Cafe Dreaming

For years now, I have gone on ‘cafe pilgrimages’ to various places and spaces around Europe and Australia. I am so nourished by cafes. The food, the design, the buzz, the breathing space to reflect, ponder and write.

And I have clocked up thousands of hours working in hospitality. It has energised me for the most part. For me, hospitality hits on so many of the most basic and enlivening of things: restoring people through nourishing food and tangible real-life human connection.

When I did my masters in Business and Entrepreneurship back in 2010 (wow 14 years ago now) I wrote a business plan for a cafe. I called the cafe Fadó (meaning ‘long ago’ in Irish). It has been a long-held dream of mine to open a cafe. But if I did open one would it be as magical and inspiring as I imagine it to be? Some of the things that I would be afraid of would be the commitment of it all…hiring other people, opening hours etc. etc. So I don’t know if I’d like to have a typical cafe at all. I don’t think I’d like the idea of being open 5-6 days a week. For it to be truly sustainable I feel it would have to reflect my needs: for flexibility, change, down time, space to incubate new ideas and freedom. More art cafe than cafe business.

*Hello, Kristof, Lisbon (L) and Slowpoke Espresso, Melbourne (R)*

In the meantime, I will do some cafe dreaming here, bringing together some images of the cafes I am inspired by: those I have visited and those that are on my future pilgrimage list.

Soil of Being