A warning to all Brisbane CBD workers: read on at your own risk. This city coffee and breakfast venue is highly delicious and highly addictive.
Situated at the Northern end of the CBD on Wharf Street and nestled at the base of another nondescript multistorey office building is Pourboy Espresso — a city worker’s haven. As you pass by, it looks like your average, run-of-the-mill, high-turnover coffee and breakfast place. But take your time to venture inside, sit and savour a cup, or even grab your morning sustenance, and you will find it hard not to go back again. And again.
Firstly, the coffee is superb and they are clearly specialists, with head barista Sebastian Butler-White running the show. The highly skilled team at Pourboy churn out house espresso blends, pourover, AeroPress and cold-drips non-stop until close at 3.30pm. Coming out of their their state-of-the-art Synesso coffee machine, each cup is aromatic and smooth with full-bodied flavour. There are also plenty of options for non-coffee drinkers (although a cup from this place is so good it might make your turn), such as their Belgian hot chocolate, green smoothie or house-made Tahitian lime and lemon cordial.
Breakfast is equally delightful, and chef Mark Bell focuses on seasonality and high-quality ingredients. Served until 11am, sweet options include the yoghurt pot with sous vide rhubarb, the blackberry and apple bircher or the house-made maple granola (which is a seriously yum blend of nuts, seeds and oats that are oven toasted with maple and rice malt syrup until golden and served with confit rhubarb, macerated strawberries and Kenilworth yoghurt).
The savoury options are interesting and innovative and include French-inspired foods like the croque monsieur or madame, mushrooms with truffled mozzarella salad and poached egg, smoked salmon and house creamed corn or the Cheesy Peasy — a combination of sourdough with fior di latte, peas, confit shallot, mint, basil and shavings of Grana Padano drizzled with lemon olive oil. They are also incredibly accommodating and will pretty much make you any combination off their extensive list of additional extras. Tip: they make a mean avocado on peasant grain sourdough.
Oh and did you know they serve lunch too? Yup. Highly addictive.