The Thousands

While I certainly get a little jelly of the people who get to live in dreamy mansions in Peppermint Grove and play tennis on their personal tennis courts, I am usually happy to rock the whole ‘money can’t buy you happiness’ thing and refrain from letting that jealousy be all-consuming. But upon visiting the Grove Library last week, I was fully fanging to be a richie, if only for the pleasure of having such an amazing resource as the Grove in my hood.

The building itself is architecturally stunning, with plenty of environmentally sustainable design features (they even have tree planting days and sustainability classes, how righteous!) There’s a Wii (30 minute nunchuck loans from the front desk), a Sonic Chair, free wireless, and one god-damn fine mag’n’paper section. The underground carpark has really clean shiny floors and (best bit) the door to the library opens for you! It’s not even a sliding door, it’s just a normal door! With some kind of invisible person opening it for you!

Completing the experience is Monogram Caffe, a space-efficient coffee stand helmed by young Perth barista Thomas Greene (you might remember him from Coode St Café, or Boucla). The stand itself is a modern take on art-deco, finished in natural pine, and is a bit of an ergonomic wonder – housing a whole coffee machine, an array of delicious sweet treats (I had the pumpkin fruit cake and mini lemon tart) and its own mini fridge. The charming bookish branding comes courtesy of local design house Tonne Gramme.

The beauty of a public library is that it’s for everyone, so no-one can stop non-Western Suburbs residents from visiting the Grove, and Monogram Caffe. Safe to say driving for half an hour in your beat up Sedan home to your shabby rental digs in North Perth can certainly dampen one’s sense of entitlement. But it doesn’t dampen it so much that I won’t be scheduling in Monogram coffee-drinking sessions at the Grove on a weekly basis.