Review: Vertical Espresso, South Turramurra

Vertical Espresso is a cafe in a small shopping strip in South Turramurra. Before it appeared, shoppers visited for the newsagent, chemist, hairdresser, mini-supermarket, butcher's shop and an always busy bakery.

Then the butcher's shop closed and in its place, as in so many closed butcher's shops around, appeared a cafe. South Turramurra suddenly had a groovy coffee and food spot, with lovely cakes and hanging Edison bulbs and tables made from reclaimed wood and industrial cable wheels.

On a sunny morning, the first of two visits, the place is humming and the coffee is strong and creamy.

But something is up. Ordering food at the front counter over a glass case of stonkingly delicious-looking date slices, chocolate brownies, citrus tarts and sugar cinnamon-sprinkled scrolls, I encounter a somewhat sour man.

"Yes," he says, looking like this is the last place he wants to be.

"Do you bake your own cakes?" I ask.

"No," he says.

We stare at each other. I laugh gaily to cheer the air. Nothing. I order four dishes and, chastened, take a table number and sit down.

A week later the business has been sold and that man is gone.

If there was also an about-to-close message on the first visit, it was our bacon and egg toasties.

Served on schiacciata, the free-range eggs, bacon, tomato relish and tasty cheese are lost between the slices of dry, overly toasted Tuscan flat bread.

An excellent smoked salmon and avocado salad makes up for it, with slivered almonds, grilled zucchini and a tangy dressing. It is a buoyant, generous, just-picked-from-the-garden wonder.

But a return visit is clearly necessary.

Second time around, a very cheery man is at the counter taking orders. The menu is the same but the new owner'splan is to introduce more fresh components, losing many of the pre-prepared dishes such as the dry bacon and egg toastie.

Service is fast. Porridge with Turkish apricots and dates arrives, topped with banana and brown sugar. It is creamy, fragrant and moist enough to handle the dried fruit without an extra splosh of milk.

Also delicious are the fluffy scrambled eggs served with good, thick sourdough toast and made even better with two extras: salmon and bacon. This simple dish can often go wrong – here it's all right.

The small girl at the table polishes off a banana smoothie as big as a fire hydrant. In stolen sips while she attends to a smartie-faced biscuit, I detect real bits of banana in a perfectly sweet, light whiz of milk and honey.

Afterwards we walk through the cafe, past an impressive roof-high coil of copper pipe offering tap water and out to the dinky back courtyard. Then through a tiny picket fence and across a laneway to a sun-dappled playground.

It is almost idyllic.

Vertical Espresso's food and service are much improved but one more thing could change.

Could it be the cafe that bucks the trend for hard seating? Old wooden school chairs or milk crates topped with a cushion look relaxed and low-key but I am lobbying for comfort.

When the average cafe features polenta cupcakes with Madagascar vanilla icing, sandwiches with aged Italian dry-cured ham and the coffee's origin written on tiny clipboards at each table, then a supportive and perhaps even padded chair is called for.

Add a "Comfortable chair levy" to the bill. I'll pay.

VERTICAL ESPRESSO

217 Kissing Point Road, South Turramurra

9440 1283

Daily, 7am-4pm.

THE PICKS

Porridge with Turkish dates and apricots; scrambled eggs; smoked salmon and avocado salad.

THE COFFEE

Gabrielle Coffee

THE LOOK

Bare brick walls, reclaimed wood tables and cute courtyard.

THE SERVICE

Fast and cheerful under new ownership

THE VALUE

Value Good $6.90-$15.90