Once a Waitress

Note: this is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Milk Bar Mag.

A smart new eatery has opened in Brunswick, with dessert superstar turned savory queen Phillipa Sibley at the helm, smack in the middle of Sydney road’s thoroughfare (on the corner of Sydney and Albert Streets of course).

Doors open at 8am – simple breakfasts of piadini and pastries to begin, and a full breakfast menu to follow in January when the kitchen has settled in.

For now it’s all day dining off the very modern menu. If you’re snacking at the bar the pizzas will please (perhaps the Albert St special – roasted peppers, pork and fennel sausage with smoked mozzarella). Or if you like it salty try the potted rainbow trout rillettes or the deliciously moist fresh broad bean felafel served with tangy tahini yoghurt.

Catering to those after something more substantial there’s a selection of pastas (try saffron gnocchi with braised veal, broad beans and sage) and modern Mediterranean themed mains with subtle European influences, from coteletta of pork with red cabbage and apple slaw, to a summer cassoulet. There’s charcuterie and cheese aplenty, and of course there’s the calling card of Sibley’s signature deserts (the ‘Snickers’ of Masterchef fame was the special on the day of my visit).

A side-room retail space acts as both bottle shop and providore (with a peep hole window into the kitchen to boot). With a focus on hyper-local labels (stocking Brunswick produce first and foremost, then moving outwards) there’s more stock to come, but the tidy help-yourself space boasts the finest breads, pickles, cheeses, smoked fish, charcuterie and crackers your local dollars can buy. There’s a sustainable focus – refillable oil bottles on a return trade system are available now, soon there will terrines, pizzas, condiments and potted hams available on the ‘zero-packaging’ system of reusable glass containers.

The Sibley factor is high – there’s a copy of her new cookbook on display everywhere you look – but hell, if she was the Executive Chef at my restaurant I’d probably take out a full page ad in the Epicure. Albert St F&W isn’t going to need to ride one her reputation to find success though – the sheer style and quality of the food, service and decor will speak for itself. A delicious journey to be sure.

Albert St Food & Wine
Corner of Albert St & Sydney Rd, Brunswick
8354 6600
Monday to Thursday 8am to 12pm, Friday to Saturday 8am to 1am, Sunday 8am to 11pm.
www.albertst.com.au

The team behind Axil Coffee Roasters has not been shy with its dollars. It’s all quality fittings, from the designer (or, perhaps replica designer) chairs to the cutlery and crockery it’s clear to see that the emphasis was placed on getting it right the first time. Not surprising considering the hospitality royalty running this place: three-time Australian barista champion Dave Makin and partner Zoe Delany. They’ve been roasting Axil branded beans for near on a year now and I’ve been hoping for an Axil cafe since.

You need to be a little brave to open any venue these days, let alone one that seats near on 100 people (by my shoddy head count) but they’ve had nothing to worry about with bums on seats. On each of my four recent weekend visits the place has been packed, although today was the first time I had encountered a wait list (although short).

It’s all about the coffee at Axil (unsurprisingly) and I have been impressed by every cup I’ve had (about 10 over the last four weeks, if you are wondering). There are bean choices and filter and all that stuff but I’m not going to explore the coffee side any further because I’m not qualified to critique at this level – all I can say is that I was impressed by the quality and the consistency of quality, a very rare find in Hawthorn.

The food is good. Not brilliant, but certainly well above the general standard. It’s clear that they have a chef or two in their kitchen who can actually poach and egg and you’d find this as surprising as I do if you too had spend the last 12 months wasting away in the eastern suburbs where the good breakfast chefs dare not venture.

The all-day breakfast menu is of average size, and the lunch menu limited to four or five mains (options like chilli spiced squid salad, prawn linguine, and what seems to an obligatory pork with apple something or other just for something different). A selection of made to order sandwiches look great I’m looking forward to sampling them all, in particular a slow roasted lamb shoulder wrap with mint and tabouli, $14.

