Queen Coffee
8/2-4 King St, Rockdale NSW 2216
I never planned to discover this bubbling community of flavourful humans but on an immaculately planned Saturday morning destiny intervened and prevented my car from starting for no apparent reason. Wanting to take my mind off things I have no understanding of I continued my unending mission to discover every exceptional coffee spot in Sydney I naturally entered the one with the walls full of beans of different roasts, grinds, origins and most importantly the roaster
I ordered and drank the best Turkish coffee I’ve had in my life despite my time amongst Greek and Cypriot relatives both here and in their country of origin. As I drank I thought all the pieces for another article were falling in my lap and I’d be able to dive yet again into my passion for what constitutes good coffee in a city where steamed milk is king.
I was right, Seka and Zeljko run a café with a tremendous selection of some of the finest coffee available in Sydney, despite this it would be a crime to commit another sentence to their coffee when the community they’ve created is the shining star of their café.
I couldn’t help but play 20 Questions with Seka when I saw all their coffee, from there the conversation got deep, we talked business, finding your passion, history, spirituality, religion and more than a mere article could do justice.
This was all during service but it wasn’t a problem because not a single customer that walked in was in a hurry to be somewhere else, what they wanted was to sit down and talk with the already present customers, the coffee was simply their ticket in.
Every now and then I stop and realise life’s passing me by, usually it takes something unplanned interrupting me to show me how small me and my plans are in the world, a flat tire, a view of the unending ocean, someone struggling to cross the street while I’m jogging with ease yet still half distracted by something insignificant that’s plaguing my mind.
It’s an opportunity to stop living on autopilot and put things into perspective for a short while before conscious living makes its way into the back of my mind yet again, until the next unexpected event shocks it out of hibernation anyway.
I felt that during my visit of this so called café, I came in wanting a good cup of coffee and met two people that shocked my life’s autopilot with an engaging conversation that put me back in the driver’s seat. I left with caffeine in my blood and a reengaged perspective on my life, so much so that I put the plan I had made for my day to the side and did something vastly more important, I visited my grandmother and spent some good quality conscious time with her.
It’s a little amusing looking back on the experience as I write this article, coffee has become this drug so often utilised to get us through a day we don’t want to live. I’m fortunate enough to have seen a glimpse of what coffee was in a past life, community.
Seka told me I was meant to discover her café and meet her on that day, I kept it in mind as I made my way back to my car wondering what could be wrong with it and if it would mean I’d have to get it towed. Naturally it was now working for no reason apparent and I couldn’t help but feel something imperceivable had a hand to play.
