Directory
DEUS CAFE
Cuisine: Modern Australian,Cafe
The owner of this place is well named: Dare Jennings. After selling the wildly successful Mambo — an enterprising combination of art and clothing — he started a customised motorbike business, Deus Ex Machina, with a cafe attached. No market research, no focus groups, just do it. Daring. And the unlikely combination works. The only problem here is the prams cluttering the wide aisle of the high-ceilinged space. The food is simple cafe-friendly fare, such as spanner crab salad with tomato, avocado and parsley coulis $16 and roast duck breast with beetroot puree, stuffed cabbage and couscous $30; sweet things include creme brulee $12. So the food doesn’t break any rules but everything else does. Catch the stunning motorbikes and very stylish pushies on the way out.
FRANK’S PIZZA BAR
Cuisine: Modern Australian,Cafe,Italian
The new Frank’s is like the old Frank’s only bigger and shinier. Housed in what was the garage at the old Essential Ingredient, the same basic pizza favourites roll out of the oven and are delivered to what we suspect are many of the same customers who have been scoffing them since Frank Scarfo opened the doors down the road in 1976. There are the footy photos on the wall, a signed photograph from the Rat Pack — well, a tribute group, anyway — and a lot more space and tables than the old joint. There are 14 varieties, small $10, medium $12 and large $14 , and we don’t need to tell you their names — they’re old friends. Plus, you can make up your own combo. There’s also lasagne, cannelloni, spaghetti bolognese $7 and the housemade gelato. So what’s the secret to a great pizza? we asked. “Keep the ingredients fresh and the price down.” It works for him; it works for us.
