The Thousands

There is something happening in pockets of our town right now and it all revolves around that delicious brown stuff that drags you through the day. No, not heroin dude, and not your chocolate woollen knit blankie that Nanna made you and you named it ‘Allen’ (it’s Alpaca wool, hmmm?) . It’s that other other that makes you a million-miles-per-hour productive or just a jittery dingus. Coffee. Sweet, sweet coffee. Popping up around the place is the ‘specialist coffee boutique’ and the newest kid in town is Paddy’s Lantern.

Deep down in the sleepy south-west corner of the CBD in an innocuous row of shops that you could easily just stroll by, Paddy’s has an airy warehouse vibe. Nice timber tables and chairs are juxtaposed with the raw besser block walls. It’s a little like a really clean mechanics workshop but with flowers and unsullied furniture. Now the most important bit, the coffee is solid, delicious and temperature bang-on. The other day when I was there I was handed some cold carbonated water that came from the espresso machine itself. The idea behind it being that it cleanses the palate and matches with the water content in the making of the brew, thus giving you the full flavour of the coffee. Genius. There’s the obligatory fixie on the wall too so you’re more than welcome to funk up the place in your bib shorts.