Hailing from Melbourne, I always find myself comparing cafes in other cities to the calibre of what can be found in Melbourne’s unique and industry-leading speciality coffee scene. These can be largely categorised as “normal” cafes (in lieu of a better word) and food cafes. The rhythmically named Brewtown Newtown is the perfect example of a Melbourne food cafe, but in Sydney.
Warehouse-style with exposed structural beams and brickwork, chalk specials boards and tucked down a side street, it fits the description well. Seating is a mixture of bar seating, small tables and benches along the opposite wall. There are also tables outside. The cafe has an industrial yet refined and welcoming feel to it.
The food menu consists of a range of breakfast and lunch options with some creative, restaurant quality twists on the usual suspects. Standouts include the corned beef hash with peas and poached egg, smoked salmon with curried Israeli couscous and squid ink linguine with garlic chilli prawns and kale.
On this visit I ordered the Elvis burger, a ground beef patty with gruyere cheese, Canadian bacon and mayo, savoury brewnut and chips and relish on the side. One may quickly spot the odd word out in the previous sentence, brewnut. A brewnut is Brewtown’s take on the ever growing cronut trend; a cross between a croissant and a donut. In the case of this burger, two savoury brewnuts form the top and bottom buns. This is an interesting and refreshing addition with a nice flakey crunch. Although the contents of the burger minimal, the melting gruyere and flavoursome bacon are all that is necessary.
Coffee was on point and is to be expected from a cafe that has micro roastery, a range of single origin espresso and filter options are on offer.
Intrigued by the whole cronut thing, I couldn’t help having a flavoured cronut as an after-lunch snack. A selection of flavours were displayed on the glass shelving, today’s was glazed, cinnamon, lemon myrtle, passionfruit and blood orange. It is easy to see why cronuts are so popular, think a regular flavoured donut but with a curiously addictive crunchy texture. The downside is that they are notoriously messy, judging by the pastry flakes I left everywhere.
Situated in the bustling Newtown shopping and food strip, Brewtown Newtown is a great, popular food cafe reminiscent of Melbourne creativity and design.