Above is one of my favourite breakfast offerings, baked eggs with goats cheese, feta, dukkah and peperonata ($14). Like all the menu items it is very reasonable priced and comes beautifully presented in an expensive non-stick pan that is soon to be shredded by hundreds of knives and forks. I mourn for the future demise of those pans. The salty of the dukkah fits well with the spicy of the peperonata and the cheeses were generously spread. If you like baked eggs this should be enough to lure you out from Fitzroy (hint hint to my friends who never come visit me because “it’s just too far away”).

I’ve had these gluten free corn and haloumi fritters with avocado, poached egg and salsa rosso ($16) twice now and I’m not on a gluten free diet. They are that good… and I approve of the use of cheese as a binding agent.

The eggs, bacon, ham and chorizo are all free range – a tactic other local venues could do well to employ. It’s a wise decision to keep the menu limited and make those few dishes well. Although I’m not sure whether to be amused by or condescended to by the menu glossary. I’d assume that anyone affluent enough to be brunching in Hawthorn would probably know what cannelloni is – but that’s a small gripe – that, and the menu could use a proof read as it suffers from randomly capitalised nouns.

While still finding its feet Axil is off to a much better start than most. It’s a good team with some experienced staff and that buzz that comes with a new restaurant opening that makes the place exciting. I think the chairs are a little too low for the tables but other than that I’d struggle to find serious fault. It’s a beautiful space and I’m looking forward to watching this establishment evolve.

Axil Coffee Roasters
322 Burwood Raod Hawthorn (just near the corner of Burwood Rd and Glenferrie)
(03) 9819 0093
Open 7 days, 7am – 4pm

I was lured into Grindhouse by it’s cool exterior and even cooler name. I don’t know why, maybe it’s a Tarantino thing, but one moment I was headed towards Wall 280, and the next I was following the little orange arrow on the window in the front door and out the back to a funky courtyard.

About a year old now, Grindhouse slots into the cafe strip near Balaclava station, an area with tough competition from the likes of (and hopefully soon to be reviewed) Llona Staller, Batch, Wall 280 and Las Chicas. Peppered with kitch second hand clothing shops, Jewish bakeries, fishmongers and grocers, Balaclava is fast becoming one of my favourite Melbourne suburbs.

The menu is mostly uninspired, although ‘basic’ would be a more fair description depending on your needs. The usual suspects, bacon, eggs, sausage and beans sit alongside more “exotic” offerings such as a vegetarian breakfast biryani of rice, cashew, egg and veggies with yoghurt and kasundi ($15) or Mexican corn fritters with tomatoes, eggs, guacamole and salsa ($16).

I opt for the house big breakfast. Not because it is big, but because it is small – a half size option is only $14.50 in comparison with the adult size version at $18.50 (I am only half size, so that works out well).

The prices for the extras when building your own breakfast are overblown. For example, free range eggs on toast will set you back $10, which is fairly standard, however I think $4.5 extra for baked beans or bacon is a little bit much. Especially when it’s not actually free range bacon, which I’d gladly pay much more for. Other options weigh in at $3.50 for half a grilled tomato or a handful of spinach.

On the topic of free range bacon, I must be missing something because a lot of restaurants and cafes are proudly shouting their use of free range eggs from the roof tops, yet few are going that extra step further to use free range meat which I think is a bit hypocritical.

But I digress. My breakfast was pretty ugly, as you can see. It needed salt, and that sausage was rather limp, not unlike the kind usually found languishing at a family BBQ, slowly congealing into a thick rim of factory farmed fat. The beans were much better than the sausage. The mushrooms were button mushrooms (which taste of nothing) but the bread was top quality and the egg was perfect.

The breakfast menu is available all day, and the lunch menu is comprehensive, filled with comforting, unpretentious options. The coffee quality could use some improvement (not even close to the baristas presently holding court in Melbourne cafes). For stronger morning pick-me-ups, Grindhouse is licensed although the wine and beer list is short, if not impressive.

It’s certainly not aiming quite as high as some of it’s neighbours, but this cafe is friendly, the food is simple and mostly pleasant (if not eclectic), you’re likely to get a table on the weekend and the soundtrack and decor are punchy. Grindhouse comes with my recommendation if you need a casual local and are not looking for high-end breakfasting – just stay away from that sausage.

Grindhouse
217 Carlisle St
Balaclava
(03) 9525 9280