Everyday Espresso is more than your everyday type of café.
Exit Redfern Station, cross the road to Redfern Street and you have arrived at Everyday Espresso. Despite the name, there is nothing ‘everyday’ about this new brunch spot. Here, the space itself takes on a clean aesthetic featuring white walls, indoor plants and trendy Japanese-style plates, cups and bowls. As for the menu, it goes above and beyond your stock standard eggs on toast, honouring dynamic Asian-inspired dishes.
When we visited on a Saturday morning there was already a waitlist of hungry customers eager to take a seat in the small space. Taking up a corner at the start of Redfern Street, the café has full floor to ceiling glass walls. Because of this, the space doesn’t feel crowded despite the fact it can only fit five or six tables. I started with a ice latte and my friend ordered a fresh juice while we mulled over the menu.
Everyday Espresso is the brainchild of Justin Stevenson, the owner of Coop & Cart in Haymarket, near UTS. When Everyday Espresso launched late last year, Justin took on the formerly hatted chef, Tomislav Martinovic, to jump start the kitchen. Martinovic designed the menu with the view that cafes should no longer be playing it safe. That would explain his take on Eggs Bene. At Everyday Espresso, it is served on a croissant with yuzu hollandaise, streaky bacon and buttermilk fried chicken ($14.90)!
While the croissant sounded interesting, at 11am I wasn’t quite ready for fried chicken. Instead, I opted for the Soba Omelette ($15.90) with green soba noodles, raw Enoki, nori sheets, fried shallots and a soy dressing. The dish was delicious. So tasty and deceptively simple that I have tried to emulate it at home (with no success). The creamy omelette is topped with mushrooms, noodles and fresh Asian herbs, making for a healthy start to the day, or afternoon.
After something a bit more meaty, my friend ordered the Grilled Korean ($15.90) with grilled chicken, quinoa, bean sprouts, cos lettuce, avocado, fermented chilli paste, sesame seeds and a soy dressing. Again, the flavours here were fresh and a touch different from what is typically served for brunch at Sydney cafes. The avocado quinoa and soft boiled eggs are reminiscent to your typical avo smash dish, but the spicy chilli paste, bean sprouts and lettuce remind me more of Korean BBQ.
As you can tell, there is a theme across the menu, featuring wholesome ‘bowls’. For Sydney’s health conscious audience, there is an ‘almost paleo green bowl’ ($14.90) with brown rice, Chinese cabbage, raw kale, avocado, edamame, soft boiled egg, mustard dressing and tamari almonds. We didn’t get a chance to try it this time round, but will be back for sure. Perhaps it will be for lunch, as the dishes make for perfect takeaway options. Also worth mentioning is that takeaway is $2 cheaper so you can buy a filling lunch for under $15.
Before we left, we didn’t forget to check out the cake display featuring homemade chocolate and orange muffins and a range of other goodies. There’s also a big selection of takeaway sandwiches.
For people who live in the area, Everyday Espresso’s exciting menu, cool setting and convenient location might just mean that you will be visiting this café, like the name implies, daily.
Everyday Espresso, 159 Redfern St, Redfern
Open Monday – Friday 6am-3:30pm, Saturday 6am-3pm and Sunday 7am – 3pm