Cornersmith Nights

Everybody keep cool, there's picklin' afoot. Not just any picklin', but local picklin'. Like, on site. They even run classes on the subject. That's the M.O at this Marrickville cafe. If it's alive, if it's local, if it's seasonal, it's very likely on the menu. Most especially if it's been brined. And now they're open in the evenings during the pointy end of the week.

It's a real neighbourhood joint, this. The popular cafe, which is nigh impossible to get into for breakfast is now also nigh impossible to get into for dinner as well. But treat it as a challenge to get closer to the gooey burrata that spills and spread across the plate showered in toasted hazelnuts and finished with a drizzle of local honey.

Silky, smoky slices of bresaola sees the air-dried beef served with slightly tart fermented green heirloom tomatoes (you know how putting the words "in my pants" at the end of your favourite song's name makes it automatically hilarious? The same logic applies to putting the word "heirloom" in front of the name any vegetable – it even makes squash and cabbage fancy).

Glossy white tiles and cream-coloured pressed metal ceilings meet blackboard menus scrawled with everything including tonight's $50 five-course set menu – a mix of share-dishes heavy on the pickles from chef Maxim Roberts.

It's a few steps up from what they're offering during the day in terms of execution, but still closely aligned when it comes to their general live-and-extremely-local ethos. Check an acid-heavy mix of caramelised fennel, plum puree, pickled plums and rough-hewn sourdough croutons – smart. See those blackboards for more on their classes (cheese making, bread making and more!) to a few community messages (Cornersmith does not support factory farming!).

Yep, it's that disarming mix of DIY industro-chic (say, is that a piece of plastic piping doubling as a plate stand?) and smartly conceived ideas utilising plenty of great local talent from the coffee to the wine.

The current drinks list – and this changes, as everything else does, depending on availability – is helped along by friendly neighbourhood sommeliers Tim Watkins and Joel Amos. Amos, by the by, also runs a wine distribution company, Brooks and Amos – purveyors of vinous good times.

Those good times could translate as a carafe of Ochota Barrels "fugazi" grenache – a massive red sucker punch which stands up beautifully to a dish of wet braised pork neck with a fair whack of chilli, refreshed with a lightly dressed salad of leaves, pomegranate and apple. Chase that with a slice of gluten-free honey cake and a few songs from the Highwaymen, and it's hard not leave a happy camper.   

THE LOW-DOWN
Pro tip: Book for an earlier sitting, then make for Hartsyard's new bar the Gretz for a post-prandial red hook cocktail
Like this? Take the breezy Middle Eastern brunch foods Kepos Street Kitchen have become known for, add a wine list, a whole lot of savoury dinner fun and you've got one hell of an evening. 96 Kepos St, Redfern. (02) 9319 3919