In Short: Glory Days Café is brand new to North Sydney, and brings bagels and good coffee to this side of the harbour bridge. It’s the perfect destination for breakfast or a light lunch. Bring your 1:1 or escape to Glory Days to definitely try the Brooklyn Boy bagels and grab a coffee too.
North Sydney is Sydney’s second business district and also happens to be one of our favourite haunts in Sydney. While there was a lull in construction for a number of years, the last 18 months has seen a rapid renewal of the landscape just north of the the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. Taking pride of place bang smack in the middle of North Sydney, is the towering Dexus development.
Hailed as North Sydney’s defining landmark, the outside of the building boasts modern architecture elements offset with plush green landscaping. Each building that opens these days, tend to want to outdo their predecessor, and here at Dexus, the lobby is classy and chic. The anchor café tenant of this building is Glory Days Café.
Glory Days Café’s design is modern and utilitarian. With an open space concept, a light brown wooden backdrop serves as hidden overhead storage for the café, while its contrasting smart, navy blue front counter ensures that you do not miss it. The brown and blue colour scheme extends to their seating, where the seats and comfortable sofas have the same navy blue with light brown wooden texture backdrop.
The chic presentation extends to the team managing the Strada, those whipping up the food, and those serving it to us. We are talking denim blue shirt collared shirt, jeans and white sneakers with a black apron.
Glory Days Café source their croissants and baked goods from one of Sydney’s best bakeries, Brickfields, whose croissants are considered legendary with croissant lovers in Sydney. They are big and fluffy, and yet airy and flaky at the same time. As Sammi is a croissant lover herself, we had to order her one from Glory Days Café. She devoured every buttery piece of it. With croissants this good, you really don’t need much except for a good jam and Sydney’s best Pepe Saya butter on the side.
Besides the enticing display of sweets and pastries on their front counter, Glory Days Café also have a good selection of sandwiches and bagels. Of late, I have become a huge bagel convert and had to try a Brooklyn Boy Bagel with Smoked Salmon, Creamed Cheese, Tomato and Capers, to see how it measured up to the legendary bagel boys at Good Fella Coffee. The warmly toasted chewy bagel is buttered with lashings of rich creamy cream cheese, topped with a generous serve of pink smoked salmon, and finished with slices of tomato and sprinkles of capers. With each mouthful, you get the crunchy, chewy taste of the bagel, the savoury smoky taste of salmon, sweet and tart taste of tomato, and a kick of sharp, piquant, salty taste of capers. To say that it is yummy is an understatement and I am chuffed now that I have access to Brooklyn Boy‘s bagels so close to work.
Sacha is on a health kick today and decided to go for the Coconut Chia Pod with Berries and Granola. The cup is filled with chia seeds at the bottom, followed by a layer of creamy coconut yoghurt, then crunchy delicious granola, and lastly topped with a layer of seasonal berries. The chia seeds are a textural joy that Sacha is quite addicted to. The granola imparts a crunchy yet sweet and salty flavour as well. The berries give the chia pod an extra vitamin and antioxidant boost while providing a sharp contrast to the creamy coconut yoghurt. This is one chia pod that is not only healthy and good for you, but delicious at the same time.
North Sydney does great coffee in 2019, so establishing a coffee destination will always be a challenge. With incumbents like The Roots and Bay Ten Espresso the team have called on one of Sydney’s best in Mecca to help them in the coffee trenches. You can taste a blend that has been developed for Glory Days. I had a Flat White and I could not fault it. It was rich and creamy, with a nice dark chocolate flavour coming through and a clean citrus finish. So, I can now add a third coffee destination to my rotation and look forward to returning to see how they go with their filter coffees.
Glory Days Café has arrived just at the right time. With a raft of new buildings coming up, this café on Mount Street really points to the resurgence that takes North Sydney beyond just another extension of the CBD and is quickly becoming a foodie destination.
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