Catherine & Piper

Continuing on my adventure on Sydney’s light rail brought me to Lilyfield, and Google Maps led me to this little café hidden away from the sight of visitors. I’m not sure why the call it ‘Catherine & Piper’ because from what I could see the name of this café was the ‘View Café’. Maybe it is because it is on the corner of Catherine St and Piper street, but still, that wasn’t its name. Anyway, this was clearly a café for a rather trendy suburb of Sydney (as is expected for most inner city areas), and the artistic looking house across the road gave testament to that. It was a little expensive, however they served my tea to me in the most loveliest of pots.

Catherine and Piper is a cute and quiet café, aptly named after it’s location on the corner of Catherine and Piper streets.
Whilst the building’s high ceilings prevent it from feeling overly cosy it’s not a bad place to sit and have a coffee. Even more so if there’s work to be done, as C&P provides a free wireless internet hotspot and sturdy tabletops for laptop lovers. The bubbly speedy service from the waitress balances well with the calm controlled service of the owner, making them an unlikely but dynamic duo.
They have their own blend of coffee, which they sell in 250g bags («Purchase a bag of beans and enjoy a hot cup of coffee on the house!») plus a ‘Coffee of the moment’ for an extra 30cents a cup, which is a different single origin bean each week. Today it is the Brazil «Reserve» with vanilla, caramel and honey tones.
I’ve been here in the past and had less impressive coffees, but my coffee this morning was delicious. I think I came in on their new barista’s first day, as my coffee was accompanied by background sounds of the owner/​managers pep talk regarding the passion for the bean and the love of the coffee. The back of their shirts are printed with fluro pink love coffee’, and whilst I may not have believed it the last time I came here, this time round I was convinced. Don’t be fooled by the lack of latte art — instead of being flicked onto the top of this coffee, their heart is inside the cup.