A real gem in Kensington – Elevenses cafe

I’m always looking forward to weekends. Cooking, eating and once in awhile, discovery of a great new cafe or restaurant. This Saturday started off with a trip to Elevenses (169 Rankins Rd, Kensington). It was highly recommended by @mrblack after he read my post about Fruits of Passion.

Elevenses is located on the side of the Kensington train station that is leading towards the city. It is opened by this sweet couple called Shanny & Tom (Obscura). They have been operating on this current location for the last 5 months and before that, they were located on the other side of the train tracks, operating out from a coffee cart with just a canopy to shelter them from rain & shine!

We were greeted with the soft but quirky voice of Camille (a French female singer) singing in the background. The interior was painted in a mustard yellow colour. And it seems that many of the ‘decorative’ items and furnishings in this place is second hand. Very rustic & homey. This place has this sense of oddity that is very appealing to me. This place has also established a nice flow of regulars and they all seem to know each other on name level.

We ordered 2 lattes. While waiting, we looked at the breakfast menu. The weekend food menu is very simple and spilts into 3 components – First breakfast, Second breakfast & Weekend lunch. (View food, coffee & tea menu) Mister and I decided to share a second breakfast and ordered the Smoked Salmon & Cottage Cheese ($10).

Coffee here takes a little longer to brew. This places uses a reconditioned 1964 Expresso machine. Shanny was glad to share the story with us. They bought this machine from eBay and reconditioned it for use. 30ml of water is pumped into the machine each time and then flushed to extract the precious liquid out. Everything is quite manual and consistency is through loads of practise! I drink coffee  but I am not a coffee fanatic nor can I differentiate beans and region. However, I know when I enjoy a good latte. Temperature was right and there was a rather distinctive deep taste at the back of my palate. One thing to note is that the free trade organic coffee beans are from Laos. And I did notice a coffee tasting menu that starts from $12 and consists of tasting of 4 different blends of expresso. I am interested in learning a little more and give this a go.

Soy latte

As the coffee takes a longer to brew here, there is a SMS that you can pre-order your coffee. Or just come in here, take a sit on the stools outside and watch the trains go by. Or you could browse through the collection of books on the shelf that reads “Free book swap”. That is such a cute idea.

SMS for coffee order

Book shelf

Our lovely breakfast arrived. The plate was filled with lightly toasted homemade wholemeal bread with caraway seeds, 2 generous rolls of smoked salmon, peppered cottage cheese with a salad of sliced gherkins, cherry tomatoes, fresh spinach that has a light dressing of fresh dill & a wedge of lemon. It is a light, delicious and honest plate of food made with fresh ingredients.

Smoked salmon with cottage cheese

The highlight of the morning was the chance to have a chat with Shanny. She has such a bright smile and personality. We felt so at home and comfortable. And if you like singing for a free latte, follow them on twitter @OBSCURACOFFEE. I believe I saw a tweet about singing a Jimmy Barnes song on either Sunday or Monday?

Last but not least, I will like everyone to meet an old boy, Gordon (after Flash Gordon). He may be of age but he still does a great job coffee after coffee, day after day.

1964 Bo-ema espresso machine called Gordon

It was such a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning. I like it because it is unpretentious and I believe a lot of hardwork, laughter and passion went into this place and Obscura. I will come back again for breakfast and coffee before I head off to my weekly grocery shopping. Thanks for the chat Shanny and maybe next time, we can speak Singlish

Is there a coffee place or cafe that you have discovered lately and will like to share?

Double Yum Up!

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