Deus Ex Machina, you tricked me.
After years of avoiding this place, due to it's comparatively high prices and noisy Parramatta Rd location, I finally ventured in here after a visit to Deus' Surry Hills Bicycle Works cafe (review: http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/deus-ex-machina-surry-hills#hrid:jXnL3XnQdOKMJnAbfpd9rQ/src:self). At Bicycle Works, I was surprised and delighted to find another subscriber to Little Marionette beans. My coffee was perfectly sweet, rich and lingering. So, when thinking of somewhere new to head for a coffee, I figured I'd finally give Deus Ex Machina a go - after all, if they've had Little Marionette beans this whole time then more the fool me.
So I ventured through the side door of Deus Ex Machina, hankering for a good coffee and with a good feeling that I was going to get one. The Deus shop was far bigger than I'd anticipated. And, despite how loud the venue was, it seemed the perfect place to get some work done - at least 15 people in here were working on laptops, iPads or even pen and paper (!), with another 5 - 10 still reading the paper. How then, with all these busily silent customers, does the place get so raucous? Because the shop itself is so big that it still fits another sizeable group of people, made up of loudly assertive business meetings, cooing Mum's clubs (plenty of room to swing a pram) and young families. The dinging of kitchen bells contributes to the rising cafe soundtrack, as does the hiss, grind and occasional squeal of the coffee machine. And yet, as all the other working bees in Deus have obviously already found out, it's extremely easy to find an inner peace bubble within this jungle of sounds.
The shop is filled with five long and stretching tables at which strangers sit side by side, plus another handful again of still large but smaller tables in simple wood on wood designs. The large windows are curtained with red velvet drapes and a range of pop art, film posters and various other greaser/badass art hangs from the walls. A couple of motorbikes stand inside the shop and old surfing videos and cock fights play on the one plasma screen at the back of the cafe whilst Ella Fitzgerald trickles from the stereo. A table full of magazines and newspapers stands by the door and the menu itself, scrawled onto domineering chalk boards, adds to the artistic flair of this sizeable shop.
So yeah, the cafe is cool. Food looks yummy (sticking by my reasons for not coming here before - I still can't afford to eat here!) and despite the noise, the ambience is fantastic. But how was the coffee? As soon as I ordered, I looked over at the machine in search for Little Marionette's signature "I (heart) Benny" sticker. It was no where to be seen. Instead, I found a stack of takeaway cups emblazoned with Di Lorenzo's red graphics. I had been tricked. The coffee was well made, but the beans weren't the flavour I was after. Looks like I will have to get a better paying job so I can afford a different reason to come back to this super cool cafe. read more