Breakfast Series - Leaf Espresso Bar

http://www.facebook.com/Leafespresso

For me, Sunday mornings are usually about healthy eating and then visiting the gym for a workout....... perfect!  This Sunday morning was a little different, with me just coming off a cold and SC just starting one, so the gym was out.  Instead we decided that a nice relaxing breakfast would be the order of the day and there was no better morning to check out a new espresso cafe.

I had been informed about a new cafe that had opened up in my old stomping grounds, Tarragindi, and it had been generating a little bit of a buzz in the area.   SC and I lived in Tarragindi for a few years before we moved out of the 'burbs and into the city, so were really curious to see what was happening in our old post code.

Leaf espresso bar has been open for about six months now and is a collaboration between Tarragindi residents Malcolm and Danielle Watts and Australian Rugby Union Wallaby Scott Higginbotham.  I managed to meet Malcolm and have a bit of a chat to him about Leaf and the philosophy behind it.

Being a resident in the area and noticing a real void, Malcolm wanted to open a local cafe where people would go to meet and socialise but have a great and unique coffee experience.

"We wanted to offer a place that had great coffee so we put a lot of research in and chose Two Seasons boutique coffee for our menu"  said Malcolm Watts.

"The offer a high quality single origin bean and the origin changes each season".

"The focus on everything we do is very much on simple but simple and delicious food".

We also found out that Malcolm had recently appointed Craig Benton, who had worked at well known Customs House, as the chef of the cafe to design a simple yet traditional breakfast menu.  The menu at Leaf espresso has a great mix of contemporary and traditional menu items, with the menu split into classics, breakfast and sides.

To start off SC ordered a latte and I chose to go with the smoothy of the day, which today was mixed berries.  The coffee (Sumatran) was well put together and was a great start for SC who was only just waking up after a poor nights sleep.  The mixed berry smoothy was not only massive, it was cool and refreshing, which was just what I was after.

Being the traditionalist I am, I chose the simple breakfast of smoked bacon with farm eggs and blistered truss tomatoes on ciabatta bread.  The plate was simply decorated with lovely creamy scrambled eggs that were such a bright yellow colour they could only have been organic.  The scrambled eggs were light and fluffy and had a nice creamy texture and flavour.  There was a light smoky flavour to the bacon, which was cooked just as I like it, just bordering on being too crispy but not quite.  For me, the tomato was a bit of a let down, when thinking of 'blistered truss tomatoes' I was thinking of something a little more creative than the slice of grilled tomato I received.  I think the dish would have been elevated from very good to great with a little more flavour in the tomato.

SC chose the mixed berry hot cakes with walnut and maple ricotta, which was a very pretty plate of food when it arrived.  There was a stack of hotcakes with a drizzle of berry coulis and surrounded by fresh berries, with a creamy maple ricotta topping.  The hotcakes had the right mix of sweetness and tartness from the berries but would have been elevated with just a little more maple syrup or coulis on the plate.  SC is not normally a fan of mixed berries, but loved the hotcakes and pretty much polished off the whole lot.

The thing that we noticed in our time at Leaf espresso was how busy it was with almost every table in the cafe taken up with people enjoying a Sunday morning breakfast.  There was also a steady stream of locals lining up to buy their morning coffee, so it was really clear that Leaf had filled a bit of a void in the Tarragindi area.

Sitting in Leaf, it would be easy to forget that you were out in the suburbs, there was a really contemporary feel to the cafe that would have felt at home in Paddington or Red Hill.  The cafe was interestingly decorated with cool artwork on the walls (for sale of course) and a really interesting light fitting that incorporated a large tree branch!

My overall impression of Leaf espresso was that it was just what Tarragindi needed.  When SC and I lived there a few years back there was nothing like Leaf and the area was all the poorer for it.  As we were leaving I could get a real sense of the community that had formed around the cafe with a heap of people just enjoying their Sunday morning over breakfast and coffee.  And really, when you think about it, what could be better?

@FoodMeUpScotty

**We were guests of Malcolm and Leaf Espresso on the day.

The Two Seasons coffee was really nice

Well used space that was packed on this Sunday morning

There is a small bar area and lots of traditional cafe fare

lots of wall art that was for sale

Integrating the local trees into the light fittings!

Kitchen area with Craig Benton at the helm

Busy at work

Great alfresco dining area