Cafe Modena

Found a little treasure in the city a couple of days ago. Café Modena is on the corner of Creek and Adelaide St in Brisbane's CBD and it serves by far the best coffee I've ever had.

Now I'm not a huge coffee connoisseur like my mate Grendel over in WA, but I am slowly getting a taste for good fresh coffee, as opposed to the run of the mill stuff most cafés in Brisbane serve.

Modena however would probably rate pretty high even with Grendel! Alen, the owner and barista, is passionate about coffee and he’s a perfectionist! Every cup he makes (about 200 an hour he tells me) is perfect in temperature, milk, strength and personality. Alen is a real open and friendly bloke, and when I ordered a ristretto (only my second ever, and the first pulled by a fair dikum barista) he was very talkative about his coffee blends and grinds - obviously a ristretto is recognised as having some real coffee enthusiast links.

Alen gets a custom blend for his cafe, roasted fresh at Bowen Hills (a company called DiBella, which I haven’t heard of before), and he takes so much time with every coffee to make it exactly right.

The results are amazing, my ristretto was fantastic! I now understand Grendel’s comments on crema and full flavour, this shot certainly was an experience. It had a full flavour, slightly chocolaty, with a really sweet and long lasting aftertaste. Actually I was anticipating it so much I forgot to take a photo before finishing it, but I found the cup enough of a novelty to take a photo of it empty, pretty funky!

After I finished I spent some time chatting with Alen before trying a long black (I’m not really a fan of milky coffees) and again he took so much time to warm the cup, press the coffee properly and pull the shot straight into the hot water, again the crema on top was just right for a long black and the temperature was perfect! (and I remembered to get the photo!)

Really really impressed, and it’s just a shame it’s no where near an RACQ branch so I won’t be able to get there too often! While I was enjoying my long black I also was able to admire some of the scenery which graces Brisbane’s financial district (Yes that is a Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo!!!)


Read some of the reviews and check out some more photos and coffee ideas at www.cafemodena.com.au