Penny Farthing Espresso: 206 High Street, Northcote, 9482 2246
My score: 3.5/5
Just when it seems that every niche must surely have been plugged in Melbourne’s cafe landscape, Penny Farthing pedals up with another way to do things differently: coffee cocktails at dinnertime. Who knew Melbourne was waiting to get wired, drunk and fed while contemplating a steampunk version of a vintage bicycle? Luckily, the superbly sartorial brothers that own Penny Farthing, Trevor and Steve Simmons, read the hand-picked single-origin tea leaves and got it sorted.
Penny Farthing is still doing the careful breakfasts (pea and sage bruschetta with poached egg) and approachable lunches (sourdough sandwich with roasted pumpkin, capsicum and feta) that have made it a High Street success since it opened a year ago. Of course, they’re still doing coffee that satisfies bean spotters, brew geeks and the merely addicted. But from about 5pm, Wednesday to Saturday, there’s a subtle shift that sees the cafe morph into – not quite a restaurant – but certainly a nice place for dinner.
Trevor is following an interest in proper dining that’s seen him work at Radii, Mutti’s and Denn, down the hill in Westgarth (where, by the way, Merricote is looking lovely). He’s brought a night crew in, including chef Sam Kenna, whose light, fresh, easy-sharey food includes an enjoyable smoked duck salad with prosciutto, figs and radicchio, and smart semolina gnocchi that’s served with pickled beetroot, pine nuts and a restrained scattering of chard sprouts. You don’t often get a great fish dish in a cafe, so it behooves me (‘behooves’ is OK when there’s a 19th century bicycle theme) to mention an elegant kingfish dish of almost-cooked fillets with a stylish salad of fennel, ruby grapefruit, olives and lemon vinaigrette.
There’s an all-Vic wine list and local beer on tap but give the coffee cocktails a go. My ‘Step Through’ (filter coffee, Campari, Triple Sec, cucumber and lime) was a neat introduction to caffeinated quaffing. There’s the more hard-core Fixie, with vodka, kahlua and double ristretto (oh is that you, dawn?) and the desserty Penny Farthing Espresso with the digestive Fernet-Branca, Kahlua and cinnamon. Coffee also pops up in some desserts, though I had a yummy rosewater rice flour milk pudding that caused me to enter an entirely pleasant reverie that included a patchwork quilt and dentures.
Coffee and food are tricksy bedfellows but when they shack up with such enthusiasm and good taste, I’m happy to bunk in.
See their website.
April 10, 2011
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