In Short: Brewtown Cammeray is a welcome addition to the main strip of Cammeray. A clean, minimalistic design, with quality coffee and a bold inviting menu. Our tip is the prawn hoagie and wash it down with a cold brew.
You may recall not long ago, I waxed lyrical about my find in Cammeray that was Alchemist Espresso. It was some of the best coffee I had sampled this year. Well, Cammeray now is home to another great coffee house, in the form of a big hitter from the inner west, Brewtown Coffee Roasters. I first sampled Brewtown Coffee Roasters’ goodness at Gnome, and one of my all time favourite breakfast dishes was their pesto scrambled eggs. Then, when Brewtown opened their beautiful space in Newtown, we enjoyed next level efforts rolling onto our table from the brew bar in the form of pour overs and cold drips. Their crab scrambled eggs has stuck in my mind, not to mention their Brewnuts. I visited their Cammeray cafe during their soft opening, and spent two mornings sampling their all-day menu. This outpost sits on Miller Street, and presents a briefer menu, but still delivers quality selections of food, and there’s a tempting array of Brewnuts and pastries for a sweet treat.
The fit-out is modern and clean with a wooden framed section running through the cafe. I love the inclusion of a flowering and lush green feature wall, that feels like you’re dining in an oasis. Like many cafes in the area, there’s seating outside to take in the warm rays and harbour breeze.
Perched on counter-styled seating, I sampled a flat white which used the Raging Bull blend. Firstly, I loved the sheen of the coffee pointing to exquisite milk work. A sip resulted in an initial tingle of acidity on my tongue, but then the finish was smooth and silky and full of caramel flavour.
On the food front, the quality does not relent with a buckwheat, coconut, cacao granola. A combination that’s not common place, yet I had faith. It was a beautiful bowl of colour with more ingredients than the menu describes (I love surprises!). I thought the star of this breakfast offering was the spiced pear. A golden half fruit sits atop the granola; it’s soft to cut through, and each scoop of pear reveals subtle spice notes of cinnamon and cloves. Other fresh ingredients included pomegranate seeds, blueberries, and raspberries. The buckwheat is toasted to perfection, and as I reach the bottom the cacao delivers a pleasing chocolate finish that may have sounded strange at first, but actually works so well!
One visit was just not enough, so just 24 hours later I returned for a second helping. One item that stuck out on my visit was the shrimp hoagie. In my mind, this could be Brewtown Cammeray’s calling card. A bun, split long ways, filled with creamy scrambled eggs and topped with prawns. A bouquet of herbaceous flavour comes from the Vietnamese mint and coriander. Smoked spicy mayo and chilli gives the hoagie tremendous depth. If you think you have had good sub sandwiches from fast food stores around Sydney, Brewtown Cammeray’s hoagie may just re-define what a quality sub sandwich should taste like.
On the morning of my second visit, summer had arrived which meant spurning my default flat white as the mercury was on the wrong-side of 30 before 8am. I chose to cool down instead with Brewtown Cammeray’s cold brew. It was served in a tall glass, what a relief! A Panama single origin, it delivered refreshing, bright feel, and filled the mouth with a cranberry intensity. There was a fresh apple finish with each sip, and it was just the elixir I needed to get me going, yet cool me down. Ahh, the magic of coffee, a Brewtown Cammeray coffee of course!
Cammeray is slowly coming out from the big shadows cast by it neighbours, North Sydney and Neutral Bay, with perhaps some of the best coffee north of the harbour bridge. At Brewtown Cammeray, you have the heritage of coffee wizardry combined with a short menu brimming with bold, unique, and utterly delicious selections.
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