Brookfield Place, Print Hall Basement Laneway
125 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA
(08) 6282 0022
When Simon Catoni wanted to return to his hometown of Perth from a stint in Melbourne working with Dukes Coffee Roasters, an opportunity came up to set up a café/bakery/roasting concept with Dukes and The Colonial Leisure Group. Small Print Bakery & Roastery is in the precinct of the BHP Head Office in the Brookfield Building in Perth’s CBD. The location sits directly under the Historic Print Hall, which is an iconic Perth hot spot with a sophisticated wine bar and fine dining restaurant.
The café is busy Monday to Friday servicing the thousands of office workers and visitors that pass by its doors daily. It has a serious coffee output and a team of baristas pump out hundreds of cups in the morning shifts, all with high quality presentation.
The coffee is roasted in-house by Simon and his team, with many rare and interesting origins sourced directly. The team roasts on a “Loring” roaster from the USA, and a glass wall separates the facility from the main café. Simon has taken on a few accounts with other cafés since the opening in 2012, and he is starting to focus on growing this side of the business in Western Australia. His approach is about exploring flavours, and some of his origins that we tasted were standouts.
The bakery side of the business fits in perfectly with the coffee concept, and the bread and cake display is very well presented and everything is baked fresh daily. Most of the breads and pastries are artisan baked and are quite unique in style. The bakers have produced some old favourites with some cool twists on pie and sausage roll selections … definitely a bit more up market than the old tradies’ favourites.
The breakfast menu has a great range. They boasted to using good Western Australian produce, which appeased my travelling foodie needs. The team at Small Print is exceptionally well trained and very friendly, which is fitting for such a classy establishment.
I visit hundreds of cafés every year, and Small Print has made it onto my top 10 list. The only issue I can see is you may have to wait a few minutes for coffee during morning rush, because this place really does get slammed. It’s worth waiting for, and I will be back in the alley at Small Print for the duck pastie as well in the near future.
Open Mon – Fri: 6.30am – 4pm; Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: closed.
