If you are looking for some good Joburg coffee shops to work from for the day, make your way to one of these spots. To check the local loadshedding schedule, download the free EskomSePush app.
MELVILLE, BRIXTON & MILPARK
Bean There Coffee Company
Popularly known as South Africa’s first roaster of Certified Fairtrade coffee, Bean There sources its single origin unblended coffee from Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The minimalist decor of the store is perfect for savouring the flavour and the smell of freshly roasted beans is heavenly. It’s nice and quiet, so perfect to get the concentration flowing. Recently renovated it has a gorgeous interior and a quietness punctuated by the sounds of coffee being made, and best of all they have a generator to keep brewing through loadshedding.
Where: 44 Stanley, Milpark
This cafe is equipped with backup power
Breezeblock
A popular cafe hangout spot in Brixton, during the early months of lockdown Breezeblock briefly relaunched as a co-working space before they could get back to serving food and drinks. Plug points are plentiful inside and there's lots of natural light. You can also sit outside and work in the pretty succulent-rich courtyard while you take in that all-important vitamin D with your cappuccino.
Where: 29 Chiswick St, Brixton
Emzini
12 Lewes Street Westdene
This cafe is equipped with backup power
Service Station Café
Carmen van der Merwe’s corner cafe in Melville's pretty Bamboo Centre is airy and light-filled and has occupied this spot for close on 20 years. It's a great space for remote work at the long communal table inside the cafe. Free wifi and plug points are a tick on the list. There’s a good choice of fresh and tasty casual dishes, including a daily salad selection, deli items, plus plenty of frozen meal options to take home.Where: Bamboo, cnr 9th St and Rustenburg Rd, Melville
The Richmond Studio Cafe
This cafe and espresso bar in Richmond was started by award-winning photojournalist Antoine de Ras and has long been a regular hangout for a local freelance journalist crowd. If photography is your thing you will love this place with its vintage cameras and photographic paraphernalia decorating the entire space. There is seating indoors and outdoors to enjoy toasties and fresh cafe food options at any time thanks to a generator.
Where: 14 Menton Rd (cnr Park Rd), Richmond
This cafe is equipped with backup power
LINDEN
The Whippet
Where: 34 7th St, Linden
This cafe is equipped with backup power
Melrose Arch
The Grind Coffee Shop
Where: Whitely Rd, Melrose Arch
This cafe is equipped with backup power
PARKVIEW
Croft and Co
This neighbourhood cafe on Parkview's Tyrone Avenue has only grown in popularity as a place to work, or look like you are working, while enjoying lunch and plenty of coffee. Early mornings are busiest here. Somehow even on a Tuesday lunch time it can be difficult to find a table, especially because the neighbourhood local is equipped with a generator. The prime spots are the booth-like tables in the back shielded by a garden centre's worth of lush pot plants. The cafe opens from 6am when it's packed with enthusiastic and often loud runners and cyclists, although even at that hour it's still a good place to work.
Where: 66 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview
This cafe is equipped with backup power
PARKWOOD & ROSEBANK
Green Dot Cafe
This cozy coffee bar is the new corner café in Parkview after Morning Glory sadly closed. Enjoy a coffee or more extravagant iced coffee frappe (with ice cream!) while you work inside or outdoors. There are healthy toasties, smoothie bowls, and Mediterranean flatbreads to fuel you through the day, and the café is halal-certified. The chic coffee bar is equipped with a generator so you can get your caffeine (and power) fix when loadshedding strikes.
Where: 146 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood
This cafe is equipped with backup power
Toasted
Where: 138 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood
This cafe is equipped with backup power
Proud Mary
We’ve worked here ourselves a few times, so believe us when we say, this may be a very big space but it still gets super busy at lunchtime. The destination restaurant for Rosebank's voco Hotel The Bank has quickly become a popular meeting spot. In the back of the restaurant towards the lobby of the hotel and the Proud coffee shop you'll find a long table area, installed with out-of-office workers in mind, as well as more casual lounge seating. And no need to worry about loadshedding because they're fully equipped for power outages.
Where: The Bank, 26 Cradock Ave (The Zone@Rosebank), Rosebank
This cafe is equipped with backup power
KRAMERVILLE
Father Coffee
Father Coffee in Kramerville is located in an immense warehouse-like space. Of course it's pared-down and chic in that understated urban way that Father Coffee has perfected, and staffed by a serious team of baristas. It also has the look of a laboratory with an in-house bakery behind glass – those excellent cinnamon buns and almond croissants demand scientific precision. It's a relatively quiet place to work, with excellent coffee on hand, or a mug of Lindt hot chocolate if you’re overly caffeinated. Both Father stores (Rosebank and Kramerville) are fully equipped for the loadshedding blues.
Where: 19 Dartfield Rd, Kramerville
This cafe is equipped with backup power
FOURWAYS
Seam Coffee
Seam Coffee is a locally renowned coffee roastery in the heart of Fourways, that is focused on creating sustainable farming in the coffee industry, from harvesting to roasting. Their Fair Trade goal is to connect coffee farmers and consumers, so that those who enjoy Seam's coffees also know they are directly uplifting the communities from where it is sourced. Good ethics aside, Seam is also known in the northern suburbs for having one of the best coffee shop co-working spaces and they have a generator to keep working at any shedding stage.
Where: 2 Valley View Centre, Campbell Rd, Craigavon, Fourways
This cafe is equipped with backup power
Various locations across Johannesburg
Motherland Coffee Company
Where: Motherland has branches across Joburg including at Dunkeld West Centre, Blubird Centre, Benmore Gardens, Bedford Village Shopping Centre, Hobart Grove Shopping Centre and 1 Sturdee Avenue
This cafe is equipped with backup power
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