Less beer and more beans. Have we swapped pubs for cafes?

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Opinion

September 16, 2025 — 5.00am

We have cricket season. Football season. Rugby league season. AFL season. Now, with the end of the wettest August in 27 years and the return of the sun’s rays, we have perhaps the start of another season: cafe season.

One of Mosman’s famous cafes where sunshine, busy tables and happy chatter herald the arrival of cafe season.

Unofficially starting in spring and continuing until mid-autumn, it’s the time when all the stars align and everything comes together to make our cafes sublime: the sunshine, the seasonal ingredients, the coffee made from beans from all over the world, the vibe, the views.

Evidence of the opening of the new cafe season was everywhere in my suburb of Mosman on the weekend. Just about every cafe was packed to the rafters, with patrons eager to enjoy the emerging sunshine, cappuccinos in one hand and the weekend paper in the other, well-groomed poodles at their feet. Those breathtaking Balmoral Beach venues, so beloved by visiting dignitaries such as Barack Obama, were seemingly booked out. Call it a First World problem, but there was not a seat to be found anywhere before 11am (and no, fast-food drive-through coffee is no substitute for any serious “Java” obsessive).

I was eventually seated somewhere between the Blokes That Brunch and the Ladies Who Lunch, grateful to get a seat on such a glorious morning – in a suburb that to my mind rivals Surry Hills and Newtown for the title of Cafe Capital of Sydney.

Australia is something of a superpower when it comes to cafe culture. Pioneers like Australia’s “King of Breakfast”, the late Bill Granger, have brought laid-back Australian cafe culture to the world. This year Toby Estate’s flagship cafe and roastery in Chippendale was voted first place in The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, with nine Australian venues making the top 100 in total (sadly, none from Mosman).

The late Bill Granger revolutionised cafe food and changed the way Australia looked at breakfast.

Once upon a time Australia was a hard-drinking nation that felt like a Tooheys – now we feel more like smashed avocado toast of the type championed by Granger. Now the pubs that seemed to be on every corner have been replaced by chilled-out cafés.

Our alcohol consumption has been in a steep decline since the peak of the 1970s. Meanwhile, Australians consume some 2kg of coffee a year. As someone who would rather make a pilgrimage to Lune Croissanterie for their world-class croissants (praised by Nigella Lawson, no less) than watch the State of Origin at the pub, I can’t say I’m unhappy with our changing tastes.

You could call this article “a love letter to Sydney’s cafes”. And there is a lot to love. From either side of the bridge, from Surry Hills to Mosman and beyond, the daily cafe ritual begins anytime from 5am onwards. It’s a whole other world early in the morning: the tradies in shorts (even in winter) chasing bacon and eggs rolls, the bathers in their budgie smugglers, the cyclists in Lycra, the joggers and the early birds.

They’re followed by the 8am office workers sneaking in scrambled eggs, the students after some avocado toast before the school bus leaves, the muesli lovers, the inner-city hipster types chasing bowls of goodness, the people who duck in for a takeaway coffee and croissant in a brown bag.

From 9am it’s pretty much a free-for-all: the mothers’ groups, the couples with their dogs (“do you serve puppacinos?“), the acai aficionados, the lunchtime daters, the yoga mums treating themselves with a chai after exercise, the older folks who just want to share some peppermint tea with their friends, those like me who stare into their coffee foam trying to figure out exactly what kind of animal shape is depicted there before they feast on a three-egg omelette.

It’s a chance to watch society in microcosm; to people watch, to talk to patrons about their dogs, to learn more about the baristas and the waitstaff (my wife is a particularly skilled “waitress whisperer”, an expert at getting to know people from all over the world). Forget about the pub in Cheers where “everybody knows your name” – it’s the staff at the local cafe who remember your name and your order now (“three-egg omelette and large cappuccino, right?” ).

Yes, Melbourne likes to think it has Sydney beat in the best cafe stakes – particularly when it comes to coffee – but I’ll take Sydney’s sunshine and harbour views over Melbourne’s gloomy weather any day. Besides, enjoying the new cafe season and Australia’s expertise in cafe culture is something that every Australian can enjoy. Now pass the pink Himalayan salt and share that section of the paper.