On the Sunday of a long weekend in Adelaide's CBD, there's not much open. And when you're a caffeine addict like me, that is a terrible, terrible thing.
Fortunately (well, unfortunately for her), my little sister has been privvy to my state when I have not been caffeinated in a timely manner before. So she used that clever technomalogical thingy called Googler or iCall or something to locate a cafe within walking distance for our breakfast and all-important caffeination.
It was called Jam The Bistro (112-114 Wright Street, Adelaide), and it was very nice.
Being on holiday, we figured we deserved alcohol at breakfast time, so we had a Bellini each (prosecco with peach juice).
The coffee was made on a pretty red Ruggero, and was also served up all pretty-like:
We both had the same thing for breakfast: a beautifully-presented concoction of smoked salmon bruschetta with poached eggs, goats curd and beetroot jam.
As well as the fact that this place was open when most needed, it's also now in my good books for its amazing food. I wonder if all their dishes are so beautifully "plated up", to borrow a MasterChef-ism.
They also had cool water glasses that you can STACK! See:
There was a very large table of people next to us, so service was on the slow side, but once we had coffee to go with the newspapers, I didn't mind. I also requested a second coffee for takeaway (I know, I know... addicted), and as we had already paid, it was given to me as a freebie. Thanks, guys! Thumbs up! High five! Okay.
After a fun-filled day seeing family and trawling the delights of the Garden (with its very own blog post, coming soon!), we met up that night with a friend for dinner in North Adelaide. She's all in the know and stuff, plus she's into organic food, so she suggested a restaurant called GoodLife Pizza (5/11 O'Connell Street, North Adelaide). According to its website, GoodLife is not a clap-happy religious movement, but rather "Australia's first and only certified [organic] pizza restaurant to date". That wouldn't have meant much to me previously, but I reckon the organic aspect has made an impact, because these were SERIOUSLY good pizzas. This was mine:
How big are those prawns! The other pizzas looked just as good. This GoodLife's location (there are two others) is at the southern end of O'Connell Street, across the road from a funky-looking pub which seems to have been converted from a movie theatre. The restaurant's front windows open out onto the street, and inside there is a cosy, Mediterranean feel.
The only bad point I will say about GoodLife is that the organic aspect didn't seem to extend to all the wines (but I would be happy to be corrected*). I occasionally suffer the wrath of evil, EVIL sulfites in wine, which are naturally occurring in small amounts, but also often added in as a preservative. This basically means I (somewhat comically) release a gazillion very short, shallow sneezes in a row. "Not so bad!" you say? Well - you try it. It's effing exhausting. It's like hayfever for the whole of spring, squashed into half an hour.
Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, organic wines are often free of unnecessary preservative additives, so drinking them means I can usually avoid the sulfite sneezing attacks. I would have expected that an organic restaurant would feature only organic wines... but maybe that's just wishful thinking on the part of this semi-alcoholic.
I will say our waitress was most helpful in checking which of the "special offer" wines were available, to help with our selection.
After a lovely dinner, we headed for Barrio, a "must-see" pop-up club thingy, part of the Adelaide Festival, that almost EVERYONE had recommended. However, the queue literally went around the block. It must have been a kilometre long. So we scrapped that idea and went for one more drink at The Depot, another Fringe venue (apparently still open, weekends from 5 April to 5 May 2013). It was pretty cool - a large open space with funky lights and a big stage (we caught the end of what looked like a good gig) - but I was quite over taking photos by this point ...so you're not getting any! =D (Love you.)
T'was a good foodie Adelaidian day.
* GoodLife did respond to my comments by advising that many organic wines are actually pretty gross, hence they are not the sum total of GoodLife's wine list. Also, they recommended a Barossa producer called Smallfry, for their sulphur-free Spanish blend (apparently this is available at GoodLife for me to try next time). Good to know, for me and any other wine-sneezing sufferers. Cheers, guys!
Fortunately (well, unfortunately for her), my little sister has been privvy to my state when I have not been caffeinated in a timely manner before. So she used that clever technomalogical thingy called Googler or iCall or something to locate a cafe within walking distance for our breakfast and all-important caffeination.
It was called Jam The Bistro (112-114 Wright Street, Adelaide), and it was very nice.
Being on holiday, we figured we deserved alcohol at breakfast time, so we had a Bellini each (prosecco with peach juice).
 |
| Bellini-licious |
The coffee was made on a pretty red Ruggero, and was also served up all pretty-like:
We both had the same thing for breakfast: a beautifully-presented concoction of smoked salmon bruschetta with poached eggs, goats curd and beetroot jam.
As well as the fact that this place was open when most needed, it's also now in my good books for its amazing food. I wonder if all their dishes are so beautifully "plated up", to borrow a MasterChef-ism.
They also had cool water glasses that you can STACK! See:
There was a very large table of people next to us, so service was on the slow side, but once we had coffee to go with the newspapers, I didn't mind. I also requested a second coffee for takeaway (I know, I know... addicted), and as we had already paid, it was given to me as a freebie. Thanks, guys! Thumbs up! High five! Okay.
After a fun-filled day seeing family and trawling the delights of the Garden (with its very own blog post, coming soon!), we met up that night with a friend for dinner in North Adelaide. She's all in the know and stuff, plus she's into organic food, so she suggested a restaurant called GoodLife Pizza (5/11 O'Connell Street, North Adelaide). According to its website, GoodLife is not a clap-happy religious movement, but rather "Australia's first and only certified [organic] pizza restaurant to date". That wouldn't have meant much to me previously, but I reckon the organic aspect has made an impact, because these were SERIOUSLY good pizzas. This was mine:
 |
| Prawn pizza |
How big are those prawns! The other pizzas looked just as good. This GoodLife's location (there are two others) is at the southern end of O'Connell Street, across the road from a funky-looking pub which seems to have been converted from a movie theatre. The restaurant's front windows open out onto the street, and inside there is a cosy, Mediterranean feel.
The only bad point I will say about GoodLife is that the organic aspect didn't seem to extend to all the wines (but I would be happy to be corrected*). I occasionally suffer the wrath of evil, EVIL sulfites in wine, which are naturally occurring in small amounts, but also often added in as a preservative. This basically means I (somewhat comically) release a gazillion very short, shallow sneezes in a row. "Not so bad!" you say? Well - you try it. It's effing exhausting. It's like hayfever for the whole of spring, squashed into half an hour.
Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, organic wines are often free of unnecessary preservative additives, so drinking them means I can usually avoid the sulfite sneezing attacks. I would have expected that an organic restaurant would feature only organic wines... but maybe that's just wishful thinking on the part of this semi-alcoholic.
I will say our waitress was most helpful in checking which of the "special offer" wines were available, to help with our selection.
After a lovely dinner, we headed for Barrio, a "must-see" pop-up club thingy, part of the Adelaide Festival, that almost EVERYONE had recommended. However, the queue literally went around the block. It must have been a kilometre long. So we scrapped that idea and went for one more drink at The Depot, another Fringe venue (apparently still open, weekends from 5 April to 5 May 2013). It was pretty cool - a large open space with funky lights and a big stage (we caught the end of what looked like a good gig) - but I was quite over taking photos by this point ...so you're not getting any! =D (Love you.)
T'was a good foodie Adelaidian day.
* GoodLife did respond to my comments by advising that many organic wines are actually pretty gross, hence they are not the sum total of GoodLife's wine list. Also, they recommended a Barossa producer called Smallfry, for their sulphur-free Spanish blend (apparently this is available at GoodLife for me to try next time). Good to know, for me and any other wine-sneezing sufferers. Cheers, guys!