2017 Brisbane Times Good Food Guide Cafe of the Year finalists announced

What makes a great cafe? Excellent coffee? That's a given. Top-notch food is important too. Offerings that go well beyond bircher muesli and bacon and eggs (although a cafe without eggs is like a bar without booze). Friendly service is vital, as are comfortable surrounds where you can empty the inbox, have a chinwag or just sit and watch the world go by. A great cafe is a place to work, live and play.

The Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide senior reviewing panel has shortlisted five venues to be named Cafe of the Year, a new award for the Guide. These cafes rise above the rest of the piccolo and panini pack to not only excel at all the things we love about cafes, but lead the market with innovation and integrity.

The winner will be announced at the Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide awards on July 18. Good luck to all the nominees!

John Mills Himself

40 Charlotte Street, Brisbane, 0434 064 349, johnmillshimself.com.au

One of the first fully fledged laneway cafes, in a historic CBD building, John Mills Himself keeps locally roasted beans on rotation in the grinders, stocks beautiful pastries from Newmarket's Crust & Co, and flips into a bar from 4pm Tuesday to Saturday. We love that all beer and wine is sourced from within a 250-kilometre radius, too. Many venues bang on about "sourcing locally where possible", but it's not often this mantra carries over to the drinks list. A firm CBD favourite.

Pearl Cafe

28 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, 07 3392 3300

Less confident cafes are locked in a battle to create the most over-the-top, carb-loaded dishes possible. The kind of Nutella-stuffed Frankenfoods that make bloggers #haemorrhage #hashtags. Pearl Cafe ignores this noise and keeps on keeping on with stupendous cakes, cockle-warming porridge, en pointe coffee and beautiful interiors. It blurs the line between cafe and restaurant, opening for dinner five nights a week and serving hyper-seasonal dishes such as roast Tinder Creek duck with Falls Farm rosella, tarragon and hazelnut. (We're also big fans of the fluid wine list showcasing young and fleshy drops of Lucy Margaux, Jauma and Smokestack Lightning.)

Reverends

372 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley

For those who worship at coffee's altar, your prayers are answered in this delectable pocket of the valley where toasted sangas put a smile on your face and well-extracted beans inject the kick in your pace. Lunch might be a brioche bun made high with shredded brisket, blue cheese slaw and house-made beetroot and plum chutney. When natural light dapples the tawny-toned back room, Arcade Fire plays and you have a Colombian natural filter coffee beaming in front of you, moments of zen don't get much better. The brick-walled joint is also open in the evening for minimal intervention wine and Mikkeller beer good times. Praise be.

Sourced Grocer

11 Florence Street, Teneriffe 07 3852 6734, sourcedgrocer.com.au

This grocer – the likes of which you will never see elsewhere – is a modern-day convenience store with wow factor where locals rock up after yoga or on the way to work to find such offerings as a house-made leek ash spaghetti with black garlic, egg yolk and bottarga. The cafe and retail space is lined with shelves of good-looking packages and jars to take home for dinner, along with a fine number of fresh and local finds. A Saturday morning spot in the sunshine is key, preferably on a cushioned crate outside where you can wave hello to Tenerife's pug dogs en route to their daily river stroll.

Wild Canary

2371 Moggill Road, Brookfield, 07 3378 2805, wildcanary.com.au

If the plant world gets you giddy, come here to start the day or linger over lunch. Nestled into the grounds of Brookfield Garden Centre with views over a vast kitchen garden, this little bird puts out botanically inspired plates that couldn't be more seasonal and fresh. Herbs, leafy greens and edible flowers are harvested just a few steps from the kitchen and other produce is supplied by local farmers, the menu reading like a who's who of Queensland producers. The cakes cabinet, with its towering petal-strewn beauties produced daily, is an Insta-phenom.

The Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide is available for $9.99 from participating newsagents and bookstores from July 19. Purchase includes free download of the new Good Food app, launching late 2016. Read all the latest reviews, get the scoop on scores and hats and book your favourite restaurants.