On the surface C.R.E.A.M, or Coffee Rules Everything Around Me, is the latest, hippest café to open in Adelaide, the brain child of industry leader, Josh Hockey. Josh and his team have created a quality-focused café which is attracting Instagram followers faster than a Kardashian selfie and quickly becoming a meeting point for movers and shakers looking to chill out. The café is much more than that though, it is the culmination of passion, ambition and years of hard work in the industry, and this shines through every aspect of the café.
The first thing that captures your attention is the name, C.R.E.A.M. Music lovers will recognise the name as a reference to the early 90’s Hip-Hop band, Wu-Tang Clan, who coined the acronym C.R.E.A.M meaning Cash Rules Everything Around Me.
The story behind why Josh chose this particular acronym as the name for his café is brilliant. As he explains, ‘When I was 12, one of my mum’s friends gave me a PS1 game called ‘Wu-Tang Taste the Pain’. It was Wu-Tang’s first video game and the soundtrack was Wu-Tang’s ‘Enter the Wu-Tang’ album, a highly explicit album for a 12 year to be listening too! My mum’s friend told me to keep the game a secret from Mum and Dad, which I did… Long story short, I fell in love with the game and the Wu-Tang, essentially making me the big hip-hop nut I am today. Anyway, in one of Wu-Tang’s albums, one of their song titles (and probably their most successful song to date) is C.R.E.A.M. which stands for Cash Rules Everything Around Me. As a tribute to the group that I loved so much, I changed the C and called my café Coffee Rules Everything Around Me. It was fitting because although we do food, our main focus is coffee.’
If you’re a FOMO who hasn’t checked out C.R.E.A.M. yet, get scared! The venue opened in Brighton last October and its food and coffee have started to hit cult status. The café is situated on the strip heading towards the beach in Brighton. It’s tough to see from the street, not at the level of ‘you have to know where it is’ tough, but you have to be attentive to see the alfresco seating. The front door opens out onto Jetty road and a narrow passage with bar seating leads down to the cafe which opens up to the main area. The furniture and fit out look great, with floating furniture attached the wall and a communal table. Wood, black metal and copper would have definitely been on the mood board during the design stage and the wood in particular adds a warmth to the fit out that more industrial style cafés miss.
As Josh said though, the focus of the café is on coffee — and coffee is something that the team does extremely well.
The house blend is Crompton Road and it pumps out of a 3 group Hydra, adorned with a wood kit and modifications by well-known post-production equipment designer Dan from Specht Design. Josh also pumps out some great rotating filter options with an Uber grinder and a T10 Ecoboiler by Marco. It isn’t just the equipment that has given this café its edge though. Josh himself is an accomplished Latte Artist, he recently won 3rd place in the ASCA Western Region Latte Art championship and regularly contributes some amazing works to the Latte Art Australia Facebook page.
Although the main focus of the café is coffee, the modern menu has its own group of followers! If you check out what people are tagging, you’ll no doubt be drawn to the fried chicken and pancakes or Josh’s personal favourite, the Donut Breakfast Sandwich — a savoury Donut pack with fried egg, potato rosti, American red cheddar, lettuce, tomato and streaky bacon. I put one of these away at the CREAM mobile coffee cart at the Unley Double Shot festival, and I agree that it is a thoroughly impressive dish! If you’re not into the indulgent, there are are plenty of fresh, nourishing options like smoothie bowls and smashed avocado.
The one café stalwart that you won’t find on this menu though is Eggs Benedict. Josh feels that having the 80’s classic on the menu kills the vibrancy of other creative options — and it is creativity which makes CREAM really shine!
Walking into CREAM, you get a sense of the pride that has been taken in developing every part of the café. After working in the hospitality industry for a decade, Josh admits that he has had plenty of time to learn from others’ mistakes, which has led to a strong focus on his staff’s wellbeing. The environment is positive, fun, down to earth and professional — a balance that is hard to achieve but one which flows smoothly into the customer’s experience. It’s not often that a café with such iconic coffee and food will get just as many positive reviews for its outstanding customer service!
CREAM
4/49 Jetty Road,
Brighton, SA, 5048
Opening hours
Monday – Thursday 7:00am-4pm
Friday – Sunday 7:00am-10pm
Facebook: CREAM
Instagram: @cream_jrb
© Photos provided with permission by Ryan Cantwell. All rights reserved by photographer
