With cafés and eateries popping up across the coast, it’s difficult to keep up with the openings. Here are some new and almost new cafés which you may have missed:
Daymaker Espresso has popped up beside the Pacific Ave Fruit and Meat Market. Clean and spare, with greenery and recycled wood, there’s a story behind every piece of wood, every table top and painted wall. Starting with a base seasonal vegan-friendly menu of eight breakfast dishes and four lunches, Daymaker boosts our choices through its vegan and hormone-free meat add-ons. Good food, great Axil Roasters coffee and welcoming service… It’s a bit like a warm embrace – a great way to start your day.
One Café is another local secret, tucked away in a laneway off Bundall Road. Housing a resident top class chef, Andrew Chapman, expect to find restaurant-class meals, salads to go and juices made to order in this tiny café. When we visit, a kettle of soup sits on the counter and daily specials include Jamaican goat curry and Porchetta roast served with low GI accompaniments such as riced cauli and sweet potato. With a full cabinet of treats and meals to go, One Café’s star is rising. NOTE: Andrew Chapman is now a chef at Wine barrel, Mudgeeraba.
First Fruits Coffee Café & Roastery has opened a fresh, light-filled café in the Clocktower complex. Besides the weekly roast in the back of the café, the space is perfect for weekend coffee classes and family outings. There’s a short but wide-ranging brunch menu including a splash of each of the favourites: eggs, burgers, bowls, pancakes, veg and meat, cakes and slices. With this café the first of several planned, these ‘first fruits’ may lead to a full harvest.
In the village of Mudgeeraba, co-owner chef Paul Horne credits Mondo Organics as the inspiration for The Oak Café’s menu, stressing the “importance of produce, using the very best that you can.” With Paul’s attention to detail in this little community café, it’s mighty fine eating for the price; the calibre of food you’d expect at a renowned capital city establishment. The Oak also plans to hold cooking classes as they become more firmly established.
NOTE: This article was published in The Sun newspaper on 29 August 2018.