Devon - 76 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills

Cool little cafe in Surry Hills - outstanding staff. Our waitress patiently took our order without writing down a thing and without a mistake. Plus we changed our minds several times and there were six of us!!! impressive.


Food was clever with an Asian influence, I had miso grilled salmon with a hash brown and the increasingly popular 63 degrees poached egg, beautifully presented - other interesting things on the menu were oxtail and the usual big brekkie food was available for the less adventurous.

 

The interior was clever a mix of retro and hipster but fun and comfortable. We sat out the back and with the outside roller door half way up a lovely breeze kept us cool.

With more than the usual number of brunch club members we had a plenty of brains around the table for the GW quiz - and the score was an impressive 19.5/20. Lots of chat around the table on the cast of South Pacific and Teddy's attributes! Films to be seen and decisions to be made for next years theatre subscription.

BRAD: 4 golden eggs - the waitress alone was worth it.

SAL: I too am giving 4 golden eggs for this little gem, inventive food, attention to detail and very good staff - as well as excellent company this morning.

ANDREW: 3.5 golden eggs

Gowings Bar & Grill - Sydney CBD (28 Sept 2013)

You know its been a great brunch when you lose track of the time to the point where the kitchen closes, the tables are re-set, the lunch shift move in and... you're still there chatting and laughing. Such was the case when an extended and cosmopolitan brunchclub made its way to Gowings Bar & Grill, located on the first floor of the much-loved iconic Gowings building on the corner of George and Market St.

For the males amongst us, memories of the Gowings that was - a place where gentlemen could get all their sartorial and toiletry needs attended to by polite and reassuring staff - were initially hard to reconcile with its re-incarnated state as a groovy ultra-Sydney venue that its interior designed to within an inch of its life. However, any reservations were soon swept away by the quality of the food, the congeniality of the company and the high quality of service - replete with even a genuine French waiter, can you believe it?!

While one of our permanent members had been granted leave, joining us this morning were guests from   as far afield as San Antonio, Texas, Walgett, the "inner

south" and even Woolhara. Animated discussion included the dedication and steely determination of our new PM (foreknown by one our members), lively debate on the the role of 'elite' sports at certain GPS schools, which prompted a reflection on the value of true eduction (the type that produces the lad who won the Alumni medal at a gala event last night). If only more successful people could quote John Donne! Such conversation would have nourished any soul but there was also the food...

Rockerfella Eggs-cooked at 63 degrees exactly, on brioche, with spinach and black caviar. Yum!
Smoked salmon tortilla puree advocados and green chillies - to die for!

SAL: 5 golden eggs! The tone, ambience, flavour and bon vivant was hard to beat. Too frigging cool by half but I loved it!

BRAD: 5 (63 degree) golden eggs. A new Gowings and a worthy successor. Service was spot on and I loved it.

GUESTS: Too busy to rank. Altogether... yummy!

The Annex, Forest Lodge

Hipster heaven!

Located amid the green-voting inner city vegan purists, this cafe is a shrine to all things ethically pure, ecologically sound, and puritanically environmental. Despite this, its a great place. Terrific coffee, good service, and tasty food at a reasonable price combine to make this one of the inner city finds of the year.

Limited space but we were granted the big top table in the back, but even this would not be space enough as later events would show...

Food: summed up in one word - "flodgeweed". Which apparently denotes assorted vegetable garnish source in local terrace gardens in the local suburb. No food miles here, thank you very much.

SAL: 3.5 Golden Eggs - loved the cafe - staff were very attentive, food was delicious.

BRAD:

Opera House Forecourt, 17/08/13

Underwood Cafe (20/07/13), Canberra weekend (26-28/07/13), Excelsior Jones ( 03/08/13) & Wellco Norton St Leichardt (10/08/13)

Hello readers. Remember us? Apologies for the more than two months since our last post due to one bruncher's incredible first Eurotrip & the others in mourning (maybe not) & then just our general slackness in updating our last three weeks.

In summary, the day of my return from Wimbledon, Manchester, Berlin, Hamburg, Gottingen, Munich, Muttenz, Basel & Lucerne (not to boast of course) found us at Underwood Cafe with the Brunch three, Connie & the first time guest the wing commander. Main recollections were lovely hidden location with a typical 'tude' Eastern Suburbs staff  (what can you expect if it is owned by Singo) & a perfect 20 out of 20 in the quiz to top off the jet lagged frenzy.  3 Golden Eggs


Next,  -4 degree trip to Canberra (Brad was salivating) for another  Brunch club special with Shelley though sans the boy from Coonamble. Cultural, visual grazing delight as always. 5 Golden Eggs forevermore.


