Review: Why Mermaid Beach’s Background Barista is a great place to have breakfast

SOME Gold Coast cafes go all in on a gimmick to stand out but this Mermaid Beach eatery has focused on the fundamentals to great success, as Chantay Logan writes.

Background Barista owner Liz Ennis Photo by Richard Gosling

FOODIES can be fickle in following flavour of the month, but here on the Gold Coast we’re definitely morning people.

While breakfast business is booming, our buzzing cafe culture owes a lot to pioneers like Liz Ennis and Dean Hyland.

Their Palm Beach eatery Barefoot Barista was among the original game changers, followed by the small but trusty Borough Barista at Burleigh.

Now they’ve moved in on Mermaid, confirming their credentials with the most assured, mature offering I’ve seen in a long time.

Background Barista — near Poké Poké in the Night Owl complex — doesn’t need gimmicks to turn heads in the competitive category … it just gets the fundamentals so right.

Liz Ennis. Photo by Richard Gosling

My fellow diner and I aren’t the only one with designs on a lazy Sunday breakfast, arriving to a full house.

Rather than leaving us hanging, one of the thoughtful team gets the urgent stuff out of the way (Gabriel coffee … and it goes down well) before setting us up on a bench perch with menus to wait for one of the roomier tables.

Wi-Fi and convenient power points hint at the venue’s eat-and-meet potential. It’s a cool urban oasis, buff concrete contrasts with rich green foliage and a fanned timber feature.

Background takes its coffee seriously and it’s in good hands.

Connoisseurs can get their batch brew, AeroPress and cold brew, while the health crew sip turmeric and beetroot lattes.

But if you’re after a conventional cappuccino served extra hot with a quarter of a sugar (asking for a friend) they’ll nail that too, with none of the attitude you see from the occasional specialist operators.

The food is equally expert.

For a sweet start, gluten-free ricotta hot cakes are baked to order and stacked with seasonal fruit, toasted seeds and nuts, Canadian maple and mascarpone ($18).

Dripping with hollandaise, the crispy, creamy-centred potato hash is what breakfast dreams are made of ($20). It’s served on pulled ham hock, infused with smoky flavour, and topped with poached eggs.

There’s plenty of coffee on offer. Photo by Richard Gosling

Already a fan of Barefoot’s legendary Corn Board, I don’t need much convincing to try its Background counterpart, Corn Char ($18). Those sweet, charred kernels are scattered across toasted organic sourdough with avocado, Meredith goat’s cheese, herbs and two poached eggs.

The menu suggests tasty tweaks for each dish — maybe swap the sourdough for organic sprouted grain (extra $2) or add a serve of dukkah-roasted pumpkin ($5).

Gluten-free, dairy free, nut free, vegetarian and paleo options are a given, and all clearly marked.

Portion sizes are well-judged across the board, but special mention goes to some sensational sides: sweet potato fries with Murray River salt ($7), crispy potato and green onion hash ($8) and zucchini haloumi fritters ($10 for a serve of four).

While diners can look forward to an expanded offering in coming months, it’s details like these that will cement Background’s place in the best breakfast ranks.

Background Barista

2379 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach

Book it: 5598 2774

Open: Daily from 5.30am