Walking up William St towards the Kings X coke sign, a landmark that defines the area, we cross the road and veer to the right as we are headed for our destination, Frankie’s Beans. Being in the Cross, the name could mean anything, thankfully for us it refers to coffee. With two highly rated cafes on the bean hunter App, ‘Frankie’s Beans’ and ‘cafe with out a name’, we had to check this place out. We arrived at the cafe, looking back down William St, this cafe perched on the hill has a good outlook of the city skyline. Inside the cafe, it has a modern Scandi theme, with light coloured wood and hanging indoor plants. There is plenty of coffee paraphernalia to keep you distracted. We meet the friendly Frank and select a table outside and take in the view before ordering.

We had been hearing good things about the coffee at Frankie’s Beans. Frankie heads out to his roaster every Monday to experiment and create his award winning specialty coffee. The pour over method, the preferred drinking method of many coffee aficionados wanting to taste the flavours of the coffee. These flavours can be influenced in many ways, be it origin, variety or how they are prepared. The pour over method can be a timely process, but Frankie is an innovator and has modified his coffee machine to produce a pour over type coffee in an efficient manner. The process is call FAB, short for fractional atmospheric brew. Pop in to see Frank, he will happily explain the process in detail.

After hearing so much about the FAB we are intrigued and must try. Frank suggests we try two single origin varieties with a single origin from Elsalvador and Costa Rica. This was a way of sampling the FAB method as well as an experiment to taste the difference first hand. The experiment worked both brews were very different in taste and appearance, with the Costa Rican’s fruity characteristics being my preference. 

This being a brunch visit, some food was also in order. Frankie’s Beans has a range of sandwiches, cakes and breakfast options available. We had it on good word that their toasties were the bomb. Deciding on the Rueben and the Slow cooked lamb with Tzatziki, we were not disappointed. Asked to pick which was our favourite, almost an impossible task. However on this day the Rueben won for me, but this may change on any given day as both were fine examples of a toastie. 

Having also heard about the 3 Colombians blend, for milk based coffee. A triple blend single origin, being in the East I ordered my usual latte. A smooth coffee drinking coffee with a strong flavour, perfect to drink without sugar.

A great cafe worthy of a visit for coffee lovers, we left buzzing and not only from the coffee consumed. Frank is a top guy and his staff friendly and welcoming, they have great coffee and do kick arse toasties. Suffice to say we will return and be hunting down the ‘cafe with out a name’ for a coffee as well.

Thanks to Frank and his team for their hospitality and thanks to Phoebe from The PR Hub for arranging the introduction and invite.

www.frankiesbeans.com.au