Coffee, Tea & Me, Redfern

Upcoming exams mean less time for actual living. This is how I ended up at Coffee, Tea & Me, a Redfern favorite, for a quick lunch. Anybody who has walked past it will tell you that more often than not, there is a crowd around the door waiting for their coffees. The reason for this is they do a good coffee, and the shop is tiny. Everyone knows that you only step in to place your order, then you join the mass of people outside. There are a mismatched tables set up outside, each with equally mismatched chairs. There are old school tables, step ladders, and recycled wooden chairs. Almost all of which are splattered with paint.

Bacon, egg, and cheese bagel ($8.90)

Simple lunches are available here: bagels, salads, and some huge cookies in jars. I was told that the tuna, cheese and tomato bagel and the grilled chicken and avocado bagel were popular. If you want those though, you’ll have to eat before noon as they tend to run out quickly. I was tossing up between grilled haloumi and avocado or bacon, egg and cheese. In the end, I chose bacon and went outside to wait patiently for my toasted bagel. It came out squished flat and hot so I wasted no time in tearing into it and enjoying the melted cheese and crispy edged bacon.

There are many people who pop into Cofee, Tea & Me for a meal on the go. Who wouldn’t want a hot pressed bagel and coffee on the way to work on a chilly morning? If you’re lucky and happen to find yourself in the shop in the afternoon, you’ll be able to score a table outside and people-watch. Redfern used to be a bit of a scary spot, but now you’ll find university students, hipster-types, and young creatives meeting for coffee at spots like these; little coffee shops set up next to hardware stores. If it weren’t for the crowds, you just might miss it.

Coffee, Tea & Me
93B Redfern St
Redfern NSW 2016
Website