Right off the bat I’ll tell you that Assembly Coffee is something special. Located at Evans Lodge and nestled between The Wine Company and Mr Prata, it is actually quite easy to miss the entrance but for the huge (and well designed) mounted emblem and street-level signboard.


Assembly describes itself as being part of the Third Wave Coffee Movement and it is easy to see that the people there really do take their coffee seriously. A great deal of effort is put into making each cup “perfect” as advertised, and it really does show. Each cup of coffee that I’ve had there to date has been a triumph of taste and design and at $4 a cup, I don’t think you’ll find quality like this anywhere on the island.


Oh, and did I mention that the food is pretty amazing too? Apart from the salted-caramel waffles which were BRILLIANT, Jo and I also tried the scrambled eggs croissant which was just as terrific. In fact, as my wife put it, she hadn’t had scrambled eggs that good in a really, really long while!


The croissant was so amazing that I didn’t even photograph it…We just devoured it.
So where does this all leave us?

(a) Quaint and accessible coffee joint with ample parking in an environment that feels like a fertile ground for new and great ideas;

(b) Great Coffee that, for lack of a better slogan (and I’m borrowing The Body Shop’s here), is certainly #madewithpassion; and

(c) Amazing Food….

The only thing I seem to be asking myself is, is this too good to be true? I hold myself back because I don’t want to believe that an experience can be this flawless and yet I’ve been there twice and both times have exceeded my expectations.
Perfection like this is only achievable with supreme effort, discipline and vision, something which I believe Assembly Coffee has in spades. Perhaps one day the standard may dip, perhaps it won’t and this cafe will soar to even greater heights. But perhaps I’m wasting time digressing from the obvious conclusion, which is that Assembly Coffee delivers a 10/10 experience. Perfection, as advertised.
All images captured with the Leica M (typ 240) & 50mm f/1.4 Summilux and Ricoh GXR & 50mm f/2.5 Macro.