Café Buongiorno

There are six outlets of Café Buongiorno in Adelaide. Your reviewer attended the one in Hawthorn opposite the Mitcham Shopping Centre. The hot chocolate was $3.80. It came in a tall glass with a handle complete with pink and white marshmallows. The froth and chocolate sprinkle were good and the taste was rich and warming.

Café Foyerism

It is always fun to create a new term and claim to be an expert in it. Your reviewer, Merkel Marmaduke has done a bit of research by sitting in various Cafes drinking hot chocolate and has noticed a trend of large buildings having foyers with Cafés. See reviews Un Caffe Bar, The Bean Bar and Stax on Flinders.

Merkel Marmaduke claims the phrase "Café Foyerism" as his own after checking for any instances of this phrase on the net. Interestingly Foyerism and Foyuerism (A form of voyeurism conducted in foyers) get a mention.

The Merkel Marmaduke thesis is that Café Foyerism grew out of a number of other trends.

• The outsourcing of the work canteen,
• The need for less ground floor customer contact space for large organisations like banks because of ATMs and the internet, and
• The development of the arcade food hall where chairs and tables were shared by a number of food vendors.

There has always been a strong demand for cafes in ground floor locations. The foyer café seems a sensible use of sometimes quite grand looking foyers. The contractual squabbles must be interesting because the space is shared but Merkel thinks it works as a concept.

Stax on Flinders

Another one of these coffee shops in building foyers is Stax. It is in the Santos building foyer at 60 Flinders St. It looks more like a foyer than the previous review but is also more luxurious with lots of space and a variety of comfortable chairs.

I ordered the Medium Hot Chocolate. It came in generous ceramic mug. It had delicious froth and a semicircle of chocolate on top. No marshmallows or chocolates. The cost was $3.80. I could have paid $3.40 or $4.40 for different size cups. This was not a bad chocolate, but it was a little too milky and could have been richer.

Crema

I am advised by someone who knows, that the stuff on top of a hot chocolate is “Crema”. I have been calling it froth throughout this blog. I would probably seem more knowledgeable about such things if I start talking about “Crema” but I think I will stick with froth.

According to the following link, there is a lot of science that goes into the making of froth. It makes one appreciate the effort that goes into making a good hot chocolate.
http://www.wholelattelove.com/articles.cfm?articleID=25

Un Caffe Bar

Un Caffe Bar at 11 Waymouth Street, is located in the foyer of a large City building with four other Cafes. It seems to have been an interesting trend over the last few years to put small Cafés in the open space of building foyers. When going into a modern building instead of nodding to the security guard as you enter you have to dodge the waiting staff.

The Hot Choclate at Un Caffe was delicious. It was a rich dark chocolate flavour much like the Belgium chocolate from Chocolate World. It came in a dainty ceramic cup with a good white froth and a stripe of chocolate powder. There were no marshmallows or extra chocolates. At $4.00 for a small cup this is not for those watching their pennies but be assured this is a good tasting hot chocolate.

The Bean Bar

There are a number of Bean Bars around Adelaide. I tried the one on Gouger Street near the Central Market on a Saturday afternoon. I chose the regular sized "snow top" hot chocolate as it was explained to me this had white chocolate on top. I was offered a paper cup because it was near closing time. I would have preferred the normal glass but felt that it would be uncooperative to insist.

The froth of the chocolate did indeed taste of white chocolate and was quite nice. The cup for $3.80 was reasonably generous. Unfortunately the rest of the chocolate did not have much if any cocoa in it and tasted like simply milk and sugar. This was not to your reviewer's taste.

I returned to another Bean Bar in Flinders St, Adelaide later in the week. There was not much seating space but there are seats on the pavement and some in the adjoining credit union foyer.

I chose the mint flavoured hot chocolate. This hot chocolate was a better experience than the "snow top". It was a rich chocolate flavour with a mint flavour that was not overpowering. Lady Marmaduke dislikes the mint and chocolate combined but I think it works well. The presentation was not the best as I ordered take away and paper cups do not impress Merkel Marmaduke. The cost was $3.90.

The Chocolate Bean

The Chocolate Bean on Union St Adelaide is a specialist chocolate shop with an array of different hot chocolates. Their menu is online. There is also an array of wonderful looking desserts and fairly plain savoury dishes which will not steal the limelight from the chocolate. The shop allows dining on two floors. The ground floor is a little ramshackle but the first floor is neat and cosy.

The hot chocolates come in 3 sizes for $3.50, $4.50 and $5.50. I had a medium sized hot chocolate with orange and that was served in a generous mug. It came with a bubbly froth with a dollop of cream in the middle and chocolate sprinkling on top. It was milky and not particular rich but I was glad of this given the large mug. The orange flavour was a delight although it got a bit sweet toward the bottom of the mug.

There were no marshmallows or chocolates served with the drink. The Mug came with a square saucer which was a stylish addition.

This was a pleasurable visit and I will return to try some other flavours.