Gypsy Espresso

Sydney is a coffee town. People here love to throw themselves about declaring they cannot possibly function without a shot each morning, worshipping their daily dose with the kind of breathless reverence usually reserved for their gods and Radiohead. And this is just for your run-o-the-mill cup of joe. We cannot begin to imagine the hyperbole that will be unleashed when people get a taste of the coffee at Gypsy Espresso in Potts Point. Seasoned caffeinators will be wrapping their feet in barbed wire to crawl on hands and knees, across deserts, in eight feet of snow for the kind of spine-tinglingly good coffee they are dishing up here.

You might remember the little side street café from its former stint as a Toby’s Estate satellite, but now the beans are produced in house and boy, are they onto a winner.

Here the coffee reaches that mythical union where scent and flavour come together as one, the temperature maintained under beautifully worked milk with a touch of latte art that indicates skill more than flair. We have barely finished the first cup before we are ordering another to prolong the experience.

Coffee is all the reason you need to visit Gypsy Espresso, but if you are in need of victuals as well the shredded pork roll is exactly what you want from a great sandwich. The lightly toasted brown roll has a crisp crust and soft centre that hugs the slightly smoky pork, caramelised onion, sweet apple sauce, mustard, red cabbage and pickles in the warm embrace of lunchtime satisfaction. The poached chicken salad is a tangle of rocket, tomato wedges, cucumber and fetta dressed in a sweet balsamic that would benefit from a lighter hand on the dressing jar.

If it's going to take more than caffeine to make it through your afternoon slump then the caramel slice has the combined powers of chocolate, coconut biscuit and sweet, sweet caramel on its side. Or you can try fooling yourself into believing the chunky muesli cookie is more a breakfast treat than a dessert – hey, it’s worth a shot.

Steal a horse, steal a wagon, whatever it takes to get to Potts Point.