The café is very much centred on the Community. The day before I arrived, there had been a phone food photography workshop and before that a session on Financial Planning. Ali explains to me that he wants the Community to be at the heart of the café and he plans to run more of these events in the future, all free of charge I might add.
The community feel continues as you look around the café, a large bookshelf is full of books donated by residents, they can’t be loaned, but you are encouraged to read in the shop and I spy some of the books complete with bookmarked pages highlighting where they were last left . Board games are in supply too and whilst there’s Wifi, ample power sockets and a large table for co-working, you also get the feeling that this is the sort of place you could just hang out and catch up with friends at too. Though personally I would want a few more so chairs or sofas to stay for a long time.
How did it all brew?
Drip House Café is the first café in the area to offer Speciality Coffee and unusually it’s not listed on the menu, instead Ali prefers for people to go and talk to the Baristas at the interactive coffee bar and to learn more about the coffee and various brewing methods before ordering. It’s a novel idea and seems to be working well as he explains that the most popular brewing methods are Chemex and the Syphon which demonstrates that people know how they like their coffee brewed.
Specialty Coffee
The Coffee is sourced from GoldBox Roastery and I’m treated to a gorgeous flat white to start with and then to an Ethiopian Yirgarcheffe which is brewed in the Royal Balancing Syphon. The syphon has been on my wish list for a long time me, it’s expensive, cleverly engineered and brews some exquisite smooth coffee with very little human interaction.
What’s Brewing?
Brewing wise you can have espresso and the usual milk based drinks along with Aeropress, V60, Chemex, two different syphons and of course the often underrated, but good French Press. Cold Drip and Cold Toddy are also on offer, but are not so popular now as people want hot drinks in the cooler weather.
What’s Cooking?
For a relatively small café, there’s a reasonably sized food menu with hot breakfasts through to cakes, and larger meals for lunch and dinner. Prices are reasonable and there’s always a selection of cakes and gluten free items available in the chiller section too.
Want to get your Drip House Café fix?
Drip House has been a long me coming and is the first Speciality Coffee place in DIP (Jebena Roastery is in DIP2 but it’s not open to the public – in fact, if you want Speciality Coffee the closest place is Al Quoz).
Don’t go for gorgeous latte art, it’s not really their thing, but for a cup of great Specialty Coffee and some good food, company and perhaps a community activity or two in DIP, this could be the place just for you.
For more info: www.driphouse.com