When Home by Cornhill Coffee opens in Neutral Bay this week with a degustation brunch menu and experienced team, it will highlight the gulf in fortunes between cafes in the Sydney CBD and the suburbs.

Owner Andrew Carter opened Cornhill Coffee Co. on York Street in the CBD earlier this year. Repeated lockdowns and the slow return of workers to the CBD has seen him pull his equipment out of the venue. He'll make a decision on its future by Australia Day 2022.

"We've taken the decision that November and December and probably January will be very quiet in the city as people choose to stay at home, before likely being required to return to work after the summer," he says.

In contrast, working from home has brought boom time to the suburbs. As a lower north shore local, he wants to tap into that market.

Home is Carter's sixth Sydney cafe, and he's brought former Prince of York chef Viveik Vinoharan north of the harbour. Where his CBD cafe leaned on the London cafe scene for menu inspiration, the Neutral Bay arrival will be contemporary Australian.

Carter describes the approach as "refined comfort food", with an heirloom tomato salad, black barley tabbouleh and confit pumpkin, and Mediterranean eggs with chilli 'nduja hash.

Three-course breakfast and brunch "degs" will be available, and early next year Home by Cornhill Coffee will expand into the evening market, adding a cocktail list and opening for dinner at the end of summer.

Open daily 7am-3.30pm.

48 Yeo Street, Neutral Bay, 0414 488 118, instagram.com/homebycornhill