*Before I begin: Many thanks to Alan, the owner of Aussie Café, for allowing me to publish this essay.
When I told my funding organization that I would write a blog as part of my “public outreach” activities, I’m not sure that they anticipated writeups of my favorite local coffee shops.
Whoops. Sue me. (But also, please don’t.)
Here’s the thing, though: archival research can get lonely (down in the bowels of whichever archive or library I’m currently visiting); field work can get lonely (always keeping subjects at arm’s length, no matter how engaged I want to be); and writing can get lonely (hunched over a desk as I hope for a flash of inspiration that will cover for my lack of writerly discipline). If all of this happens at home, it can get even lonelier, and it’s easy to find that several days have passed since you left the apartment for any meaningful amount of time.
Coffee shops are a lifeline in these kinds of situations. They’re places where enjoying the sociality around you without being social yourself will not result in you being labeled as antisocial. There are familiar faces and friendly greetings, but also an expectation that you’ll amuse yourself. And, of course, there’s caffeine, the go-to drug for many an academic.
But not every coffee shop likes parkers like me. Some places like you to drink your tea and move along, thanks very much sir. So when I find those unicorns that have comfortable seating, reasonable prices, and a willingness to tolerate hours of me staring despondently at my computer screen, I stick with them.
So over the next few weeks, I’m devoting a couple of posts to writing the places where I write. What I hope will come of this is two completely unacademic love letters to the coffee shops where much of this blog’s dustily academic magic happens! This week, I’ll introduce you all to what is possibly the Platonic ideal of neighborhood coffee shops, Aussie Café. And in a few weeks (pending the thumbs up from the owners), I’ll be back to introduce everyone to the utopian space for any academic-artist-writer-caffeine-drinker, Let It Slow 小島慢遊.
An American (in an Australian Café) in Taipei
A bit of background: Yelp is worthless in Taipei.
In fact, the most expedient way to find restaurants, stores, and things to do is the maps service run by a certain internet overlord whose corporate motto no longer includes the phrase “don’t be evil.” This, it must be said, is not a platform that was built to purpose. As such, each search for a new location/venue/activity can be its own irreplicable adventure.
I first stumbled upon Aussie Café from the dubious comfort of my two-week quarantine hotel stay. I remember being intrigued at the time, but after my release into the wild I could not get the algorithm gods to cooperate with my attempts to relocate the listing.
It wasn’t until I moved into my permanent apartment in Taipei that the algorithm decided once again to reveal the presence of Aussie Café on the map, now just steps away from my new address.
Reading the menu and reviews online, I’ll confess that I was a bit confused by the name of the shop—is there anything particularly Antipodean about about sandwiches and coffee-based drinks? What is it about warm wooden tabletops and a rather fetchingly cluttered counter area that screams Oz?
Undaunted, I walked on over. Upon entering, I immediately realized what made this café “Aussie.” There are tour books for Australian cities on the bookshelves. There are models of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House decorating spare nooks and crannies. There are wombat and kangaroo crossing signs adorning the door and walls. There are homemade lamington cakes in the pastry case, a Chinese explanation of the phrase “g’day mate” on the whitewashed wall in the back of the shop, and a window sill lined with a prodigious number of Australian beer bottles. And on the wall facing the front door there is a Taiwanese flag full of handwritten messages to Alan, the owner of the shop, from his travels down under. If the shop reads as Alan’s love letter to Australia, his signed flag is Australia’s love letter back.
Come for the Drinks, Stay for the Vibe
I’ve been avoiding coffee for the last couple of years, so I’m highly reliant on tea-based drinks to get me through my day. Multiple Google reviews mentioned Aussie Café’s chai latte, so I made a point of ordering it on my first visit. I’m not sure where Alan sources his chai, but this stuff is spectacular, spicy and richly flavored without the syrupy sweetness that often makes North American chai lattes such a cloying affair. And on top, a beautifully stenciled silhouette of a kangaroo leaping over the word “Chai.”
This attention to detail—tasty flavors married with beautiful presentation in an unpretentious environment—keeps me coming back. That, and the fact that it turns out there are many stencils to be found here: kangaroos, koalas, kiwi birds (here and there, the café also pays homage to New Zealand), and the Sydney opera house are among my favorites.
Then there’s the vibe. The bench seating along the walls is set up with casual, comfortably broken-in throw pillows (perfect for adjusting and readjusting over the course of a long writing session.) There’s a couch by the front door illuminated by the floor-to-ceiling windows during the day and by a full moon-shaped lighting fixture at night (complete with a tiny astronaut figurine). But what made me realize that Alan designed this café specifically for me (whether he knew it or not) is the bunk bed toward the back of the shop. The lower bunk can be used as seating, while the upper bunk is decorated with one of the finest collections of plush toys to grace any business I have ever been in (I am particularly smitten with the penguin and the family of koalas).
All of this is tucked into a quiet residential alley in the heart of Taipei, just around the corner from neighborhood breakfast shops, a small temple, and a playground. You’d never stumble on it from the main street, and it’s the perfect reminder that, when in doubt, you should always head off Taipei’s beaten track.
It’s a G’day in the Neighborhood
In the title of this post, I use the phrase “the art of writing.” This is, I confess, a rather self-aggrandizing term for the process of mental egestion by which these blog posts come into being. But Aussie Café lives up to its motto, “If you have a dream, you got to protect it.” This is a space that welcomes a bit of dreaming, and Alan and his team have cultivated an environment that can make you feel like you’re on fire, even when in hindsight, well …
For graduate students needing to write, finding a congenial work space frequently means inviting the (understandable) irritation of small business owners, especially in an era when ever fewer universities provide desk space for graduate workers. In this context, places like Aussie Café are a gift. I would love my neighborhood in Taipei, even without the perfect coffee shop just around the corner. But having a space like Aussie Café so near my apartment truly means that every day is a g’day in the neighborhood.
If any of you readers find yourself in Taipei’s Zhongshan district, please stop by and have a chai, have a sandwich. Heck, have both! In the meantime, thank you to Alan and everyone at Aussie Café for giving this itinerant scholar such a welcoming place to work!