One Penny Black

Ja and guest Jxx on One Penny Black...

 One Penny Black 196 Hunter Street, Newcastle... the coffee shop in the mall that is always busy even during the week!

On COFFEE
One Penny Black's coffee is up there on our coffee snobbery radar! Today Ja got her usual cappuccino and guest blogger Jxx (J with two kisses ;) ) got a long black. Jxx is a frequent coffee drinker at One Penny helping her get through the work day in town! It is many people's go to for an amazing coffee in the reviving mall! We give One Penny Black a solid 8/10 for their coffee!

On FOOD
Whilst Only Penny Black has amazing breakfasts but we're being a bit different this week focusing more on the brunch food. This morning I couldn't help myself but to get a raspberry Danish for my second breakfast with my coffee this morning! Being a frequent of One Penny Black myself I have also tried there amazing chocolate croissants, delicious snack sized muffins and amazing bagels! It is hard not to order a little something on the side with your coffee here! Be warned Novocastrians!

On ATMOSPHERE and DECOR
True to form we have another hipster styled atmosphere and decor we all know and love, with it's own twist of course! For those who remember the previous location for One Penny, we are all glad they moved to a bigger location with lots of tables inside and outside to sit, drink your coffee, read your paper and induldge on delicious food!

The BRUNCH BREAKDOWN
One Penny Black even when they're busy provides prompt quality coffee, food and service every time! We love coming here for either our morning coffee before work or as a weekend brunch spot!! Overall we rate One Penny Black a 9/10 coffee and breakfast/brunch spot!!! In future we'll definitely be back to review their breakfast!!

Brunch on Newcastle,
JaTo & guest Jxx xoxo.

Newcastle's Rising Hipster Scene

JaTo on Newcastle's rising hipster scene,

It seems every other week you hear of new coffee places, boutique bars and those who do both opening. It appears that Novocastrians are getting more and more into quality coffee and going out to classy hipster bars. Newcastle is becoming a funky hipster town to go out in. Is it too soon or ambitious to say we are becoming a small scale Melbourne? (We're hoping!)

Some new and new/ish noteworthy coffee and breakfast/ brunch places we've heard about and keen to go and review: - The Tuffy Hidey Hole - Birdys - The Locale - B- Side Espresso - Cafe Inu - Dark Horse Espresso - The Press Some new and new/ish noteworthy places that do both coffee and breakfast/ brunch places and hipster boutique bars we're keen to go and review: - The Edwards - Cazador - Name the Lane (Already reviewed ;) !)

Some coffee and breakfast/ brunch places we already love: - Ground Floor - Glee - One Penny Black - Sprocket - Eurobar - Good Brother Espresso (Our first review!) Looking forward to reviewing these places and more for you Novocastrains!

Brunch on Newcastle, JaTo xoxo.

Name the Lane

JaTo on Name the Lane...

Name the Lane: 14 Pacific St, Newcastle next to the Backpackers!

On ATMOSPHERE and DECOR
Name the Lane's decor was very notable! It had that hipster vibe we love to see around town! The strip of astro turf when you walked added to the charm and the tables and chairs were a good mixture of high tables, your standard 2-4 person tables and what we like to call 'forced sharing tables'! 
One discrepancy we would give on atmosphere and decor would be that they closed the lane. We were really disappointed not only is the cafe named 'Name the Lane' the lane has so much potential to both add to the atmosphere and potentially more customers! Not wanting to compare this cafe to the previous there but for those who remember Caffestry they utilised the lane. They had a big tent over the tables and the lounge thing they had going on for when it was raining, plus your standard tables and chairs plus the little extra decor for their hipster vibe. We're hoping Name the Lane will open up the lane for breakfast and brunch!!

On FOOD
The food was delicious!! Sizable breakfasts oozing with yummyness! Unfortunately we do have to note how long it took to get our breakfast. It took a solid 25min for us to get French Toast and Eggs Florentine. This would've been forgivable had it been busy but it there was only 2 other tables when we walked in. This may have been due to only one chef in the kitchen. Wanting to give the benefit of the doubt we speculated perhaps one of the chefs called in sick!
Our Breakfast:
French Toast with Bacon and Maple Syrup

Being a lover of the occasional French Toast, it was amazing!!! Nice big sizes of French toast with generous serve of bacon and maple syrup. If I had one complaint it was confusion with the menu! I was looking forward to strawberries and almond flakes as well on my plate and was a little disappointed when my breakfast didn't come with it. Re-reading the menu I understood where I went wrong!

- Ja

Eggs Florentine: Spinach, Poached Egg with Hollondaise Sauce
Being one who enjoys a good hollondaise sauce I really enjoyed the Eggs Florentine! The spinach tasted fresh with the poached egg and hollondaise sauce all went well into one delish breakfast! One minor setback was the excessive butter on the bread. So future reference if you get the Eggs Florentine or the Eggs Benedict make sure to tell them to skip the butter! -To

On COFFEE

With all the amazing coffee that is being produced in Newcastle it is easy to become snobbish to an average coffee. We have to say Name the Lane's coffee was average, it was smooth but a little weak. The lovely coffee art was a nice touch however perhaps a change of coffee bean or slightly longer shot would put their coffee up there!

The BRUNCH BREAKDOWN
All in all we enjoyed our brunch at Name the Lane. The decor and friendly staff made us a little forgiving for the setbacks of our breakfast experience. As Name the Lane is a fairly new breakfast and brunch cafe in town we hope that these setbacks are just growing pains that when tweaked will make an amazing breakfast haunt at the top of town.
Brunch on Newcastle, 
JaTo xoxo

Good Brothers Espresso

Our first post!!!!

JaTo on Good Brothers Espresso...

Walking into Good Brothers it has that hipster vibe that has taken over Newcastle's inner city! Personally we love this vibe. It has a very relaxed earthy feel.

On FOOD
This isn't your typical fry-up big breakfast place... they however had a good variety of breakfast options ranging from bagels to a breakfast plate and a decent sized specials board which they constantly change.

We ordered the Breakfast Plate and the Bruschetta...

The Breakfast Plate had a warm egg, ricotta, tomato relish, avocado, sourdough bread and I added the prosciutto... so all things delish. - Ja

The Bruschetta had an interesting twist with hommus and tomato on sourdough. Simple but delicious. - To


Not expecting large dishes as the kitchen seemed quite small we were very happy when we saw our food come! Very generous and very filling! All the food looked and tasted fresh, well presented with amazing generous servings of sourdough (a weakness of ours).

On COFFEE
We are quite the coffee snobs and their coffee was up there! We give them an 9/10 for our cappuccino and soy latte! We love a good strong coffee to wake us up of a morning and these Good Brothers certainly delivered!

The BRUNCH BREAKDOWN
Overall we would definitely recommend Good Brothers Espresso to our friends and the masses (fellow Novacastrians). There was little to fault for this cool hipster quirky little cafe!

Brunch on Newcastle,
JaTo xoxo

To's soy latte

To's Bruschetta

Ja's Breakfast Plate