Sydney - Brewtown Newtown, Black Star Pastry, Bills, Paramount Coffee Project

Earlier this year, I was surprised by a quick work trip up to Sydney with my boss for one night. 

The bonus of working in a company, where there is a focus on working with hospitality outlets as well as staying on top of what’s happening in the scene, means that in between work, we’re making sure to squeeze in some good proper food. 

After a morning meeting in Waterloo, we scuttled over to Newtown and made tracks for Brewtown Newtown, first on my list, as I had been lusting over their cruffins on Instagram. 

Brew town Newtown feels all hipster; kinda warehouse-y, lo-fi feel but with nice fit out details, staff who courteous but not overly friendly and a splash of retro with lovely sign writing here and there. 

Coffees look good, chai is hearty, but what really gets my blood pumping, is the black pudding dish, presented more as a salad, with some greens, a touch of fennel, sweet roasted capsicum and a touch of dairy (I’ve forgotten exactly what it was). What surprised me was just how generous they were with the black pudding, almost lining the bottom of the plate, and I loved this fresh use black pudding, which is otherwise generally used in heavy and rich dishes. I couldn’t finish this because there was so much!

But let’s also not forget what we were here for. Them cruffins and cronuts. How are you supposed to just choose one when there are like 6 flavours for each? I opt for a cruffin, since I haven’t seen them too often in Melbourne (and they didn’t have a little oil patch underneath them). 

Oh man. Made directly upstairs, the nutella cruffin was everything. Absolutely stuffed with nutella, so that you could definitely get hazelnut chocolatey goodness in every bite, and also light and gently crunchy. I loved that these felt indulgent, but not oily or heavy. 

From one sweet, to another. Black Street Pastry is conveniently located 10 minutes down the road from Brewtown Newtown, so I had to get my hands on the famous strawberry watermelon cake with rose scented cream.

Goodness. It is beautiful and tasted delicious. Although I’m usually a rich chocolate dessert person, this still made me very happy, with fresh and light flavours, and fun little surprises. I did not honestly expect a whole layer to actually be a slice of watermelon. It’s so refreshing and provides such an interesting texture with the cream. Gluten free too, many levels of happiness. 

For dinner, after a couple more meetings, we made our way to Bills in Surry Hills for dinner. I’d been previously for breakfast, and loved how the bright and chirpy interiors during the day translated to an upmarket but still relaxed atmosphere in the evening. 

Hits that evening definitely included the yellow fish curry with spiced pumpkin, peanuts, brown rice and cucumber relish, which I could not stop lopping onto my rice, with lovely rich coconut flavour and sweetness from the pumpkin, and the completely moreish Korean fried chicken with iceberg lettuce, spring onion and chilli sesame. 

I also could not resist the brown sugar pavlova with vanilla poached rhubarb and rosewater yoghurt when I saw it come out for the table of guys next to us. I had to giggle when I overheard one of them saying they needed to take a picture for the missus. 

Because I mean really. Just look at it. It’s absolutely salivating stuff; light and sweet. The poached rhubarb is just divine. 

The next morning, my boss took me to Paramount Coffee Project, which was around the corner from our hotel in Surry Hills as well. 

Goodness. If you love interiors, Paramount Coffee Project is just gorgeous. It’s a cafe, cinema and bar, and apparently there’s a bike repair shop around the back somewhere as well too. High ceilings, and a slick mix of tiles, worn brick and polished concrete, with suitably broody black and white murals on the walls. 

For breakfast we opted to share a crumbed eggs on toast, with mustard braised hock and kale. Although it read well on paper, our eggs were unfortunately, a little overcooked, but I loved the richness of the hock. 

What I also really, really enjoyed, was because they didn’t do chai, I got to have a pecan buttermilk instead. Oh man. Why isn’t this stuff everywhere? Rich, creamy, with a lovely strong nuttiness to it, I absolutely loved this. This is just begging to be drunk in cold weather in front of a fire place or something. Yum. 

And with that, the rest of the day was unfortunately spent working. I have no doubt that if left to my own devices I could have found much more to eat…but that was all to be saved for the next trip I had up to Sydney, when Brad and I would visit for a weekend…

Brewtown Newtown

6-8 O'Connell Street

Newtown NSW 2042

 

Black Star Pastry

277 Australia Street

Newtown NSW 2042

 

Bills

359 Crown Street

Surry Hills 2010

 

Paramount Coffee Project

80 Commonwealth Street

Surry Hills 2010

 

Bibelot Launch

Disclosure: I was invited as a guest to the Bibelot launch party

Do I really need to say much about Bibelot? I’ll give you a quick intro, then you guys can just enjoy a smorgasbord of deliciousness that I got to see and try at the launch that I’m sure will get you to the stunning new dessert space in South Melbourne stat. 

Located on Coventry Street, in front of Chez Dre (who are also the masterminds behind this elegant Willy Wonka factory), Bibelot offers a divine selection of beautiful cakes and sweet gourmet gifts, making just about everything on site, from their chocolate bars, to their gelato. 

Generously sized macarons, rich but not overwhelming chocolate and passionfruit cakes, and plates of marshmallows covered in chocolate...it was a bit of a wonderland of an evening!

