There’s a lot to like about this long standing coffee-focused Cronulla café. The menu is short and simple, each dish is prepared and served with quality ingredients but without an extravagant price tag, and the venue lets you feel comfortable wading in wearing thongs and boardshorts still damp from your last surf session. It’s all no-nonsense order-and-pay at the counter here, so be sure to keep an ear turned to the coffee machine for your name being called while you chill on a milk crate or perch by a wine barrel out front.
Once brekky lands on your table, you’ll be delighted with the flakiness of a croissant with tangy mixed berry jam and Pepe Saya butter for just $6.50, and even more so with the generous serve of cinnamon and raisin toast for $5.50. If a milky brew is the order of the day, you may find the darker roast a little harsher than more mild blends like Toby's Estate that have become big names around Sydney.
The caffeine options are written on cool old train stations signs, beside a wall of photographs picturing regulars holidaying around the globe with signs proclaiming ‘I’d rather be at Grind’, and copper percolators lining the mantlepiece. It’s got that lived-in, grungy but good feeling that can only really be earned after pouring coffee for 17 years like Grind has.
When they’re not serving the morning coffee masses, Grind also hosts occasional events like book readings and talks, as well as acoustic live music sessions. The shop also gets a boozy makeover after 5pm on Friday and Saturday night, when they open their small bar for service until 9pm