On Saturday I had a good reason to seek out a coffee – my friend and fellow blogger, Scott McKinney, was on the island! I had never met Scott in person, and he was visiting from his native Minnesota, to take in Celtic Colours. I suggested we meet at Doktor Luke’s, a new coffee house in Sydney that had opened just the week before, and which I wanted to check out.

This is the view from the back of the building. You can see there is ample parking!

I’m a big fan of their logo.

Books for sale! I bought Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” for 6$.

This is the view when you first walk in the door.

And this is the view when you go stand by the “bill of fare” posters and look to your right.

And this is the view when you go sit down in the little room with a double latte and a cranberry scone, to wait for your new friend to arrive. (Hi Scott!)

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I got there early and took some photos with my phone (apologies for the blurry ones). It’s funny, the building is so big, that I assumed the coffee house would be giant too! But it’s actually quite small and cozy. There are two rooms, one where the coffee is made and served, and the other in the back with seating. The aesthetic is Western and as a design student, I love the branding. And I love that the windows look out over the harbour – it’s a million-dollar view.

The proprietor, Missy Lebans, was friendly and welcoming, and later on her partner Julie Sutherland was there too and we chatted a bit. The pair are from Vancouver. Julie teaches at Cape Breton University and she said, “Missy wanted to open a coffee shop. We wouldn’t have been able to do that in Vancouver… a space like this would have cost $8000 a month in rent!” The name of the coffee house refers to Julie herself, who apparently was saddled (hehe, pun intended) with the nickname after her phone’s auto-correct kept changing her name to “Luke”, and her students kept it.

Check out Doktor Luke’s website or like Doktor Luke’s on Facebook. They are at 40 Kings Road in Sydney. Tell them I said hello!