The bacon and egg breakfast gnocchi that amps up brunch
Eat dinner before noon with pan-fried potato orbs drenched in burnt butter with crispy sage, bacon and a gooey poached egg at this Fairfield cafe that’s turning up the hipster dial.
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Breakfast gnocchi, house plants for sale, a record player spinning Johnny Cash and ABBA, and bike racks out the front.
Fairfield’s new Outer Circle Social Club cafe isn’t afraid to turn up the hipster dial.
You’ll find the brunch spot in a converted radiator factory in an industrial pocket off Station St, serving up a menu that’s partly vegan and dairy-free and offering customers free compost made from used coffee grinds and food scraps.
It joins the flurry of Fairfield cafes opening within weeks of each other this year, such as Canteen by Brother Basil and Co and second outposts of Oakleigh’s Nikos Cakes and Murrumbeena’s Middle Eastern bakery Oasis.
Named after the now-defunct 1890s train loop between Oakleigh and Fairfield, Outer Circle celebrates cafe classics and American barbecue hits over all-day breakfast and lunch.
Head chef Tim Pescarini (formerly of South Yarra’s Lyall Hotel and Ivanhoe’s Harvest) plays with the kitchen’s smoker for the pork dawga ($20) — a take on the Vietnamese banh
mi pork roll.
The creation sees slow-smoked pork shoulder seasoned the central Texas way (salt and pepper only), cradled in a white roll with slaw, fresh dill, coriander and a decent squirt of chilli aioli and sriracha hot sauce. The fall-apart tender meat is tasty, and the larger-than-life serve fast-filling.
Eat dinner before noon with breakfast gnocchi ($22), pan-fried potato orbs drenched in burnt butter with crispy sage, bacon and a gooey poached egg.
The gnocchi isn’t house-made, but plunge anything into a creamy, buttery and bacon-laden sauce long enough and it’s delicious.
For smaller appetites, there are muffins and cakes (baked in-house), or Rustica’s plain and almond croissants.
Outer Circle’s custom Nowhere to Nowhere all-rounder coffee blend is churned from the sleek black SanRemo machine, while single-origin and filter beans are rotated monthly, with Axil, Seven Seeds and Cartel Coffee Roasters already given a whirl.
Nowhere to Nowhere beans are also available to buy, as are some of the indoor plants dotted around the 80-seat venue.
Greenery shoots from black planter boxes in the centre of the room, with ivy and cactus decorating the workbench along the back wall with stools where solo diners can leisurely latte sip and newspaper flick.
From the street, Outer Circle’s tan-brick warehouse blends into the factory landscape. Inside, the original windows and sawtooth ceiling spills sunlight across polished grey concrete floors and bounces off exposed beams and white walls.
Come summer, the wooden deck out the front will pack them in, especially when the liquor licence lands.
With left-of-field cafe fare and plenty of hipster charm, this northside newcomer is a hot spot with heart.
OUTER CIRCLE SOCIAL CLUB
299 Arthur St, Fairfield
9486 3119
Open: Weekdays: 7am-4pm, Weekends: 8am-3pm.
Go to dish: Breakfast gnocchi
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