So it’s lovely when unexpected and unplanned things turn out well. Like today, with us just having a wander in the sunshine, planning to go to a new cafe down near Musgrave Park and instead finding a cafe on its opening day. How could a food blogger resist?
I realised that I’ve been driving past the cafe watching it being fitted out without realising how soon it would open. Although it’s not on urbanspoon yet, LIFT has a Facebook page up and running with photos of delicious looking baking. We went into the small but well-thought out interior and ogled at some good-looking bread and baked goods.
Whilst checking out the menu, we noticed straight away that the bread looked rustic and well-made and the lady making coffee tells me that a local organic baker makes their bread and only bakes for one or two other places in Brisbane. Although we’re making our own bread these days, we are not up to baguettes, so the organic baguettes for $4 will definitely tempt us soon.
How cute is this pie-ID system?
The counter had a hot and cold cabinet with cute house-made pies and sausage rolls in the hot cabinet and savoury muffins, cakes and brownies in the cold. Although I was starving, I ordered a medium-ish sized 4 cheese muffin- there were also pumpkin and feta and sun-dried tomato flavours- an iced coffee for me and a soy latte for Ben and headed outside.
There were about 4 tables inside plus a bench under the window facing the street and all tables already had at least one person sitting at them. If you build it, they will come. Outside, there was a larger table near the door and a couple of tables further out. Despite being a super-busy street and right near an intersection, it was really pleasant sitting in the sun and it didn’t feel like you were too close to the traffic.
The decor was some classic inner-Brisbane style: dark walls, upcycled chairs and old tables. Our table outside had a big plastic mat on it, which I thought was odd until I spilled my coffee on it. Sigh. I can’t take me anywhere.
My drink arrived first and I had to laugh because it was served in a stein, although the waiter assured me they were going to change to a slimmer glass. You make your coffee yourself and I was offered milk if I wanted, which I did. The flavour was nice and, obviously, the ice cream made it sweet so no sugar was needed. Everyone walking by was having a good look at my drink. I felt like Oktoberfest had come early and brought caffeine. I originally ordered a soy iced coffee and this clearly had dairy, but it didn’t worry me as I should have ordered an iced latte if I didn’t want ice cream (I forget to do that a lot). If you’re vegan, just make sure you specify.
How crazy is this stein glass?!
Ben’s soy latte and my muffin came out soon after. The muffin had been warmed so all the cheesy bits were gooey and lovely, just as it should be. There was also some onion and I think mild spices in the muffin which balanced the flavours perfectly. Considering that last weekend I was going to make cheese and onion muffins to freeze and grab on the way to work and only got to cutting up an onion before I got distracted and forgot, this was a much needed muffin and it filled me up more than I thought it would without being heavy.
Ben and I both liked our coffees. Ben, who had a much more pure coffee experience than me and my happily adulterated coffee, said his coffee was earthy and pleasant and he liked my muffin. As he is my (non-contagious- not that kind of sick) sicky who can’t go to uni or work at the moment, he was pleased to have another local place to have a decent coffee and a sit without walking into West End.
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised. If this is how delicious they are on their first day, imagine how yummy it’s going to be when they’ve settled in and have started breakfast? O_O
Enjoy.
Bris Vegas Vego 