Joe Black, Surry Hills

This hidden little gem right up the hyde park end of Commonwealth is easy to miss from the street. But we are glad we found it.  Glad we met Joe Black.

Many charming little idiosyncratic touches mark this cosy cafe. Diverse memorabilia lining the walls, particularly loved the juxtaposition of the famous Mexico city Olympics black power salute, Mohammed Ali boxing in front of a mirror& JFK with a framed Newington college 2006 Year 12 photo. But particularly memorable is the amazing siphon coffee which is produced using equipment normally found in a scientific laboratory (see pic) & takes a carefully detailed 15 minutes to make. Our coffee maker charmed us greatly, hello to you if you are reading this blog.

Before I go on to our review, we have to mention the Korean's young man's metro club that joined us (sat next to us but may as well joined us by sheer size and volume). The fashionabilitiness (yes I'm an English teacher so I have a license to make up words) of their shoes alone seemed straight from a Korean soap teeny bopper drama. This of course lead on to a discussion about plastic surgery.

Food was delicious. I went for Ham, cheese and avocado on toast which was lovely & I heard similar pleasurable mumurs/squeals emanating from my esteemed fellow brunchers. Coffee was like a ground-breaking scientific invention!!!

Quiz result this somewhat warm August morn was 19/20....if only we knew that Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller won an Olympic bronze medal in water polo. Incidentally readers, have you noticed the synergetic(more linguistic license) numerical pattern of our scores recently. 2 weeks ago = 17, last week = 18 & this week 19. Obviously, next week we will get a perfect 20.

ANDREW: Loved this morning. 4.5/5 golden eggs. Loved the coffee too.
BRAD: 4/5 scientifically prepared eggs. Great staff, totally relaxed as brunch should be.
SAL:

Barzura, Coogee Bay. 11th Aug, 2012

When the wind is howling and the temperature plummets, where else would one want to go but... the beach!.

Yes brunchclubbers, after some pressure from our coastal friend, we headed off to "Barzura" cafe at Coogee to sample the coffee and eggs (if not the rays). The cafe has a solid reputation and Brad remembered being here in the past when he was a 'local' for a few weeks (He was leant a friend's water view apartment right next door for a few weeks several years ago.)

We were advised to be there early and a good thing too. It is clearly a popular place with the locals. This may have impacted somewhat on the 'touch of a pre-fab feel' that was beginning to appear

Discussion topics were diverse but the level of contribution varied. The highlight was the spooky news of two different Robert Hughes in the news this week. One for being a brilliant mind and art critic, the other a child molester. Most unfortunate.

The Quiz: Well, shocking questions. All about popular culture, mummy porn and interior design. Still, the Club came up trumps and exposed at least one of us as having just a little too much general knowledge about such topics. Anyway, we scored a very respectable 18/20 but still felt like we needed a shower at the end of it.

Ratings:

BRAD: Good coffee but a little dull on the scrambled eggs which were a little too firm. You know I like things a little softer. 3 1/2 golden eggs

ANDREW: Thanks to my Coogee local colleague Kalliope for recommending this place. 3 1/2 golden eggs. Nice place but you must get here early. Sorry to my fellow brunchers that I had my period this day. Had a tough last 2 weeks & was nervous about doing the City to Surf in a twister. But shouldn't have worried, went amazingly well considering.

SAL: The highlight was the walk on the beach afterwards!

Dues Cafe

 

 A cool spot for anyone interested in custom bikes and also some interesting art works on the walls. Great brekkie. Brunch club this morning is missing one of our members whose left us for the Melbourne Film Festival this week end.

I really enjoyed my cured salmon with dill and creamy scramble eggs they were very good and coffee was okay. It was fun looking at the bikes and the accessories in the shop were great. I'd definitely go back to this one.

Conversation flowed freely about two of our favourite topics art and politics, interesting to note the painting of the Leader of the Opposition.

QUIZ: We did okay with the quizz 17/20 I think we may have improved on that score had Andy been with us.

SAL: 4 golden eggs the cured salmon was fantastic.

BRAD: 4 Golden Eggs. Especially as it was within walking distance!

This Cafe, George Street, Launceston

 Located in the main street of Launceston Tassie, "This Cafe" offered us a very acceptable brekkie during a recent visit to the Apple Isle. Good coffee and scrambled eggs with leeks (slightly overdone) scrambled eggs are always best when they leave the pan slightly underdone. A very relaxed morning discussing our day ahead's adventure. A drive up the Tamar visiting the local vineyards.

Launceston is filled with beautiful public buildings, lots of stone and lovely architecture.

We missed our third party this morning and no quizz being out of NSW no Herald GW available. Even though Andrew did text us some questions .. on holidays and brains feeling the effects of the previous evenings Pinot Noir so no score this morning.







Mike's Kitchen, Roseberry

 14/07/12

Mike's Kitchen tries just a little bit hard to be the latest hipster cafe hidden behind the old paper barks in a wharehouse with no signage!! A fun morning despite a terrible quiz score (12/20), one brunch member's refusal to start at 9am and some crappy disorganised service (but incidentally excellent dunnies).

