Field, 160 Maitland Road, Mayfield. Mon-Fri: 6am-3pm, Sat-Sun: 7am-2pm.It takes only a moment for one of the co-owners of Glee Coffee Roasters, Beth Gleeson, to offer her Mayfield predecessor Hamish Brown some well-earned words of respect.
When Glee’s newest coffee outlet, Field, opened its doors at 160 Maitland Road rcently, it did so in the same space that Hamish Brown first established his unique Locomotive espresso back in 2014.
“We have known Hamish for years” Gleeson says. “He really knows his coffee and did a lot for coffee in Mayfield”.
We’re so happy to have a bit more room to offer a menu.
- Beth Gleeson
But, of course, it is not only in continuation of the Locomotive tradition that has brought the Glee family – Beth, her husband Chris and his brother Ben - back to the suburbs of Newcastle. So populated and fertile are the ranks of café owners, roasters and excellent baristas in this city, that there can now be more than one coffee tradition proudly living at the same address.
It is a pride that has literally been written on the wall. Wander out into the backyard at Field, where kids have a club house and the lawn is browned from the sun, and there it is stencilled onto an old brick wall: Newy Tillya Dead.
So here we are. Saturday morning at another exceptional café in Newcastle. How could you love coffee and want to live anywhere else?
It’s now so famous as a city for good coffee that a roastery as good as Glee couldn’t wait to get back here. Mayfield. 2018 in 2304.
Young families queuing out the front door. Daily batch brews ($4) on the back deck. Vegan Green Bowls ($16). Coconut yoghurt and granola ($14).
A sun-filled, white-walled espresso studio with an Ethiopian Cold Brew ($5) on one shelf, and a famous house blend on the other. What coffee lover wouldn’t want to be here? Perhaps Gleeson sums it up best. “We’re just pumped to be back here in Newcastle” she says.
Their customers have every reason to be excited too. For all of you fans of their coffee, those left behind when the Glee boys shifted from Darby Street, need not fret – The Goods are back in town. This is a blend of coffee beans that reached an almost cult like status among its many devotees. Its flavour notes of berry, cocoa and brown sugar are detectable in a milk-based coffee in only the sweetest, maltiest forms. As a black coffee, it always has an aroma of spicy tobacco accompanied by a tangy, almost lemony acidity.
Adding even more to the Gleeson’s enthusiasm for this Mayfield venture is the opportunity it has presented to offer food alongside their coffee specialties.
A Field of Dreams ($15) features roasted field mushrooms, danish feta, sundried tomato pesto and a walnut crumble over a poached egg on sourdough.
“We’re so happy to have a bit more room to offer a menu,” Gleeson says. “It’s really exciting to be back and to be able to complement the coffee with what a kitchen has to offer”.
