Cured meats and coffee is the focus at this little Brunswick café but for us, it’s all about sandwiches and Sunkist. On a Saturday, the back courtyard is bicep-to-bicep with tough guys, bandaging their internal wounds with chunky pulled pork rolls and rounds of fizzy orange drink. Those rolls are the width of a forearm and the chewy kind you use for proper po’ boys, here filled with juicy pulled pork.
There's also the braised beef on dark rye bread with plenty of pickles and 'slaw, but it's all about the pig here. Salami hang above the coffee machine and it’s caramelised bacon giving the ice cream on your doughcakes (hotcakes) a hint of smoke and salt.
There’s muesli and toast in the menu mix, but breakfasts really favour protein fans. Poached eggs come with huge house-made rosemary and fennel pork sausages. They have an almost meatloaf consistency, which is nice if you’re not a grease fiend. The strips of roasted-then-fried pork belly on the other hand are all rich, soft meat and bubbly crackling. They’re fanned across a Waldorf salad that sees walnuts and celery hidden among giant chunks of granny smith and pink lady apples all lightly coated in a rich egg mayo dressing. It looks poorly constructed at first glance, but the size of the apples means you get a lot of fresh sweet juice to cut the pork and mayo fat.
You could always get a plain old platter of cured meat of breakfast. The small charcuterie board is enough for two, packed with funky slices of truffled salami, pink sheets of salty jamon, duck liver parfait and a big slice of head cheese (a gelatinous terrine made from the pork cheek, ears and snout – theirs is really good, with a nice hit of garlic and dill), all backed by caper berries, flatbreads and an apple chutney.
Coffee is consistently good in a black or white pour and they’ve got all the gadgets to do you up an Aeropress brew, but if caffeine and capocollo isn’t the combination of your dreams, there are fresh squeezed juices and smoothies. The coconut and mango number bizarrely tastes more like yoghurt and peaches, but it's tasty nonetheless.
This is a one-stop shop of meaty treats, set to the tune of some classic rock. But it’s also a cute little local with details picked out in daisy yellow, and a really friendly crew to brighten your morning if you’re just after a Danish pastry and a coffee to go. That’ll do, pig.