September news

People get ready, there’s a change a-coming......... I know not everybody likes change, but as the days are starting to get longer again, & we are heading into summer, the seasons are changing & so is the produce available, so we thought it was a good time to make some menu changes & there will be more to come as we roll into summer! Darren has again ripped out a brilliant pork belly dish. We were able to order some beautiful free range pork belly through Barossa fine foods so we ran it as a special a few weeks ago & was received so well we decided to put it on the menu! be sure to try it! We are also investigating the prospect of buying in a whole side of beef. This will mean we will move a steak back onto the menu or at least a rolling steak special, again we have been testing & have had an amazing spiced coffee rubbed steak using our amazing Mecca coffee which is extremely tasty. I would recommend it without question!

As most of you know, Karl has left us & is off overseas rock climbing & enjoying himself, last time I heard he was enjoying himself climbing in the French alps! Liam has joined us as part of the barista team & seems to be settling into the place well! This means we will head into spring & summer with a great strong crew behind the coffee machine! We now have an espresso origin everyday, which have been awesome! the Ethiopian has been my favourite for sure, but there some other rippers that Mecca have been roasting for us too!

Unfortunately, the kitchen has beenthrough some upheaval over the last few weeks. It felt like we were about to settle into a groove, but with one chef breaking his shoulder down at the snow & needing surgery, he will be off for two months & our apprentice deciding that he’d just up & leave, we are on the hunt for staff again! We need another apprentice, & we may have already found ourselves a chef to join us in the roll into the silly season! We will also be looking for someone to take on a maitrad’e roll or floor manager as I feel that even though we have a great friendly crew, a little more structure to our service would be fantasic! If you know anyone or are interested please drop in a resume or pop by & have a chat with me.

We are in the process of trying to organise a cheese afternoon/evening for anyone interested,  & instead of running dinner over summer we are planning on running some produce dinners, but will ultimately depend on numbers. If you are interested talk to a staff member & we can
jot your details down & let you know once we have organised everything.

Don’t forget we sell everything that we make here from our jams to fetta, bread to coffee, if it is an ingredient we use we can sell it to you or order it for you! Even if we don’t use it everyday, if you are looking for speciality ingredients we can source some for you! (we even got dropped in a fresh black truffle from the southern highlands a few weeks back! Thanks Denis!!!)

P.S. Meat classes are still running Wednesdays if you are interested.

June News

With winter finally here the heaters are up & running so you can stay toasty warm on the crisper mornings! I’ve noticed that even as the weather cools, so long as it’s not raining, people are still preferring to sit outside! We are also lucky that even if there’s a cooler southerly blowing we get great protection from the building, so it is quite pleasant sitting in the sun!

We’ve had some time to try some new produce as well. In our never ending quest to bring you the best produce, we have decided to use Barossa Fine Foods for all of our smallgoods including sausages! They have an awesome reputation & have won many awards for their produce including being recognised as producing the best bacon in Australia! We’ve also sampled some fresh honeycomb recently which we’ve ordered, & it is absolutely delicious!! We’ve been enjoying it on the crusts from the ends of our fresh cut sourdough! It has also been awesome on the vanilla polenta porridge with buffalo yoghurt & banana!

We now have a lunch special running Monday to Friday. It is a set price which includes a meal & drink, which will change from day to day to keep things interesting for us & for you, & will include everything from ragu’s, sandwiches, shanks, soups & salads. It will be $10 takeaway or $15 dine in. I will run it from my mailing list & also through twitter. If you are interested, follow us on twitter (@alleybreak) or facebook, or drop a business card in the bowl on the counter & we will add you to our mailing list.

Mecca has been roasting us some amazing single estate coffee’s. From a Colombian, Tanzanian, Nicaraguan, Honduras, Ethiopian’s & even an Australian one. Try one today, talk to the boys behind the machine, or as Tanvir calls himself the machine behind the machine about whether it’s better black, in milk, or short. You’ll notice behind the coffee machine, we now have a ditting grinder, so we can easily grind coffee for your needs at home.

With July coming we have some big things planned! As part of Bastile Day (14th July) we are going to run a host of French themed specials & possibly even a Bastille dinner &/or Christmas in July dinner. We will also be part of Mushroom Mania which is the national month for mushrooms, which will see some more mushroom dishes gracing our menu & specials!

There has also been discussion about what my/our philosophy is/should be. I am not a huge fan of restaurant/cafe philosophy as most harp on about how they use the best & freshest ingredients available to them etc. which we do! After thinking about what ours would be, to be honest our philosophy is probably a very selfish one. Buy the best ingredients & produce that we can get our hands on & cook with them the food we enjoy eating. Hopefully you all will enjoy them as well! For those who know me I live for food (as most of us do). I would live by the term “have car will travel for food” (& red wine) or “life is what happens between meals!” If you think that you have a great produce supplier that we could use we would love to chat, or even if you just want to sit down & compare notes on the places you enjoy to go & eat I would happily partake in that conversation also!

P.S. Meat classes will run weekly from 23rd June. See Nick for details!