Cold Pouring at PourBoy Espresso

Fairly new PourBoy Espresso (26 Wharf Street, Brisbane) has been getting a lot of buzz on social networks and in food magazines of late and so I knew I had to try it out.  Also, it's is only about 150m from my office building which is situated on a part of Eagle Street that has few good lunch options (except for the amazing Kitchen Sanitarium of course).

The name PourBoy comes from their signature "cold pour" espresso which looks like this:

They make the coffee using the "cold press" method where they steep their Sydney roasted Mecca Espresso grounds in cold water for 14 hours or so while it slowly drips through a filter into a beaker below, using this weird and wonderful contraption:

I thought the pour over was pretty amazing.  It's really smooth and mild with a lingering aftertaste.  Also, they serve it over ice and the cold shock of the coffee really gives you a pleasant jolt (not to mention the caffeine jolt...!).

The PourBoy lunch menu is short sweet, with a few simple, delicious food choices on offer that focus on fresh ingredients.

I went for the wild Queensland spanner crab wrap:

It was absolutely delicious with a zesty but delicate creamy sauce through the lettuce.  For $14 it was pretty good value.

Other memorable orders on the table were the croque madame with a perfectly poached egg on top (only $10 people!!!):

As well as the soup special of the day - the corn chowder (we all had food envy of this one):

The breakfast options also looked amazing and from all reports are really really good (and are next on my hitlist). 

I'm just so glad that a cafe with this standard of food has opened up in an area of the city which until now has had a dearth of food choices.  Also, to my delight, they don't force you to have one bill per table and everyone can pay separately (I prefer to live in my own cashless society where I can just pay everything by credit card with out touching dirty dirty cash).

One criticism I have of PourBoy is that the fitout is a bit sterile and austere.  A place with the appeal of simple, good comfort food and an interesting take on coffee as well as attentive service, should have a suitably comfortable and cosy ambience.  Instead it's all white tiles, plastic tables and chairs and soul-less patterned bar stools.  I want this place to be my cushy, warm hideaway from the office, with the quaint appeal of a Melbourne woodpanelled coffee house or something romantic like that. 

But I will be back because the food and coffee is EXCELLENT - plus you can grab a brioche scroll for $4 on the way out in either cinnamon or chocolate (which has a hazelnut hiding inside YUMMO!)