Last weekend, the entire Fatty Family (one day dear Bloggers we will tell that story of the side-splittingly hilarious tale of the infamous & seminal 1993 Art Gallery car park nab) was reunited at Excelsior Jones for brunch club in Ashfield. Ma and Pa Lampe were the first to arrive to win us a much needed place in this popular, delicious but poorly acoustic spot recommended to us by our occasional Brunch club guests Nigel & Caz. And by the end of the morning we had our youngest member of Bclub join us the

adorable Jude along with his devotee parents. Little bit underwhelmed in the quiz but conversation was warm with even a bit of political disagreement for once!!! Overall we would rate this place between 3.5 & 4 Golden Eggs

Finally, we arrive at this morning's Bclub & lets just say dear reader that you better strap yourself in for this one because the conversation was both libelous & of tears streaming down the face quality. Participants were we happy three & regular guests Connie with Poodle pet in tow & Jan. The bar was set high (or maybe low) for the conversation flavour when our first topic was the penis in the cab. sav. latest Queensland political scandal involving the ethics committee member Dowling. From there we moved on to Hezbollah and Gaza Strip infiltrations, the absolute mark of superficiality of the phenomenon known as cocktail cruising, as well as certain well known identity's penchant for exotic holidays in Thailand leading us to wonder who stands up for the local boys. But the absolute culmination of the morning was  the discussion of salami weekends. To explain, we started on Connie's beloved former poodle's starring role in the second underbelly series as the Mckay hitman's pet which led us to the mafioso in Griffith which in turn lead us to Jan's recollection in Palermo being warned about some infamous Italian families and their fondness for Salami weekends. At this point, the tears flowed and the mascara ran.

CONNIE: No wonder they have such a large family with their fondness for Salami weekends.

Dear readers, we haven't finished yet. Even the quiz ended in apoplexy. Question 16 asked us to name the sport of a former 1984 Olympic Australian champion at which point one of our Brunch club guests answered 'Sailing. He was an old root of mine.'

No more to say. A Brunch club like no other. 4-5 Golden Eggs from everyone for the conversation alone. Who cares about the cafe, which by the way was excellent.

Something 4 Jess

This unassuming small cafe in Abercrombie Street was a delightful surprise this morning. Art on the walls, a interesting menu using locally sourced produce from as far as the Blue Mountains was excellent. Service friendly and coffee was good.

The last gathering for a couple of months of the core brunch club team as Andrew heads off to the UK for a dose of Wimbleton, stawberries and champagne and importantly "the tennis" his obsession - that includes tickets to centre court!!! Brad and I will be left to carry on. So guests will be most welcome.

This morning I had Jeruselem artichoke puree with fresh date plum, braised zucinni, gold radish, pickled  turnips and mascapone on toast - and it was delicious. Fresh and very tasty - and the other standout was fresh green fig brushcetta with french tarragon, avocado puree, roasted red capsicum crispy speck and shaved pecorino also very good. And well priced.

Discussion this morning revolved around the media's fasination with the producer of the newest version of the Great Gatsby and the seemingly endless rounds of self promotion that are occuring.

The quiz was reasonable this morning scoring 17/20 which will suffice. 

SAL: Excellent I will come again - even though this is not a usual brunch club activity to repeat cafes this was so good I will be back - five golden eggs.

BRAD:

ANDREW:

Pavillon Beachfront Maroubra





 



local talent













Farewell to the Bra..a fond farewell to Maroubra beach as brunch clubber Andrew is moving on from living here. A stunning autumn morning at the beach. Cafe was a bright modern light and airy spot perfect for beach watching.



The brekkie was good, Haveros Ranchos eggs were great. One of the delightful things about this cafe was the staff - mature girls who knew exactly when to ask whether more coffee was required - blond, surfie chicks without any attitude, just relaxed

and professional.

Very enjoyable.  Our Quizz efforts this morning were not great Brad was the saviour of the side getting most of the winning answers.

SAL:  I rated this highly - great location, really enjoyed my breakfast, staff were excellent. Four golden eggs

I will be coming back here - especially good for an out of town visitor.

BRAD:

ANDREW: