This long-standing café has been providing customers with exceptional food and service for sixteen years. Situated on Newcastle’s busy Darby Street, owner, Ant says he owes the café's success to his love of people. 

Coming from a marketing background, Ant says he always wanted to own his own café and was actually a customer at the previous business back in the late 90s. Originally looking to buy in Sydney but after a string of coincidences, it was almost fate he settled back in his hometown. Buying the café in 2002 Ant has since been working hard to grow the business into what is now one of Newcastle’s most successful cafés. 

Known for their amazing all day breakfast menu and extensive smoothie list, Three Monkeys provides customers with a welcoming and cosy space, where knowing their regular customers by name and their coffee order, comes as second nature.

It’s clear the staff are more like a family, some having worked there for over eight years, something which Ant believes is the reason the café has survived for so long. 

They recently launched a new menu and you can expect to see the old favourites such as the avo smash and classic parmesan toast, they’ve also added a few new items, including a delicious pumpkin and halloumi toastie and a vegetarian burger that swaps the burger bun for lettuce leaves. 

There are also a few new sweet treats, boasting pastries created by a chef who has just returned from Paris, working in a 2 Michelin-starred restaurant. Their extensive drinks menu has also grown, with the addition of some new sorbet based frappes.