The end of November, Deck the Halls.

[Update: This post is now made public for all to view]

With November coming to an end, Jessie came in on Friday giving us a hand with meters of garland, tinsel, candy canes, wreathes and sticky spots. The finished result you will have to come in and see for yourself, but I think we are ready for the month of December.

Well before we forget Novemember we will take a look back.

November started with the Dandy Warhols all the way from Portland. It was good to see some more musicians who like coffee almost as much as us. The Warhols have their coffee big and black. They visited for around 3 days, with a daily jumbo long black in the morning and food during they day. On departure they signed a coffee bag to add to our collection and thanked us for the great stay in Perth. Dale later caught up with them again in Melbourne while checking out the cafe atmosphere.

Check out our photos from Melbourne here:

Melbourne Cafe Pictures

Well Dale returned from Melbourne and headed straight into training for the Barista Championships. Dale and Michael, owners of Cafe 54  judged Day One of the championships, alongside names such as David Makin, the current Australian Barista Champion. Competitor Mark Chandler, came out victorious, impressing the judges with a very polished routine. Mark is a trainer at 5 senses and with the rest of the crew walking away with first place in all three competitions, this reflects the passion the team has for coffee as a work of art. Dale competed on Day Two in the Latte Art Competion walking away with 2nd place for his creativity and originality. Dale presented three designs: a tulip, the scorpion’s tale and a swan. Audience and judges alike commented on the swan, which stood out as a design that hadn’t been seen before. The swan has become a favourite request amongst customers since news of the competition.

Cafe 54 also competed in the cupping competition however time became a downfall with Angela from Epic and Matt from Abstact Gourmet coming through with a faster time and taking 2nd and 3rd place. First place went to the very man who trained us from the beginning Ben Bicknell from 5 senses came away with a outstanding 7/8 cups in just under 4 minutes.

So with hundreds of photos from the day and training, we will sort through and post them soon.

Dream catch 54, Newton Faulkner

I would like to show everyone our intense training that our new barista’s undergo, here is our latest Cafe 54 edition at the Synesso under the intense watchful eye of Barista Shaylee.

We thought you’d appreciate the chesire cat suit uniform for the in-training.

All serious matters aside, the past few weeks has been an array of new faces and flavours.

Dale is hard at work, with tweaking our blend and experimenting with all different single origins, we are enjoying the ristretto and espresso’s per minute and everyone at home is quite wired as well.

The new faces I mentioned are quite recognizable. On the 29th of August, what was called a powerhouse of rock four bands: Disturbed, Behind Crimson Eyes, P.O.D and Alter Bridge (a fusion of the disbanded Creed members and the lead singer of Mayfield Tour) came to Perth to perform at challenge stadium. We were a wireless connection and a coffee every hour for manager Steven Wood and had mixed band members come in and out for breakfast, muffins and that most needed coffee. We arrived one morning at 7am to find Alter Bridge on our doorstep, already hooked onto the wireless and waiting for a cup of Cafe 54’s “joe”.

The next very familar face was Newton Faulkner, seen in The West Australian on Friday with a great review of a happy down to earth feel good redhead. We found Newton to be just that, feeding him and the band with breakfast and coffee for two days, they loved the stay and coffee. Our specialty banana bread was a definate hit as well.

Yet another autograph to add to our coming wall of fame.