I like how they were handing out free coffees the other day.

I noticed this on the weekend. It’s a good site for a cafe, I wish them well. They could probably do with some competition in neighbouring shops to help get people back from the shiny new North quarter.

Q: When will he tire of Canberra Times criticisms?
A: When eagles lay truffles.

And how did I miss a free coffee?

A small step in the right direction, but there are still a hell of a lot of shopfronts empty. How long has that old JB Hi-Fi been empty now, what, 3 or 4 years? Think of the missed rent that could have been received if they reduced their asking price, but instead the lessors refuse and they receive zero for years.

Is the Apple store still going into the space in the bottom of the old AGL House? That should certainly revitalise the precinct.

Does the interior have any relics to the bygone Woolworths, that used to be there? I used to love watching the doughnut machine in the window, plopping doughnuts into the hot oil.

rainmaker said :

A small step in the right direction, but there are still a hell of a lot of shopfronts empty. How long has that old JB Hi-Fi been empty now, what, 3 or 4 years? Think of the missed rent that could have been received if they reduced their asking price, but instead the lessors refuse and they receive zero for years.

Its good to see see how they go! I am all for centre point revitalisation. Re JB Hi fi spot the building owners are still collecting rent from JB so probably the reason 10 year lease i think, rich get richer.

That signage is awful.

I refer to xkcd: “If you really hate someone, teach them to recognise bad kerning.”

http://xkcd.com/1015/

EvanJames said :

Does the interior have any relics to the bygone Woolworths, that used to be there? I used to love watching the doughnut machine in the window, plopping doughnuts into the hot oil.

I’m pretty sure Woolworths was on the other side, where ACTEW now is.

Then again, it was a long time ago.

Holden Caulfield said :

I noticed this on the weekend. It’s a good site for a cafe, I wish them well. They could probably do with some competition in neighbouring shops to help get people back from the shiny new North quarter.

+1

dtc said :

EvanJames said :

Does the interior have any relics to the bygone Woolworths, that used to be there? I used to love watching the doughnut machine in the window, plopping doughnuts into the hot oil.

I’m pretty sure Woolworths was on the other side, where ACTEW now is.

Then again, it was a long time ago.

The BIg W type store was on the other side, the supermarket and the adjoining takeaway food section were in the Centrepoint location. I remember the donut machine too.

Good luck to them but I can’t help thinking it’s like giving the Titanic a lick of paint two hours after it hit the iceberg.

EvanJames said :

Does the interior have any relics to the bygone Woolworths, that used to be there? I used to love watching the doughnut machine in the window, plopping doughnuts into the hot oil.

Woolworths was on the other side – in the block that has Ted’s camera store.

Any connection with the notorious Landmark cult? If so, steer clear.

It was Woolworths on the merry-go-round side.

I wonder if the Cafe could put a bit of a boundary near the tables and chairs, maybe some pot plants/hedging type style? Right now it feels a bit like you are just plonked in the middle of a walkway (which I guess is technically true) with an outdoor setting from anywhere. Other than that, it’s good to see a cafe along City Walk – hopefully also be open on the weekend.

nsn said :

That signage is awful.

I refer to xkcd: “If you really hate someone, teach them to recognise bad kerning.”

http://xkcd.com/1015/

A kindred spirit!

GardeningGirl said :

The BIg W type store was on the other side, the supermarket and the adjoining takeaway food section were in the Centrepoint location. I remember the donut machine too.

Spot on. For the others who don’t know, the variety store was in the building attached to the Bailey Arcade, fronting the merry go round. The woolies supermarket was where this cafe and Centrepoint are now.

The variety store had a big open bin of up-market wrapped chocolates, you filled a basket and they weighed it. I think every schoolkid in Canberra got dared to try shoplifting them.

The supermarket was there with its wonderful doughnut machine, but the really good supermarket was Coles New World, inside the Monaro Mall (opposite Waltons). It was huge. It’s hard to extrapolate positions now, everything’s so changed in there, but kind-of where Lincraft is. Sort-of. ish.

An photo on this page shows the Woolworths variety store where the current ActewAGL shopfront is currently situated. The Woolworths grocery store was located where Centerpoint is now – directly opposite.

Probably explains the confusion!

rainmaker said :

A small step in the right direction, but there are still a hell of a lot of shopfronts empty. How long has that old JB Hi-Fi been empty now, what, 3 or 4 years? Think of the missed rent that could have been received if they reduced their asking price, but instead the lessors refuse and they receive zero for years.

