The Sydney Northern Beaches and Pittwater Peninsular
have been a well kept secret in the café world. We recently discovered some great café concepts that have escaped the mainstream media attention, which we would now like to celebrate and highlight.
The Northern Beaches area has always had a laid back, relaxed atmosphere due to the surf culture that has been very prominent in the lifestyle of the people who live there or visit frequently. As soon as you cross the Spit Bridge, you notice a difference. There is a sense of space, and these coastal suburban players are quite different from their neighbouring inner city dwellers. The same goes for the style and design of the Northern Beaches café culture, with that cross between a cool takeaway that often converts quickly to a trendy bar. The Northern Beaches café is a place where you can relax for hours and feel like a tourist, even though you might live 30 minutes away in the city. I used to work with a guy in the CBD, and he would say when he was going home to Manly each evening on the ferry that it was like going on a small beach vacation.
You can’t talk about the coffee scene in Sydney’s north without mentioning Belaroma Coffee, which started roasting coffee in the ’60s and still has its headquarters in Manly Vale. Recent renovations have brought this iconic business to the frontline of being one of Australia’s premier coffee businesses. Belaroma Coffee has nutured many great coffee champions and has a very strong presence around the Northern Suburbs.
Another gem of a café we visited for breakfast twice during our stay was Hemingway’s in Manly. The food was exciting, and the great coffee also matched well with the excellent gourmet breakfast offerings of bacon and eggs on Brioche burger buns with a tasty homemade tomato relish. The café resembles an old English library, and the menu was inside an old World Book encyclopedia. I had to explain to my kids that these books were our closest thing to their modern day iPad 40 years ago. The café transforms into a trendy bar at night and a good hideout from the bustling pubs down on the Corso.
I had an excellent coffee at Barefoot Coffee off the esplanade, right beside Adriano Zumbo’s Manly venture. The kids loved the macarons, whilst the adults enjoyed our first morning fix out of the slick Mirage espresso machine. The original Whistler Street Barefoot is also operating and is still an iconic place to visit as an example of a hole in the wall concept.
Our next stop on our café crawl was Coffee Brothers in Mona Vale, to try the unique Vanuatu coffees on offer. I couldn’t resist the cinnamon scroll that was urging me to eat it at the counter. The business is in a semi industrial site on the edge of the shopping precinct and is well patronised by the locals. The coffee was great and the food look very tempting … even after my – “Yes” – second scroll.
Tony Macri and his team have been sourcing great coffee from the Tana Island region of Vanuatu, and it has been a hit amongst local roasters with its fruity flavour profiles.
The next café we heard about was Zubi at Newport. Zubi’s passionate young café team has been smashing out great coffees to the locals for a number of years now and has people spilling out the doors every morning. The food is best experienced in the cool garden setting at the rear of the café. Inside, the decor is rustic in design, giving the space a warm, cozy feeling. The café often has live music on offer and can make for a slow and easy weekend destination.
Saving one of the best to last was Flamingos and Dingos, a new espresso bar in Robertson Road, Newport. It was great to have a surprise catch up with Rea, a great friend whom we helped early in her barista career from our neck of the woods, Port Macquarie. Rea and her team run a series of grinders and have a good choice of high-grade origins in the hoppers. The café attracts a young surfy crowd and has a fun, open plan feel. The single origin she served us was a highlight.
Because of a quick weekend trip, I have missed plenty of other great cafés, restaurant and bars on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, so you can take the option of exploring and find your own favourites. It’s nice to be able to drive 30 minutes out of a city and find a chill zone giving you that coastal vacation feel. I definitely look forward to my next weekend on the coast.
