Review: We head to a Hills pantry and tearoom
ABOUT 100 years ago, caring local called Joan made tea for cricketers playing on Hawthorndene Oval. Her tea stand evolved into a mini grocer and tiny diner, and now it offers all-day breakfasts and lunches, and even Friday dinners.
IN a beautifully lush dip in the Adelaide Hills, a charming diner which began as a little park stand in the 1920s has had yet another boost for business.
About 100 years ago, caring local Joan made tea for cricketers playing on Hawthorndene Oval.
The place has since evolved, to mini grocer and tearoom for locals and Apex Park visitors, to tiny diner, and, now, an expanded licensed cafe offering all-day breakfasts and lunches, plus Friday dinners. Last month, Mitcham Council’s nearby carpark and safe pedestrian link to the oval were completed, adding yet more family-friendly factors.
You can enjoy the park, stop for a cuppa and cake, or make it a meal. On still and sunny days, the cafe windows will concertina to let this pretty hills garden setting filter in to your table.
The food is strictly cafe variety with a few fancier specials for the dinner sittings. Delivering on its promise of local food, the menu includes veggies picked from a community garden out back.
On our chilly Friday night visit, it’s cosy and a little quaint. Soft lighting and candles add intimacy to the brick-lined and whitewashed space punctuated by vividly coloured works by local artists.
The specials board takes things beyond burgers, steak, and pasta. There are duck rillettes, hearty curries and gnocchi, or terrific pork cutlets with blue cheese rosti.
We first plough through a generous tasting platter including plump and wholesome arancini on big plops of aioli, curly crackers topped with shredded duck, dips, flat and rye breads and good spicy chorizo. It’s a nice graze designed for two but will easily chip away the hungry edge of three to four people if you’re heading into the ample mains.
Our burgers and steak are fine. It’s that thick-cut pork on a well-frenched bone that wins the night, juicy and nicely caramelised at the edges, topping carrots and green apple-flavoured jus.
Apart from affogato, dessert is back to cafe cakes and slices in the display fridge.