Cabinessence

The ambience of this place is just how I like my café: homely, cluttered and friendly. And good strong coffee.

Drive up Enoggera Terrace and if this unsigned café is closed, chances are you’ll drive past without even knowing this former chemist houses a twee and retro-​chic café.
Cabinessence is cash only and their menu is pretty easy to memorise: coffee. toast (avocado or spanish tomato with fetta), and brownies. The coffee, served in mismatching cups, is strong. Much like the café it is too the point and doesn’t bother with small talk, but you’re more than welcome to watch the world go by for hours from the comfort of this dark and moody nook.
There’s no distinct coffee blend that I’m aware of but it hits the spot all the same. A flat white will set you back $ 3.50. Toast at last check was $ 5 a slice.
It’s the kind of café that draws you in with its kitsch, but struggles to get you back on a regular basis unless you’re a local. Or so I suspect. If you drive across town to sip your cup of Joe here I stand corrected. Without doubt, though, no matter how much time has passed between visits, Cabinessence is always a welcome break from the hype of many cafes that throw open their doors each week. The gals that run this tight ship are just rocking out what they do and doing it reasonably well. It’s a great spot to take out-​of-​towners to show off something unlike a Brisbane most people imagine.
Bonus points for our recent discovery that your dog can come inside the café with you, not relegation to outside areas only when you’re canine companion is in tow.

I’m sorry, but myself and a friend had to wait over half an hour for our toast, and the place was virtually empty. Yep, it was pretty good, but not that good. I’m not sure if it is ‘cool’ to keep customers waiting, but I found the staff involved in all manner of tasks aside from priotising customers.
It is cute I suppose, and I hear people love it as a local hangout, but if you happen to pass and want a coffee and a snack, you may as well continue on a short distance where a plethora of cafes are found just around the corner.
I’m not sure where and when a café became a fashion item, but if you want to see this phenomena in its most pure form, Cabinessence is the place. It’s almost as if the patrons are groupies allowing the owners to bask in some sort of self-​important arrogance.
I like that they use odds and ends of crockery, and I did enjoy their coffee and their hot chocolate, but the huge dose of «cool» is too much, even verging on an overdose. It’s just a café, and to those who run the place, those are still bland, urbane dishes you have to wash! You’re not about to win a Pulitzer, nor invent a cure for malaria! Unless I’ve missed something …

This café is nice and all but there are some things I just do not get about it. The place is cute but so are many cafes. The only food on the menu here is toast and although it is pretty good toast, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it is just toast.
I came here once after a friend told me «you will loooooove this place»! I thought, «okay then», so next time a few of my friends met up there, I decided I would tag along. It was lunch time and I was under the impression there would be more on offer than toast so I was pretty hungry. I ordered my avocado toast and after close to 45 minutes of ordering, I realised they had forgotten about my order. I guess it was an honest mistake but as my friend who ‘loooooves’ this place said «they always forget orders». This makes me really curious how someone could love a place that always forgot orders. I guess this place is pretty relaxed and orders being forgotten is just not a big deal?
I guess the reason why this place is so popular is because it bit like a hidden treasure– you need to know about it to go there otherwise you would walk past it thinking it was someones house. I do not hate the place, I guess I just do not get the hype.

Cabinessence, or simply ‘The Cabin’ as one of the staff told me she called it, is an inconspicuous and cosy little establishment slightly off Paddington’s beaten track. It is housed in an old chemist shop, and they have retained the neon lettering, although they don’t illuminate them.
They’re still peddling a legal drug though in the form of sweet caffeine. On my last visit I tested the mettle of their espresso by ordering a long macchiato. I made sure to sound out the whole word in my best Italian, not abbreviating to ‘long macc’ (which some of you may know, can easily be confused with ‘long black’), but was given the latter anyway! Never mind, the waitress noticed her own mistake and offered me a free flat white for the inconvenience. I happily accepted.
Both coffees were top-​notch, and I spied some tasty looking food being served, most notably a bruschetta of tomatoes with what looked like marscapone or crème fraîche on top. I must try it some time.

Cabinessence is without a doubt one of my all-​time favourite places to grab a coffee and soak up this beautiful city in which we live.
If you’re heading down Enoggera Terrace into Paddington, you’d be forgiven for driving straight past this unassuming café, as there is no signage and little more to indicate they are open than the small groups of regulars sitting outside the glass doors. Inside, the vintage décor and old couches could lead you to believe you’d stumbled across your nan’s house in the seventies — browns, greens and lots and lots of retro prints and wallpaper. Cabinessence has such a charm about it and you instantly feel at home — which could explain why my friends and I often spend hours upon end at this little joint watching the world go by and taking opinion polls from the staff (as if you’ve never asked yourself which five celebrities you would sleep with!). I will often crank out a public reading of ‘Oh The Places You’ll Go’ too, much to the amusement of the customers who don’t know me, and don’t care to…
The main reason I go back time and time again is their Spanish tomato toast with fetta. It’s just so good. Basic and easy, but so so good. They also do a fab avocado toast too and of course have all the condiments and spreads you can imagine. It’s simple — really really good coffee and really really good toast. A home away from home, really.