a quiet moment to read or write. The girl with the hession bag places her cup carefully back onto the saucer so as to make no sound. An act of precision that I too, practice at times.
Good spot, recommended.
(This cafe is run by the owner of a Carlton cafe, Tre Bicchieri)