The Daily Grind @ The Peppermill Cafe
Peppermill Café, Milsons
Point
At a recent contract I went out myself and failed miserably picking
the Kirribilli Village Café and Restaurant. I tried their steak
sandwich and it was just awful, chewy, tasteless and very
overpriced. $25 off for the sandwich and a coffee. That’s when I
asked. The team I was working with and I went around the corner to
The Peppermill Café in Milsons
Point, their coffee is a little to be desired considering it’s
Campos Coffee, but it
almost always seemed burnt but the service and food was always
pretty good.
The first day I went I was recommended their regular special, a
chicken and leek pie. Not what I expected in the presentation
department but it was tasty. An individual baking dish with mashed
potato on the bottom, a regular chicken and leek filling and a
square of golden puff pastry balanced across the top. Almost every
day since then I went to Peppermill for either lunch or breakfast,
often for both. When I had breakfast, brunch, or afternoon tea, I’d
pick up a smoked salmon, ricotta and avocado croissant, the
combination of the soft buttery pastry and the oily smokiness of
the salmon was a winner.
Smoked Salmon Croissant @ Peppermill
Café, Milsons Point
They serve an all day breakfast here,
and the majority of the menu was based around breakfast but almost
as often as I’d see someone have a burger I saw someone else have
either the pancakes or french toast, both served with either bacon
and maple syrup or a mixed berry compote. Delicious stuff and well
worth a try if you want a bit of extra energy before hitting either
the Kirribilli or North Sydney Markets one weekend (I worked
weekends too). The beef burger is nice, standard fare, but the
chicken burger was the winner, chicken, bacon, avocado. Damn
tasty.
It’s also licensed and they won’t pass judgement if you have a
Bloody Mary on a Monday!
Chicken & Bacon Burger @
Peppermill Café, Milsons Point
The Peppermill Café
30 Glenn Street, Milsons Point (map)
Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm
Saturday and Sunday 8am - 4pm
T: (02) 9954 1444
F: (02) 9954 1444
www.thepeppermillcafe.com.au
Varga Bar - Swedish Wolf in Espresso Coloured Clothes
Varga Bar Espresso. Corner of Wilson
St and Erskineville Road, Newtown
I went there today with a friend of
mine that I have’t seen in years because we’re both too goddamn
lazy to meet up but we managed today. He’s very punctual though,
when he said he was running approximatley 12 minutes late, he was
exactly 12 minutes late. Good work. At least it gave me extra time
to get some descent location shots of the outside and plenty of
time to check out the hot blond barrista and the clientelé.
The thing that surprised me here, wasn’t so much the fact that what
we were served was fantastic, but it was creative. I’ve tried a lot
of cafés in Newtown but this was the first time I’ve seen a
honeycomb and belgian chocolate affogato (espresso with a scoop of
ice cream) on a menu and the cakes we had were delicious and well
presented. I had the banana cake, unfortunately a little dry in
places but delicious none the less. The other cake, the chocolate
and raspberry mousse cake was denser than you’d expect, more cakey
than moussey, but the affogato. Smooth, sweet, delicious with goopy
melted chocolate in the bottom of the glass topped with a sprinkle
of violet crumble.
Honeycomb and Chocolate Affogato and
Chocolate and Raspberry Mousse Cake
I’m going to have to come back and try out the food menu.
For once, I had a healthy breakfast
The texture of this was pretty interesting with the soft succulant fruit and sticky honey and the chewy turkish bread and it’s carbonised toasted edges it made of a quite satisfying meal. It just goes to show that simple fresh fruit is really worth while.
Turkish toast with banana and
strawberries, honey and mint
La Cachette
After I got back from the meeting I headed off to the Victoria’s Basement outlet in Alexandria with a pit-stop at a little café I’d spotted once before that seemed a little odd out on it’s own on an otherwise desolate strip of Mitchell Road.
I took a gamble and went for the salmon egg benedict roll, an unusual presentation in itself but buoyed by the fact that it looked delicious. Tasted good too! The only thing I was annoyed with was the poached egg was hard, not runny at all - but then, given that it was obviously meant to be eaten by people with a well defined palate with out any time it made sense. I won’t mind stopping in again one weekend and picking up a quiche or something else to see how that goes. Stay tuned.
Salmon Egg Benedict Roll @ La Cachette Alexandria
With the exception of the coffee (burnt and bitter, what a surprise
there), I was pleasantly surprised. Stop by if you’re going past
the area and peckish.
Food, 7/10 - Better than you’d expect
for what looks like a workman’s lunch-bar
Service, 4/10 - The girl was training and seemed
lost
Coffee, 0/10 - It was undrinkable
Value, 6.5/10 - $10.50 for a brea-roll and a
coffee, but what a bread-roll
Location, 4/10 - In the middle of
nowhere
Coffee + Martini Glass = Freaking Awesome
On the nights I was there the lounge was mostly quiet, perfect for
a book and a gin and tonic and enjoying the open bar and evening
canapés or the sweeter petit fours of an evening with a hot
chocolate. Some company would have been nice too.
Sofitel Melbourne Club
Lounge
Breakfast is a hybrid buffet and à la
carte, having scrambled eggs, bacon fruit and cereal on the bar and
a slightly changing menu of a 'big breakfast', eggs benedict etc.
I'd highly recommend the ricotta hotcakes.
Pine Nut and Honey Ricotta Hotcakes @
Sofitel Club Lounge, Melbourne
Those of you who know me, and those of you that finish reading this
sentence know that I love coffee. Most of you even know that I like
*ahem* a drink or two. So when I hit the Atrium Bar at the
Sofitel
Melbourne the night I landed I started to relax, To understand
the atmosphere in this bar you need to appreciate the layout of the
Sofitel Melbourne. Even though the reception is based on the lower
floors the hotel itself does not start until the 35th floor,
perched on top of an office tower. This is where you'll find the
Atrium Bar and it's skylight another 15 floors
above.
Atrium Bar @ Sofitel
Melbourne
I went through a couple of drinks,
starting with a fig and scotch martini that was nice except I'm not
the biggest fan of scotch - the figs almost made up for it. I ended
up with heaven in a glass with an espresso martini. Goddamn it was
good, heck, it even had crema thick and frothy enough to hold up
whole beans... It wasn't like any of the other espresso martini's
I've had before, this had a dash of frangelico in it I think.
I think I've found a reason to dust off my own martini
glasses.
Espresso Martini - Sofitel
Melbourne