Breakfast Series - Pourboy Espresso

http://www.pourboy.com.au/

It's really unusual for me to hit up a cafe for breakfast mid week but that's exactly what I did recently, with Pourboy Espresso in the CBD being my destination.  I say that like it's a difficult task, but in reality, it's the easiest thing in the world for me to do...  Pourboy is about twenty five meters from the exit of my apartment.  What were the circumstances that saw me hitting up a cafe for breakfast outside of my usual weekend excursions?  Well, I'd just been through a particularly hard fast day (see five two diet here) and it was the day before heading off to Singapore for work, so I felt like treating myself.

Pourboy Espresso has been the ignored cafe around town for me, which is pretty unusual as I normally hit up new cafes pretty quickly.  It's been open for about three years and I've walked past the cafe every morning on my way to work and and again on the way home, which means that I'd walked past Pourboy about 2,500 times before I finally decided to get in for breakfast.  That's pretty weird.  To be honest, I'd looked at the menu a few times and always held back because I'd never (ever) seen scrambled eggs on the menu, which is my standard breakfast fare.

What was even stranger about my failure to visit Pourboy was the extremely positive reputation that the cafe has built up over the last couple of years.  Located in Wharf Street in the CBD, it's not really in a spot that would be considered highly visible, yet it's steadily built it's reputation on great coffee and an uncompromising approach to food by chef and part owner Mark Bell.  The menu changes regularly and comprises of local, seasonal produce with a French twist that shows off some of Mark's culinary training.

I reflected upon all of this as I walked up the steps and entered Pourboy on a Friday morning that was not yet busy and allowed me to grab a seat of my choice.  The team must have been expecting a busy morning because there were plenty of staff on hand and the place was already starting to get a buzz about it that signified a confident and prepared cafe.  I was given the menu to peruse and asked what I'd like to drink. Given it's been a few years since I'd had a coffee, I opted for one of Pourboy's interesting looking list of smoothies, the strawberries and cream which consisted of macerated strawberries, milk gelato, cream and milk.  The smoothie came delivered in a cool glass, with a tiny little carafe containing the extra shake.  It was delicious, and we were off to a good start.

Looking over the menu, I noticed the mostly contemporary style offerings still did not include scrambled eggs, but did have a number of interesting options for more adventurous breakfast diners.  There was a very European and Frenchie type of feel to the menu with items like a breakfast jamon burger, croque monsiur and croque madame taking pride of place.  I kept looking right the way down the menu before I found what I was looking for, something more in alignment with what I felt like for breakfast and perhaps considered a little boring to more adventurous types.  It was the poached eggs!

Ordering poached eggs by themselves is pretty boring, even for me, so I added a few sides to go along with the poached eggs on toast, including the roast field mushrooms, blistered cherry tomatoes and the dry cured bacon.  I loved the look of my breakfast, which was huge and really colourful, especially with the stark white of the eggs contrasting with the green garnish and the multi coloured cherry tomatoes.  My eggs were perfectly poached and as soon as I split them with my knife, the yolk oozed out like lava spreading from an erupting volcano.  Everything was really well cooked on the plate with well seasoned mushrooms that had a beautiful earthy flavour with the super hot cherry tomatoes packing a punch.  The bacon was rolled up and baked Eurpoean style and was perhaps just a little over cooked for my liking but I prefer my bacon on the softer side, just before it crisps up.

I definitely enjoyed my breakfast at Pourboy Espresso and found that the food was well cooked and presented in a stylish yet practical manner.  There was a great level of seasoning on the poached eggs which really completed the flavouring of the egg and was perhaps something I'd missed when having poached eggs elsewhere.

The cafe filled up quickly and the promised vibe that I'd felt early on materialised quite suddenly and all of a sudden Pourboy was rocking.  The service on the morning I visited was excellent and the little cafe seemed to run like a well oiled machine.  Given the kitchen is tiny and quite visible to the clientele, the team do a great job pumping out the coffee, smoothies and food in such a controlled manner.  I'm thinking that the very small kitchen is part of the reason why Pourboy doesn't do scrambled eggs, but boy, given the quality of the breakfast I had, I'd really love to see what else they could do with eggs!

I'm still not 100% sure why I ignored Pourboy Espresso for such a long time, when I think about it, walking past a place a couple of thousand times before visiting is a bit ridiculous.  Perhaps it's because it just faded into the background through regularity or perhaps its because I discounted it due to the lack of scrambled eggs.  Either way, it was my loss and I can assure you, it won't be another couple of thousand walkbys before I stop in for another breaky, it was great!

@FoodMeUpScotty

My breakfast was tops, well seasoned and really tasty

The front counter with jams and cards

Lots of bakery type goodies to eat on the go

The team in the tiny little kitchen of Pourboy

It's got a contemporary modern feel to the cafe.

There is my place in the background, just a few meters away

Pourboy is at the bottom of a commercial building and possibly easy to miss