Soul in Taihape

Tea at Soul

It is hard to choose a favourite cafe in Taihape because there are three excellent cafes in town but the cafe I particularly like is the Soul Cafe on the main street. They serve the best coffee between Auckland and Wellington and excellent food to boot.

The cafe has that je ne sais quoi ...that certain something that makes cafes work. There is an eclectic mix of chairs and tables, including old treddle sewing machine bases, and a wood burning stove, very popular at this time of year.

The guests are a mix of locals and travellers but the cafe itself feels very Taihape to me. I've been spending a lot of time there for coffee, for lunch.

I will miss their excellent coffee when I leave.

Oven with warming fire

Gumbooted guest with back to the fire

Petals on paper

As I painted this picture in a cafe (a cafe that makes the BEST coffee ever), the woman behind the bar learnt over and said "It looks as if the petals of the flowers have blown off and landed on your paper."

The Cafe was the Mazagran Espresso Bar in Dunedin, and the year 2008. Sorting through my boxes of pictures today I came across this painting with her comment written on the back. You can watch the woman who made the comment make a cup of coffee here.

New Zealand publications

Why is it that New Zealand has interesting and informative newspapers and magazines while Australia does not? The NZ Listener is a case in point - full of informative articles that are easy to read and leave you better educated. I even became engrossed in the Dominion Post last week - reading a background article on Chechnya that explained the Boston bombing and another one about ways that progressive farmers are adapting their farming practices to help against global warming. I had a look to see if it is online as I would subscribe to a paper that had decent news coverage ... but the articles I read in the paper are not online. Perhaps it is syndicated? If I can't read the interesting stuff why would I subscribe?

Dominion Post on a Cafe table made from old treadle sewing machine
(at Soul Food Cafe in Taihape)

Soul Food in Taihape

Taihape has several cafes and they all make excellent coffee. One of them is the Soul Food Cafe in the middle of the main street. Their coffee is strong and dark and delicious!

Soul Food Cafe in Taihape, NZ.
Note the stove pipe... a fire would be very welcome on a cold winter's day.

Historic Clifton Gardens

Not many parts of historic Sydney have managed to save themselves from the wreckers ball but one small gem that remains is the historic wharf at Clifton Gardens. There is a cupboard sized cafe there and live music on Sundays. The perfect spot to relax away from the madding crowd.

Clifton Gardens Beach Cafe

Beach Cafe

Clifton GArdens Beach

Real flowers

What is it about fresh flowers that is so captivating? Some artificial flowers are so realistic nowadays that you have to touch them to see if they are real but if they are artificial there is always a sense of disappointment rather than admiration for the copy. Perhaps living things are especially attuned to other living thing?

Sunflowers in Cafe

You could tell at first glance that these sunflowers in a Hamburg cafe were real.That was probably part of the attraction of the cafe. Real flowers, real coffee.

Flowers for Gino

Over the last week I have been painting small pictures to hang in Gino's Italian Cafe here in Rissen. Gino is a real gem, an Italian who migrated to Hamburg a long time ago but who still has a real Italian flair.  I have a gallery wall in his Cafe and this year I have painted a series of flower pictures to hang there.

Cafe design

There are coffee shops on every corner in Maribor and each of them is distinctive. This one behind my hotel has a steel tree inside and  ...

serves coffee in cups that are as interesting as the decor.

Pearl Beach Portrait

I have been feeling a bit dislocated and I decided that now I have discovered a cafe with good light I should go and paint there more often. So I went back to Pearl Beach Cafe yesterday and painted the pleasant and friendly woman sitting opposite.

At Pearl Beach on Monday.

Unfortunately the coffee at the cafe leaves something to be desired ... perhaps I can convince them to try a coffee with 100% Arabica beans?

Familiar haunts

Is a lifetime spent in cafes a wasted life do you think?

 

Cinque Cafe in King Street, Sydney - Newtown ..

 

and C Cafe just down the road.

I hear that another of my favorite cafes, Modaks in Dunedin is for sale. Will they continue making the best coffee on the planet I wonder, or will the world title be up for grabs?

Cafes in Berlin

It seems to me that cafes say a lot about a city. Here are some in Berlin:

Under the railway at Hackischer Markt.


On the river almost opposite Parliament House.

Restaurant in Oranienstrasse.

Gendarmenmarkt Cafe.

In the arty Auguststrasse.

and in the unrenovated part of East Berlin. At this cafe your sausage, potatoes and sauerkraut costs Euro 4.95. Just along the street in the touristy Nicholaikirche area the same sausage costs you Euro 16.95. It pays to get lost in the East sometimes.

Hidden surprises

I drew Suzanne reading the morning papers in a Cafe in Zürich on a Saturday morning. The Cafe (I have forgotten the name)was a pleasant place and not particularly flash. Not, that is, until you took the trip upstairs to the ladies loo...

Modaks portraits

Painting people while sipping a long coffee is a pastime I particularly enjoy. I have been painting at Modaks this past year and today I hung the portraits. They look great along their long wall and people are having fun identifying themselves and their friends.