Next Please
Victoria Rd, Castle Hill,
Sydney, Australia

The brakes in the car sound and feel strange so we take the car to a brake specialist in the industrial area of Castle Hill. While we wait for the brake guy to do his thing, Teena goes off to look at a craft shop and I find a little café called “Next Please”. Let’s establish the context here folks, “Next Please” is a café in an industrial park. It can best be described as a variation on the “Truck Stop” theme, no bad thing. The kind of place where “Large thanks” is the standard response to “How would you like your steak”.

The food is a variation on three central themes; the hamburger, bacon n eggs and the steak sandwich. Café latte and cappuccinos are on the menu if you’re game enough to ask for one. I follow the lead of the patron before me “coffee, white, strong, no sugar and a ‘Stanley’s breakfast’ thanks love”. I’ll have the same thanks……..love.

The coffee is, as I had ordered; white, strong, no sugar and thank god, it’s hot. The “Stanley’s breakfast” passes each parameter of my breakfast analysis, is it good, is it huge, do I have to ask for BBQ sauce. Yes and yes and no.

My wife arrives, to my horror, she orders a low-fat, decaffeinated cappuccino….sweet Jesus, this is going to be interesting. The waitress is momentarily shaken, her eyes dart around the room, she’s searching for words, our eyes meet, there is understanding, there is a connection, it’s almost primordial, I smile slightly, sympathy and understanding are conveyed.

“We don’t have much call for decaffeinated coffee love, or low fat milk, I could water down the milk for you”, I try not to laugh, caffeine and fat are sworn enemies of pregnant women. I flash to a scene from a movie called “Doing time for Patsy Cline”. Scene: An outback coffee shop, “coffee thanks love”, “sorry, we’re out of coffee, we had a run on it”.

If you’re looking for ambience, décor, low-fat decaffeinated cappuccinos, ricotta pancakes with honey comb butter and you’ve got lots of cash and time….go to “Bill’s 2” in Surry Hills. “Next Please” is a real Aussie café, everything about it shouts honesty, the coffee is good, the food, though plain, is good and you get lots of it.

The brake guy says “I can’t find anything wrong with your brakes”,….What do I owe you, says I, “Nothing mate, there’s nothing to fix”. Honesty, folks, is all that it’s cracked up to be.

BTW, If you’re looking for a good movie, check out “In my fathers den” a wonderful movie from New Zealand. It is a rare gem, the like of which I have not seen in many moons. Bye Bye

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 16th, 2005 at 1:07 am and is filed under ALL REVIEWS, AUSTRALIA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.