This warehouse in the middle of the warehoused suburb of Roseberry was a good find by Brad and regular Brunch guest (and now a regular himself) Shelley. The food was delicious and the smaller portion sizes were actually really filling. Great set decoration inside.

Conversation was brimmed full of the possibilities of our soon impending trip to Tasmania (Granny Bear included who also joined us this lovely July sunny morn).
Service was pretty woeful due to a one-man show at - the - counter service who insisted on chatting about every menu possibility to every customer and was having some problems processing the credit card payments.

Shelley waited in line for an eternity just to buy a small pot of jam. Not a good look when there are more people standing in line waiting to order/pay than sitting down. Also, when our super-confident Brad tried to offer some constructive advice on how to improve the service the head guy got very defensive.

BRAD & SHELLEY SAY: Small portion size were perfect and I liked the decor   But the internet warnings were true about the bad & stupid service system.  3.5 very slowly delivered eggs
SAL SAYS: Great location. Food portion size were good however you can't serve breakfast on a tin plate without it getting cold. Tragic processes for ordering and paying. Tragic!! Loved the shop however in this environment they will fail cause it's too expensive. If they're price point was keener they would be very successful. 3 Golden Eggs for ambience and fun
GRANNY BEAR SAYS: I didn't think the food was that good really but it is a very hip place. Just 2 Golden eggs
ANDREW SAYS: 4 out of 5 for coffee and food. 3 out of 5 for service

Mrs Sippy, Bay Street, Double Bay NSW

Mrs Sippy a new eating house/bar/coffee place. It's split into a number of different areas, the footpath, a verandah space with stools a place to be seen and inside is a large cavernous room with another outside/ inside bar areas at the back. I can imagine this place in the evening being buzzy and people getting stuck into a few drinks. The interior design detail is clever, the use of old fashioned lights and the boards across the ceiling reminded me abit of a woolshed.
I felt comfortably in a big squashy lounge so happy with the decor.

The menu was small and nothing unexpected - which these days I think cafes should be working on something extra to get you to come back.

Brunch was just the two of us this morning. We were surprisingly smart this morning without our usual third party scoring a massive 18/20 for the quiz excellent work.

The coffee was very good I had two cups just to make sure, however the norwegian eggs (eggs benedict with smoked salmon) looked a little lonely on the plate a fancy name but not a fancy dish. The eggs however were perfectly poached. Service was intermitant but friendly.

An enjoyable morning we chatting about the current cinema that is worthwhile and the upcoming theatre next friday we see Death of Salesman at Belvoir which I am looking forward to. On a sad note discussed the passing of a very favoured pet Hugo he was such a great dog and will be sorely missed by his owner. RIP Hugo.

SAL: 3.5 Golden eggs enjoyable - good food and comfortable but not a place you'd rush to say "you must go there".

ANDY: 4.5 for coffee, 3.5 for food  Thanks to my favourite outrageous colleague Marie for suggesting this place. I completely share her view of this place & I quote her word for word; " Their coffee is divine, their pastries are crap but their banana bread is good and the trollop ja'mies with hangovers are great too"

Garnish, 58 Dalhousie St Haberfield, 23rd June 2012

Well today marks the first brunchclub outing that our newest family member, JD Maher (that's not him in the picture incidentally), attended in person. The almost 5-month "hey Jude" with doting mummy &daddy in tow coped magnificently this morning especially as Sal, Brad, Tossie (returning Brunch club treasured guest) & I were particularly raucous with many of our comments being completely unprintable on this public space.

However, some printable highlights included discussions of Sal's Lib party function on Thurs night featuring a dialogue between a Rabbi & an Imam which segue wayed into a discussion of Islamic history, beliefs, the role of women & the question of scared texts amongst other topics. Brad was also still brimming with philosophical stimulation from the previous night's Sydney Inklings group. Especially, Chesterson's superb, prophetic 'Orthodoxy' text about the dangers of liberalism (little L)leading to the gagging of anyone being able to discuss any life purpose questions. Oh yeah & Brad had his usual rant against Facebook.

The cafe itself was better than we were led to believe on the web (can't trust those web critics -except us of course!!). Very good food in my humble opinion, I was very happy with my spinach, fetta & tomato omelette with bacon sides. Others were happy too though Brad's bacon, eggs & mushroom was forgotten about so Brad (not used to being forgotten) would probably agree with the web comments that service was not really flash.
Finally, we were exceptional on the quiz this morning almost attaining perfection just stumbling on one question the other name for whale bone (Baleen). Overall, a fun experience this June morn.

JUDE SAYS: "Mummy"
ANDREW SAYS: How cute is my nephew? Great fun 4 GOLDEN EGGS.
BRAD SAYS: No one leaves Baby in the corner! Awful service and very bland food. I really 'lucked out' with this one. 2 Golden (weel, more rather grey-looking) Eggs.
SAL SAYS:
NIGE/GEORGE SAYS: Very good food. And the rest of the patrons were probably happy too see us go. 4 out of 5
MARK(tossie) SAYS: