The Carpenter
Devon North Sydney
Barbetta
Yep, more cafes. Including a casual iteration of restaurant-cafe Devon; a couple of spots in Marrickville, one doing excellent coffee and another reliving the area’s milk-bar glory days; and an Italian-Aussie classic.
Barbetta
Come here for Italian-Australian breakfasts, brunches and lunches by the three brothers behind Cipri Italian, their restaurant next door on Elizabeth Street, Paddington.
The Il Contadino is Barbetta’s breakfast burger; it has truffle-infused pan-fried mortadella and kale. And for lunch there are are classics such as carbonara, eggplant parmigiana, pork and veal meatballs, and calamari fritti. Inside the counter cabinet you’ll find cannoli and bombe. Enjoy it all inside a space that looks like a 1940s Milanese diner. Classic.
Devon North Sydney
Devon North Sydney doesn’t shake up Sydney’s cafe scene like its predecessors (Devon Cafe in Surry Hills and Barangaroo) did, but it’s still recognisably Devon-like in that it presents restaurant-level food in a cafe setting and mixes cuisines to remarkable effect. For example, the “omurice”, a Japanese omelette – which is unashamedly ugly – with gravy and a fluffy egg and a clump of garlicky tomato rice.
But there’s a strong traditional-cafe element too if you want to keep things simple; croissants from Luxe, guest-roasted coffee, and the rocket, quinoa and kale veggie bowl topped with a zucchini fritter. The space is also more family-oriented than the other more hip Devons; there is space for prams and the timber and natural light make it a bit more relaxed.
Matinee
Via its retro-sleek design, this cafe is not letting the dwindling number of milk bars in Marrickville allow them to be forgotten (although it might itself represent the gentrification responsible for their demise). It has sky-blue floors, orange table tops, a crimson-tiled communal table and linoleum surfaces in abundance. There’s a coffee-rubbed pork hash accompanied by poached eggs, and after 11am hand-rolled saffron pasta with hot smoked salmon, kale and tomato and specks of bottarga. There’s also a dairy-and-gluten-free lemon meringue pie and the house-blend coffee is designed to taste like Neapolitan ice-cream.
The Carpenter
The Mavam coffee machine is kind of a big deal here. It’s built into the bench and three group heads sprout from the bartop allowing customers to see the baristas extract viscous double-ristretto shots from coffee by The Little Marionette; the result is a big, full-bodied flavour.
Breakfast and lunch are served all day in the industrial-chic space illuminated with skylights (in a previous life it was a wholesale furniture outlet and before that a paint store). For breakfast there is bacon-and-egg served in a milk bun from Brickfields. And for lunch there’s a pulled-pork roll served with crinkle-cut chips and gravy, lamb-kofta skewers with mint yoghurt, and a pork- and ham-stuffed Cubano sandwich.
Double Tap
Come here for unfussy, great coffee and inexpensive but high-quality food (pretty much everything is under $10). Owner Daniel Karaconji was the head roaster at Coffee Alchemy and here he’s using Panorama for the milk-based coffees and a large and varied selection of rotating single origins for black coffees. The menu involves sandwiches (ham, cheese and salad) and za’atar bread pockets stuffed with tomato, mozzarella and mint. There are also croissants and pastries, and cakes made by Karaconji’s mum.
Want more great eating? Read Broadsheet’s list of the best Sydney restaurants of 2018 (So Far) here.
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