It was like a scene from a C-grade romance. She turned around, and I fell in love. Now, I'm not the type of girl who gives her love away so easily, but I believe I had a legitimately good reason to fall head over heels. You see, before I arrived, she was just about to take something out of the oven. Biscotti. Pistachio biscotti. Freshly baked, pistachio biscotti. Now judge me and my fickle heart.
Fresh biscotti - baked daily on the premises
When she isn't stealing people's hearts, Babette manages a café on the tenth floor in the Dymocks building in the heart of the Sydney CBD. This may be one of the best secret cafés in all of Sydney. Which, according to Babette, is something that she wants to change.
She serves a family who are there because mom has a hair appointment. "Some people who eat here work in the building, or find us because they are waiting for appointments," she explains. Most, however, are from the barista school next door. The school, incidentally, that she also teaches at in the evenings and some weeknights.
Tenth Floor Espresso is a collaboration between the owner of the barista school and Babette. She is an instructor, but also someone whom the students can study the art of independent café management from. After training others to make coffee in Sydney, she moved to Paris to study patisserie. She makes most of the food fresh daily inside the café. Naturally, she serves high quality coffee, but strongly recommends the hot chocolate. Unlike most commercial hot chocolate, hers are made from 70% pure cacao buttons. It takes much longer to prepare, but she insists that the quality is unmistakable.
Coffee and cake @ Tenth Floor Espresso
Quality is what drives her passion for her patisserie. Babette uses only fresh ingredients and bakes daily. She has learnt from the best, but adapts her skills to her market. She mentions that Australians have less of a sweet tooth than the French, so she had to adjust the sugar content of her specialty macaroons when she moved back to Sydney. Another of her signature sweets is the chocolate mousse cake. Not as fluffy as traditional mousse, but not as dense as a tiramisu, it is decadent but not overly sweet. The meringue layers pop and crunch in your mouth. It is chocolate heaven. Her almond cappuccino washes the sweetness down without leaving the caffeine trace on your tongue.
As she wipes down the tables and counter, she talks about her dreams of having more people come up to the 10th floor to drink her coffee and taste her sweets. The café has been open a year now, and she sees the slow increase in her customers. And she is sure these people will tell their friends. Come early for your appointment, they will say, and go to level 10 and try the passion fruit macaroon. The smell of fresh biscotti will lure more people in, and this hidden café won't stay secret for very long. Some things are just too good not to be shared.
