The team behind Terror Twilight and Hi Fi haven’t stopped, and their latest project is a day-to-late-arvo cafe and wine bar called Ophelia.
Inside you can expect vinyl records spinning like the crew’s (that’s the , for those in the know) other venues, but the vibe and the food couldn’t be more different.
“To put it simply, we want (patrons) to feel at home. Even down to the kind of plates we use and glassware and cutlery, we’ve tried to keep that homey feel and not be too cut and polished,” exec chef Dale Kemp says.
“There’s a lot of veg on there and a bit of seafood, which we don't dabble in too much in the other cafes … but at the same time you can still get some fried eggs with some toast.”
“Maybe two-months ago we had a whole menu together and we almost scrapped the whole thing.”
Hey, if they’re willing to scratch an entire menu for the sakes of our bellies, we’re here for it. What did make the cut though is versatile and Euro leaning.
Kemp popped the lid on his highlight: the galette. A spin on the traditional French buckwheat crepe stuffed with roasted zucchini, buffalo ricotta atop a rocket and pepita pesto.
“It’s just something that you could have in the morning with your coffee, or at 2pm with a glass of wine,” he says.
And for a sweet treat? A fluffy fried milk bread that Kemp says is like biting into a crispy, gooey doughnut plonked in a bed of citrus curd sprinkled with spiced sugar.
Just like the menu and the natty-wine focused drinks list, or the miso butterscotch latte we’ll be ordering, Ophelia promises to be something a little bit more than other cafes.
“It's something a little different, we are really trying to make it a place where people want to come and they want to stay, just make the place their own,” Kemp says.
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