Speaking of gelato, they have two chocolate taps, one dark and one milk, constantly on the run, and their pistachio gelato is now one of my new favourites. I know! I died. 

Since the launch, I’ve personally been back twice to load up on cake. It’s good. Run, don't walk!

Bibelot

287 Coventry Street

South Melbourne

Piggery Cafe Afternoon Tea

What's the best value afternoon just outside of Melbourne at the moment? I'll tell you (reluctantly). Piggery Cafe's afternoon tea.

The Piggery Cafe is part of Shannon Bennett's (of Vue de Monde fame) Burnham Beeches project, just one small part of a bigger development, which for now only includes a bakery, cafe and an emu farm. It's located on a stunningly lush property in Sherbrooke, with a lot more to come. In the near future expect to see a dairy, a steakhouse, even a hotel so that you can really try everything that the place will have to offer. 

Sarah had previously popped by the Piggery Cafe for lunch, then discovered all the sweet treats on offer for afternoon tea, which is available from 2:30pm. 

When Daisy and I heard of this, we arranged a girls afternoon out, stat!

As mentioned, Burnham Beeches is just stunning, surrounded by greenery in a way that makes you stop to breathe it all in before taking another step to the bustling cafe. 

Outside was warm, sunny and just lovely. Inside Piggery Cafe, it was just as charming, a mix of material textures providing a surprisingly rustic warmth to the space. I'm also tickled by the close attention to detail that's evident throughout the cafe, toasters on the end of each of the communal tables inside the restaurants, and even in the toilets a very lovely piece of wood, painted in green, with text engraved into it asking people to only throw toilet paper down the loo. I mean really, who goes into that much detail?

While the counter bench sports a delectable selection of salads, cakes to have in and bring home and breads baked in the bakery, our eyes snap out of our heads when we spot the afternoon tea table. 

Scones, mini versions of all the cakes they have, meringues and other sweet treats…we couldn't wait.

Afternoon tea at the Piggery Cafe consists of 5 canape sized savouries, 6 sweet treats picked out by the chef from the dessert table, scones and unlimited coffee, tea or Valrhona hot chocolate. All for just $25 a head. Woah.

To begin with, you simply must get one of the hot chocolates. Thick and rich, it hits the lips heavy and comforting at the same time. This is not an overly sweet hot chocolate, with intensely rich dark cocoa flavours swirling through the mouth. Totally worth it (especially when it's listed as $5.50 regularly otherwise…). Would have had two if I could fit them both in!

And let's not overlook the marshmallow made in house that it's served with either now…

The plate of savouries is served up on a beautiful piece of wood, complete with hand torn seeded bread (efficient, but also quite pretty and rustic looking) and garlic dip, which oh my goodness is just so good. 

One thing about Piggery Cafe though, for all the customers and beautiful food they had, service could use a little bit of polishing. Although generally all smiles and for the most part friendly, these big platters were hitting our table and the server would then vanish, with us scratching our heads trying to figure out what we were eating. It would have also been nice if we had been informed that the dessert selection was made by the chef, as I would have otherwise specifically requested the lemon tarts which I had been eyeing…We also found they could be relatively difficult to flag down as well, but we weren't ever left waiting too long for anything. 

But back to the savouries, mushroom pastries, smoked fish on dark bread, sandwiches and terrine, everything served up was relatively simple, but so well executed. 

The scones were a real treat, humble looking, but delectably fluffy, the fruit scones were particularly delicious with a nice hit of cinnamon. Especially so with the whipped cream that was light like air, and the orange or mandarin jam (I've forgotten which). Although I'm usually more of a fan of strawberry or raspberry jams, I did very much enjoy this alternative (which I'm sure was made in house). 

Last, but certainly not least, was our plate of sweets, carefully laid out on a plate to look like an edible piece of modern art. Although I didn't get my desired lemon tarts, I had nothing to complain about with the presence of simply perfect coconut macaroons, rich chocolate ganache tarts, frangipane tarts, carrot cakes, interestingly green but tasty pistachio caneles and wee little pink meringues (which we spied Shannon Bennett's kids liberally picking off the main table as we left). 

There's absolutely nothing to dislike in the sweets, I enjoyed the diversity of our treats, from the dense chocolate to the airier macaroons. It really is quite a lot to get through though, but it's the perfect thing to graze over all afternoon.

And graze all afternoon we did, with multiple pots of English breakfast tea to wash down the sugar and tirades of gossip, laughter and iPhone photos. We started at 2:30 and probably didn't leave until about 5. With a bit of sun on the back and a warm cup of tea in the hands, it's really just such a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. And again, I couldn't believe how cheap it was, especially as so many high teas in Melbourne are at least $55. Throw me out into the greenery and sunshine for half that price any day of the week!

I'd be interested to see if they keep the price as it is for some time to come, and if they do, I'll certainly be a regular visitor. Even if the service still isn't quite there, it's very easy to be distracted by the ambience, especially when you have great company. As the weather warms up, how could you ask for a better Saturday or Sunday afternoon really? 

Piggery Cafe

1 Sherbrooke Road

Sherbrooke 3789 

Victoria

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