In Short: Healthy offerings, delicious coffee, welcoming space.
Walking into Rolling Penny is like walking into your best friend’s home. There’s a certain comfort, familiarity and relaxing aura that envelopes you, as you find a seat. Rolling Penny eschews the fancy fit-out and goes for a functional space. It is as though everything that’s meant to be there is there and nothing is contrived. So yeah no subway tiles, or Eddison lights. As I wait for my coffee, I look to the canvases hanging on the wall and perhaps they tell the story best about Rolling Penny. A milk bottle suggests that the cafe is family friendly. The thongs(slippers) suggest it’s a casual experience and of lastly a sandwich, well that’s pretty obvious! Rolling Penny sits on the St Peters end of King Street, which for me is a bit less frenzied than the city end of King Street; suffice to say parking is a far easier proposition on this end.
Coffee is from just up the road from boutique roaster Little Marionette. Here at Rolling Penny, they serve Blend No 7 which is darker full bodied roast, with a deep, robust flavour which slices beautifully through the milk. My cappuccino is beautifully textured and I appreciate the barista checks in to see if I enjoyed the cup, and my nod of affirmation brings a smile to his face.
On the food front, Rolling Penny tends to the wholesome, healthy side, just up my alley. A good way to start the day is with a bircher, but none of the mundane toasted bowl of muesli with fruit, but a hot pink bircher bowl. If you’ve had a big night out, get those sunglasses on as this bowl is vibrant! It’s a combination of mixed oats, coconut, almond, chia seeds and topped with yoghurt. It’s a melody of textures. Beetroot adds are earthiness and balances out the apple juice. There’s tang from the yoghurt, the poached pear is delightfully tender. I can admit that I hadn’t found a rhubarb element I had liked until my visit to Rolling Penny. Just superb, a little sharp, a little sweet. As birchers go, this is an original yet thoroughly delicious take on what is a popular item on many menus across Sydney.
On a second visit, as if once was enough, I came in for lunch. Along with another great cappuccino, I continued with another healthy, beautifully presented roast pumpkin salad. Pumpkin is the star with it being soft and seasoned perfectly. Green beans are crunchy and combines well the nutty flavours of the chickpea. I love the ribbons of fennel with its mildly fragrant aromas and anise flavours, it adds a little spice element to the salad. What binds the salad exquisitely is the tangy salsa verde. As with the bircher from 2 days earlier, you leave Rolling Penny totally sated yet without having had big mounds of meat to chew through and digest.
Rolling Penny is not about bells and whistles, it’s about execution in all facets of a cafe experience. From a warm welcome, through to expertly made coffees to well thought dishes that can either get you going or a feed hunger, the team delivers in a warm space.
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