Day 13: Short Black Espresso, 87 Hindley St (now closed)

Poor ol' Hindley Street - the baby boomers give it a bad rap. By day, Hindles is just a sleepy hive of commuters, creative types and tourists. Short Black Espresso, Hindley's contempo cafe-in-a-shoebox, seems to straddle these disparate markets. Its street setting is usually swinging, but can it dance the takeaway tango? Voila l'Order: Small skinny cappuccino, and long black, take-away. The Price: an up-there $3.30 per cup.


The textbook eclectic interior. The fruit-tingles-fresh outdoor furniture. SBE can claim aesthetics cool. Unfortunately, at the 8.30am of our visit, SBE cannot claim temperature cool. Attracted to the funky/gritty outdoor vibes, MMC and friend are forced inward by a gang of worker bees swarming for breakfast. Normally, mismatched furniture and unhung paintings would appeal. On this warm Wednesday, the smell of un-airconditioned eggs scrambles our senses. Takeaway is a dead cert.

The Greeting: hmph. Dead in front of the not-quite counter, MMC has snapped half a dozen iPhotos and solved the target word (almost) before someone gruff proffers 'We'll be with you in minute'. This is the kind of response that acceptably precedes a long wait. If your customer's already been sweaty waiting for 5-10, this response is irritating. Let's just say that sans MMC mission, no aircon + no service = sayonara. The Service: when it returns from serving eggs, it is unapologetic. One of two brother-types takes our order - NB cash only, and onto a silver tray, not my hand, please - and commences coffee.

It's warm, we're waiting, but there's plenty to ogle. The Shopfront: newbie cultural barometer Radelaide dot net describe it as a 'wispy little lick of a room', and it truly is - old maps and shiny San Marino machine cram cool into a small space. SBE employs the shopfit equivalent of its strangest coffee offering, the 'espresso ristresso'. Much, much more often spelled 'ristretto' or 'ristretta', this $3.00 treat is fabled to be a 15mL concentrated short-black - capitalising on the first, sweetest part of a drawn shot. Not for us today, but a chalk-cursive menu is so extensive that googling its offerings will get you Italian. If you can decode Granite Espresso, Espresso Ghiacciato and Cioccolata con Pana, SBE should be your destinazione.

The Lesson: the hard-working high-spirits at html hangout Radelaide.net want to prove Adelaide is not Adelame. MMC wants desperately to prove that Adelaide has coffee culture. Short Black Espresso seems to be on both boards. If they can get it together, it'll be the place for a get-together.

The latte word: 3.5 beans out of 5 - half a bean off for service slovenliness. Long black is strong enough even for friend of MMC. Cappuccino has perfect temperature, good body, aroma. + The Pour: is it the mystical prechoc-uccino, where adding choc dust early creates a speccy within-foam effect? Either way, it's well-formed, tasty goodness. Keep up, kids - next, MMC follows the Christmas flow - it's to market, to market for My Morning Coffee.

Link: Upsize your Adelaide at www.radelaide.net