FoodMeUpScotty: Breakfast Series - The Cutting Board Brisbane

https://www.facebook.com/CuttingBoardBris

I'm a big fan of any cafe or restaurant that specialises in meat, even more so when chorizo is prominently displayed on the menu. This is quite well known, so when I was asked to get in and check out The Cutting Board, it was a no brainer, the lure of a chorizo breakfast was way to much for me. Ironically, I'd arranged to catch up with my regular mid week breakfast buddy, DruBoy, who happened to be a pescatarian. After being taken to an almost completely vegetarian breakfast spot a few months ago (see post here), I thought of it as a bit of sweet revenge!

Unfortunately, my plans of revenge were usurped by family emergencies, not once, but twice, with DruBoy needing to pull out at the last minute each time. We'd postponed after the first one, but I thought fate was having a laugh at me for my dumb revenge plans, so I spoke to my beloved, who was only too happy to step in and have a hearty breakfast to kick off the last working day of the week.

The Cutting Board is a week day only cafe located at the top end of George Street, underneath the Telstra building. I'd walked past a number of times when visiting friends and colleagues in the Telstra building, but was not aware that it was open for breakfast until invited down. Wanting to get an early start on the day, we got out of bed just a little bit earlier and made our way down for a 7:30am weekday date for breakfast. After arriving and meeting proud manager Brett (owner Anthony was busy at another venture), we got a little bit of a lowdown on what the Cutting Board was all about. Firstly, it was a loud and proud meat venue, which was ironic as Brett's partner was a vegetarian. The most popular part of the menu are the 'cut sandwiches', which are chocked full of meaty goodness! But it wasn't only about meat, with some pretty spiffy muffin options available on a daily basis.

While we considered our breakfast options, Brett moved on to start serving some of his customers and I started taking photos of the inside. Interestingly, Brett's very protective staff asked me what I was doing and to stop! It wasn't until Brett came over and gave the OK and that I was there as a blogger checking out the menu, that we got the all clear. Brett explained that the interior was designed by some guru (didn't get the name) and some of his competitors had been in taking photos and so they were a little gun shy. The interior did look pretty cool, but I'm not sure it was steal worthy!

We placed our orders and made our way around the side to the outdoor seating, which stretched along Ann Street. We had a particularly good view of the old Courts being torn down, which was a little noisy, especially so early in the morning. In a few years time when the new site is developed, that little corner of Ann and George Street will be a gold mine! First up were our drinks, a perfect little half strength latte for SC and a mixed berry smoothie for myself. My smoothie came in one of those old style milkshake containers and was huge!

There are only a couple of options available for breakfast at the Cutting Board, two variations of breakfast burgers and a couple of variations of eggs. In the spirit of DruBoy not being available, SC decided that she would try the vegetarian burger, which came with a soft fried egg, haloumi, mushrooms, spinach and an aioli & BBQ sauce. There was a small concession, SC added some bacon to the burger, on the strong recommendation of Brett. The burger came presented with ingredients overflowing the seeded bun and sauce dripping down the sides. It certainly looked the goods and after a couple of mouthfuls, SC declared it a winner. The mushrooms were well cooked and provided a little meaty texture and flavour, as did the bacon! Brett had mentioned that this was one of his most popular breakfast items and we could see why.

At a place called the Cutting Board, specialising in meat, there was no question about my breakfast choice! The Cutting Board Breaky came with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, haloumi, chorizo, and spinach, but with carnivores everywhere in mind, I asked Brett to replace the spinach with some extra chorizo.... My huge plate of food came delivered on an old style enamel camping plate, including the obligatory chips and dings. I'm quite forgiving when it comes to scrambled eggs, I don't mind them firm and slightly browned or light and fluffy, but my eggs came on the upper end of firm and brown, almost omelette like. I was over the moon with the amount of bacon piled on the plate but even happier to see the huge pile of chorizo. There were other elements to the plate too, like the haloumi and mushrooms, both nicely cooked and in the case of the mushrooms, well seasoned, but the chorizo was the star for me. It got to a point where I was so full, I felt almost sick, but I kept shoving that sweet chorizo meat in my mouth!

Just when I thought I'd need to roll back to work, Brett brought over a couple of the freshly baked muffins. The Cutting Board has about five regular muffins on offer, but there are normally a couple of specials baked daily, which keeps things interesting. We tried the double chocolate chip with a coffee cream topping and the white chocolate with raspberry, cranberry, caramel and rosemary. I loved the double choc muffin but found the other one a bit busy, and the cranberry and caramel a bit over powering. SC was the opposite, she loved the flavours of rosemary and caramel and thought the chocolate was a little rich.

Before we knew it, it was time to head into work. With both of us completely stuffed and feeling pretty happy with the world, it seemed like a crying shame to head into the office, especially given it was a Friday and the sun was shining.... We contemplated not going in for a short while, but then the reality of life kicked in.

It's a shame that The Cutting Board is right up the other end of town from our apartment, I'd definitely crack on for the occasional chorizo 'shot-in-the-arm' as a way to kick off a day. Luckily, Brett has that covered, with a new venture in the Riverside Centre in Eagle Street that was about to kick off, called the Hive Coffee and Eat House (I think has opened since my visit to The Cutting Board). I'll need to make my way down to the Hive to see if it's as good as the original.

With a couple of new ventures at the Riverside Centre, including a new Bread and Meat Co (see post here), it really looks like my end of the city is getting some new blood. Maybe I can convince DruBoy to check out Hive with me.....

@FoodMeUpScotty

** I was a guest of the Cutting Board for this meal.