Contemporary
The baristas at Klink bustle beside an enormous window, a rustic version of the Play School arch. The bottom half is wide open to the street, creating a market stall for a busy trade in takeaways that fly over the windowsill with an efficiency that hints at the gravitas awarded to coffee here.
The window is a rather wonderful feature of what might otherwise be an awkward modern transformation of the first-class officer's room in the old Clarence Street police station. The building is now the Gaffa gallery, an artist-run forum for artists and designers, and though there is only room for three small tables around the coffee bar, more spill out into the corridor and inhabit the former police holding cells.
The coffee, Golden Cobra, made by a Botany roaster from beans sourced around the world, is a literal eye-opener on this sleepy morning; firm-flavoured and strong. We order a cappuccino and a flat white ($3.40 each), with Sonoma sourdough smeared with ricotta and strawberry jam ($5) and walnut and raisin toast ($4.50). The breakfast choice is small and lunch is restricted to two types of sandwich but this joint is not about the food. It's about the drink.
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