Rainmaker, your statement is untrue. The premises remain under lease to JB Hi Fi.

Terrible service.

No one there and I order my coffee, a few minutes later 2 other guys rock up, so she stops making mine to serve them, Another few minutes later she calls out their name and gives them the coffee. Then another few minutes calls Dave and then asks me if it’s my latte with sugar, then I explained what I ordered,

She then remakes my drink and blames the 2 guys for taking my drink. I had to remind her that she had called out to them and had given them the drinks.

Incompetence followed by lies.

Terrible!. Waited too long on my lunch break while the female staff finished chatting with their friends on the street before being served. Then got a cold sausage roll while listening to them complaining about the customers wanting the sugar put in their coffee whilst it was being made. I won’t be back but I am pretty sure that won’t bother them.

Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone for their feedback. We always want to hear about your experiences at our establishment. To Canburnian and chrisbloke, we are sorry to hear you were unhappy with our service. Being a very new business, we are still ‘ironing out the kinks’, so to speak.

Canburnian, I believe I was the barista you spoke to, if memory serves. As you walked off so quickly after your comment, I couldn’t elaborate on my perhaps overly brief summation of the situation.

I admit, I knocked over a stack of lids, the resulting scramble knocked over the cups, I then made the coffees and realised I’d handed off your cup in my haste, after the fact. It’s been my first mistake the week we’ve been open, and I’m sorry it had to happen to you.

I believe I said ‘Sorry mate, they nicked off with your cup. My bad there.’ With the intent to further explain the delay resulting from the previous request for confirmation of your order. You called me on that statement as you left. I’m still not sure if you heard me say that last bit? In any case, I sincerely apologise for the delay, and I hope your coffee was otherwise enjoyable.

chrisbloke, all staff have been spoken to about disrupting the flow of regular service. Thankyou for the feedback on our hot-box, we will endeavour to be more vigilant with our food serving temperatures from now on. In regards to sugars put in the takeaway coffees for our customers, as of Friday there was no set policy whether to do so, or not. The opinions expressed were singular to the staff members involved and they have all been spoken to. The policy as it stands now is: we are happy to put them in for you. Just tell us how many you would like, if at all.

For the record chrisbloke, it bothers us very much. For both of you, if you would be willing to come in and chat with us we’d be happy to rectify this situation however we can.

I-filed: We are happy to say our cafe is not connected to any cult. It’s simply that we are surrounded by landmarks, we thought it would be clever to be one of our own.

Regards,
Landmark Cafe.

I had a hot chocolate from there today and it was fantastic.. I think this may be my new morning coffee joint!

chrisbloke said :

Terrible!. Waited too long on my lunch break while the female staff finished chatting with their friends on the street before being served. Then got a cold sausage roll while listening to them complaining about the customers wanting the sugar put in their coffee whilst it was being made. I won’t be back but I am pretty sure that won’t bother them.

That’s why you should always get your java hit from Bean in the city- no disappointment there…How many times do i have to tell you ?

nsn said :

That signage is awful.

I refer to xkcd: “If you really hate someone, teach them to recognise bad kerning.”

http://xkcd.com/1015/

Agreed- the signage looks cheap…really cheap.

Not wanting to split hairs, but I will, the kerning on that sign isn’t too bad – it hasn’t been manually kerned, so the correctly kerned pairs within the font set – “DM” and “CA” – make the rest look a bit loose, but not egregiously so IMO.

The real problem with the sign is the word spacing.

the coffe and food from here was amazing!

These guys are a great new business worth supporting. Glad to see some new business in city walk. Still perfecting their craft but do give them a try!

Great to hear they are aware of a few of the issues.

I will try you guys out when I can

Will you have Frapes in Summer?

A bit of an issue today at the Equal Love rally, held (as usual) near the merry go hound and with permission of the ACT government. One of the staff at the Landmark Cafe was obviously not pleased to have the topic of same sex marriage rights, turned up the music to compete with the speakers at the rally, told some of the 200+ rallyers that the cafe didn’t want their money and refused service, and at the end of the rally referred to one of those departing as a ‘fag’, which almost led to fisticuffs with people on both sides being held back.

The young staff member of Landmark probably won’t have a long career in the industry if he can’t deal with people better. He is perfectly entitled to have opinions, but if he wants the business he works for to be able to turn a profit, he’ll need to learn to keep them to himself.

I suspect that the Landmark Cafe lost more than the business this staff member turned away today – I personally had not yet tried them, and now I won’t. Canberra, and food industry, is no place for homophobia,and I’ll be voting with my money – elsewhere.