Five days in Brisbane: L’s Espresso Bar & Yogen Früz, 20 October 2009

We had passed by L’s Espresso Bar in Brisbane Arcade, a quaint little eatery that wouldn’t look out of place in a small town, during our quick wander through the city the previous day. It looked quite cute and had a nice sounding breakfast menu, which is how we ended up here the following day. It was after 11am by the time we walked in so we asked if they still served breakfast. Unfortunately the answer was no, so we chose items from the lunch menu instead.

Orders are placed at the counter at L’s Espresso Bar and you’re given a table number before finding yourself a table. Monsieur Poisson and I decide to perch ourselves at the bench seat looking out the front window of the store into the arcade. Most of the tables in this café are for two people and are occupied this particular morning by elderly patrons. Monsieur Poisson’s caffe latte arrives soon after but is a bit weak tasting. The brand of coffee is Merlo but neither of us are familiar with it.

Food-wise, I’ve ordered a toasted sandwich of smoked salmon, avocado, capers and onion on Turkish bread. Sound familiar? I think I ordered this stemming from our lunch the previous day which had not exactly met our expectations. The sandwich here arrives on thick pide with a thick slice of smoked salmon, lots of avocado, scattered capers and chopped spring onions. When I had read ‘onion’ on the menu board, I was expecting sliced red onion, as that is the usual, but not in this case. However this is easily rectified by picking off the spring onions. There is also a side salad of coleslaw with pleasant honey mustard dressing.

Monsieur Poisson has ordered himself a bacon and pineapple open melt for nostalgia reasons – apparently as a child, his mother made this for him frequently as an after-school snack. The surprising part when it arrives is that there is only one slice of bread, albeit a sizeable inch-thick one. There are plenty of tinned pineapple pieces intermingling with bacon pieces underneath a blanket of melted cheese, and more of the same salad on the side.

We leave to go for a walk around the city and to familiarise ourselves with directions and landmarks. By mid-afternoon the sun is beaming down and it is quite warm. We pass by a yoghurt joint and decide to have a sticky-beak to see what cooling refreshments are on offer.

We walk in and I am immediately transfixed by the multiple cool-fridge displays of tubs upon tubs of ingredients. We (okay, maybe it was just me) must have looked either curious, lost, bewildered or a combination of all three, because before long we are approached by a staff member explaining how their yoghurt concept works.

It’s a custom frozen yoghurt bar where there are various flavour bases where you can have frozen fruits blended in and/or other toppings sprinkled over the top sundae-style. There are numerous breakfast choices, like muesli and dried fruits, so you are not limited to the yoghurt being only a dessert-type snack.

Monsieur Poisson chooses to try the flavour-of-the-month matcha (green tea) frozen yoghurt while I go for the plain yoghurt to have raspberries and blackberries smooshed through. The matcha is a delight and is incredibly fragrant of green tea. It’s like eating matcha soft-serve that is firmer and less creamy in texture, with the slight after-taste of yoghurt. It is luxuriously smooth but melts more quickly than my berry one.

In contrast, my berry yoghurt is icier no doubt due to the inclusion of frozen berries. The texture is also rougher from the berry seed bits but what I love is the wonderful tartness of berries married with the tang of the yoghurt. I eat it a bit too quickly and suffer several brain-freezes in the process.

We were given a customer loyalty card at Yogen Früz but didn’t get a chance to use it again before we left. And not being from Brisbane ourselves, we wondered when we would get to use it again…

L’s Espresso Bar

Ground floor of Brisbane Arcade, 117 Adelaide St, Brisbane QLD

Tel: (07) 3210 6900

Yogen Früz

225 Albert Street Mall, Brisbane QLD

Tel: (07) 3211 1338

happy eating!

LATEST UPDATE: Yogen Früz has recently opened an outlet at World Square Shopping Centre and apparently there is an outlet at Westfield Hornsby as well. Their website also says there is a store coming to Chatswood soon, so keep your eyes peeled!