Day 26: Double Shot Espresso Bar, 16-20 Wyatt St

After riding the coffee train to 25 different cafes, MMC starts to crave consistency. We've been to good cafes and bad cafes, but our cafe eludes us. Hearing that Double Shot Espresso on Wyatt make coffee 'as you like it', the whiff of a personalised experience has us noses to ground. Screeching in after Tour Down Under traffic, MMC finds second and third opinions waiting. The Order: one small and two regular skim lattes, takeaway. The Price: small at a reasonable $3.00, and regulars at $3.80.



Double Shot's reputation for regulars (customers, not size) is immediately corroborated by friend/s of MMC. Apparently the entire contemporaneous clientèle had names and orders recited by Ms Barista. We award props for prediction. Excepting the time MMC was confused with a large chai drinker, it saves time to be remembered. Some regular-regulars have been allowed to write in texta on the white walls - for example 'best weak cappuccino ever' and 'great coffee, great listner [sic]'. Best weak...? What fresh hell is this? We're reassured that the coffee strengths will be tailored to our needs.

As the penny drops on Double Shot, we've an exuberant greeting from the solo staff member. The Service: instantly old-friends friendly. The Shopspace: what shopspace? It's a caffeinated shoebox South of the Wyatt St parking station, squished in next to a Karl Chehade. Without any name signage, word-of-mouth labelling is gospel. We've an empty floor box and a messy coffee station in front of a corrugated iron wall and a vintage coffee pin-up. Clean and tidy are a low fridge of takeaway salads, and a tray of homemade muffins. It's almost inner city New Yorkian, sans bagels.

Soaking up the NYC vibe, we feel lucky to be ordering espresso instead of drip-through American-style. We're super dooper lucky to be requesting strong, weak or normal, and are even pressed to specify milk tempered drinkable or hot. MMC orders drinkable and strongish, and gets tongue-burn and over-run bitterness. Friend of MMC wants (to be) hot and strong, and gets tongue-burn and OK strength. Yeouch all round - a third toasted tongue testifies that hot hot heat is Ms B's definition of 'drinkable'.  The temperature issue is alone forgiveable; it's the contrast between request and result that truly burns.

Tongue pains make for grumpy, snooping bloggers. Query: if de coffee is so-so, why and for how long has this establishment been so established? Miracle satellite imagery reveals a front-window logo, and an entirely different interior architecture. But how often does Google Earth change its images? A: They're continuously updated area-by-area at least every 3-5 years. They're usually less than 3 years old, and it seems there's been movement at the station.

The lesson: at some recent time, whoever owned Double Shot shot through, leaving its customers to the bubbly barista inside. She sure is bubbly. We hear all about $5 salad lunches (cheap), and with encouragement, a homely muffin waddles its way into MMC's possession. The Pour: unfortunately for all, the milk is also bubbly. MMC's "latte" was topped only with a thin, bitter, dirty patina. Entirely lacking milk froth, the biting, acidic misconception of 'strength' is all the more obvious. Wonderful service, woeful coffee.

The latte word: a coulda shoulda woulda-bean 2.5 out of 5. Friends of MMC are less scathing, but maybe also less scalded. Better luck next time? Tomorrow, we fly west for My Morning Coffee.