A big catchup

It has been a busy year so far, but fun in many ways.

One of the highlights of March was being a part of a panel for the Eat.Drink.Fad? Panel Discussion Series hosted by Sophie Sunderland of European Foods and included Hospitality Consultant Wendy Roach, Cafe Citrine owner-operator Tracee Butts, Braziliano coffee coordinator Yvonne Nielsen and Oxford 130/Greens & Co founder Stuart Lofthouse.

Given the make up of the panel it was encouraging to see that there is a common core of desire to ensure that Perth's cafes remain a strong sector, and more importantly provide a space for people to meet and enjoy the social aspects of coffee.

At some point of the discussion I'm pretty sure I staggered into a dull repetition of my "cafe as the Third Place" theme, but my mind was trying to run in too many directions so I hope the audience coped.

John from European Foods took me on a walk through of their new roastery which shifts the balance heavily in moving the coffee out once it is roasted. I snagged a fresh bag of the Silvana Gran Caffe in the gift pack's the panelists received and it was spectacular and really brought home how easy it is to forget that while European Foods might be big, they do know their business. The changes to the roastery have certainly been worth it from a coffee drinker's perspective.

My sister mailed me a bag of coffee from Turkey for my birthday. A light traditional turkish roast, the beans ground to a dry powder, and although stale the taste was highly evocative - the first coffee I ever drank was of that roast and style (and staleness) in Armenia. I enjoyed it regardless for the memories it brought.

June is GiveAway month on Cafe Grendel - I have 4 Tickets to the Perth Food and Wine show to give away, and a special prize that I will announce when I have the prize (cart-horse etc, or is that chickens-hatch... I won't tempt fate either way)

Details of the competition will be announced shortly! It will be simple, I promise.