july august news
I’ve started supplying a few places with our sourdough & rolls. This means that we’ve changed the slice size on our bread, as most other establishments are asking for thinner sliced bread. It ultimately means that the price of toast & eggs on toast has been reduced to reflect this. These are the only menu changes that have happened currently, there will probably be some menu changes, possibly a big overhaul in around a month. We will test some new dishes through the specials leading up to this. We would love to have your feedback on some of these & any dishes that you would like to remain, or even suggestions for new items?
Through my daughter’s italian boyfriend, I experienced salami day in the middle of July, & I brought a mincer with sausage attachment for it, so we have been experimenting with making our own sausages & chorizo. A smoker is next on the purchase list & we may even go down the path of attempting our own ham & bacon, but ultimately it will be used for our smoked salmon which we seem to chew through.
A few of you may remember earlier on in the year I wrote about voting for us to win a new website through Digerati. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but none the less, we are in need of a new website & Tim from Digerati has become a good friend, so we are in the process of sorting out a new website. This will be one of the aesthetic changes happening over the coming months. We are in the process of hopefully organising a new coffee machine, some new tables, & am speaking with council regarding our outdoor structure & hopefully we can sort something
out to cover us a little better for wet weather. If I get through everything on my “to do” list there maybe even more.
Produce dinners have been received extremely well with the next one coming up on the 27th July which will be a Heston inspired Christmas in July, & then we are working on sourcing some truffles (but not confirmed yet) for the following month which is the 31st August. There is still availability for both at the time of printing, so be sure to let me know if you would like to come as they normally fill pretty quickly, & are great fun, & a great experience, for us as well!
Tanvir’s back from Bangladesh which is awesome, he will be heading back again during August as he was married whilst he was there late last year & has a baby on the way! (we are taking bets on what gender it will be & he will happily take any name suggestions) He will be back once the baby has arrived, & will organise for his wife & newborn to come to live here in Oz also. With Tanvir’s return we are pretty good staff wise on the floor & behind the coffee machine, but we are still struggling for staff in the kitchen. We ultimately are looking for a qualified chef &/or one or two apprentice chefs. If you know anyone passionate about food & is looking for work, send them our way, great hours, pay & what a view!
Between all of the barista’s now, there’s normally always a cold drip coffee on offer, if you’re interested in trying it, ask the guys & I’m sure they’ll love to share it with you & get some feed back. It is a lighter style black coffee which accentuates the fruit in the coffee, & will be a welcome alternative come summer. The new crop of coffee’s have come in from Mecca meaning coffee has been as good as ever. I will attempt to keep up with the never ending news supply that Mecca sends us on what coffee’s we’re drinking & what the darkhorse blend contains as it changes so frequently. We have also been featuring single estate coffee’s roasted by the boys at whitehorse, which have been amazing. We look forward to the great coffee ride continuing from both camps!
look forward to seeing you all soon,
Nick
may news
I have continually struggled to clarify my position on food & our philosophy. We have always tried to source the freshest, most local, & best produce that we can, like many cafe’s & restaurants, but I have read an introduction in a cook book recently that pretty much nails the way I feel. It is called the real food companion by mathew evans, & in his introduction talks about one degree of food seperation. The menu will continuing to evolve due to this, mainly the lunch menu, & any/all feedback would be appreciated as we source & find suppliers that we can build relationships with, so that our quality of produce is not only second to none, but there will be complete transparency.
Through building these relationships, we will endeavor to stock the produce that we are using so that you can buy much more of our amazing produce as well. As Hapi & Kath’s organic fruit & vegetables come back from their wash out earlier in the year, Kath has suggested that she can supply weekly market bags, full of their & others organic produce that you could pick up. We could also, arrange some of our organic sourdough to go in with the goodies. Let me know if you are interested in this as their produce is still a little over a month away. They normally deliver to us weekly on Thursdays, as I get more details I will let those who are interested know.
Produce dinner’s have been received extremely well with the next one coming up on the 25th May & then the 29th June. Be sure to get in quick as they normally book out very quickly, the May one will be a matched wine dinner & the June dinner a BYO night. We’ve also been getting our hands on some organic suckling pigs & hosted a couple of casual dinners for groups that order a whole pig & share it with their friends. If you are interested in either of these nights, come & have a chat with me & we will look after you. Unfortunately, when we had our little creatures dinner back in March they didn’t quite have their latest single batch beer ready which we hoped, but.... it is out, it is called the quiet american, & is amazing. If you can get your hands on some I would thoroughly recommend it, probably one of the best beers if not the best beer that I’ve ever had.
We’ve changed our opening hours slightly also, no longer opening at 6am, we will open at 7am, this may mean that coming into spring & summer that we open later as I will most probably be here later anyway as the baking schedule ramps up. We will try & move to baking 7 days, but will still depend on how busy we are Sunday as to whether we bake Monday’s or not. If we do open later coming into spring we will probably open Wednesday, Thursday & Friday evenings for a simple dinner, but will keep you updated closer to the time.
Between all three of the barista’s now, there’s normally always a cold drip coffee on offer, the coffee has been as good as ever. I will attempt to keep up with the never ending news supply that mecca sends us on what coffee’s we’re drinking & what the darkhorse blend contains as it changes so frequently. We will also start to take some single estate coffee’s roasted by the boys at whitehorse, as we are already using their decaf, & is always great!
Lastly, on a last note we are still looking for staff, mainly kitchen staff at the moment, chef’s apprentices, & always looking for a good barista’s. Send them our way! Great hours, pay & what a view!
look forward to seeing you all soon,
Nick
