Grounds of Alexandria

Generally speaking, I wouldn't go to a place that has a clipboard-wielding door person out the front. But then, I've never seen a cafe with a clipboard-wielding door person out the front before. What's next? Wristbands so you can leave and re-enter as you please?

While a lot of places around town are having trouble getting people in the doors, The Grounds of Alexandria is having trouble keeping people out. When it opens for breakfast at 8am on weekends, a queue starts to form. When it starts serving lunch from noon, another queue starts to form. At least there's plenty to do while you wait, once the lovely Jason has jotted down your name.

The ''grounds'' of The Grounds of Alexandria refers not just to coffee but to its 1800 square metres of well-tended kitchen gardens; meandering, signposted paths; chicken run (complete with clucking chooks); large outdoor communal tables reserved for the takeaway trade; and a soon-to-open, covered and heated dining area serving up Mediterranean flat breads and pizze from a dedicated wood-fired oven.

Then there's all the action inside the re-purposed Four'n Twenty pie factory. It's a lively, stripped-back space divided into two large, semi-industrial dining rooms separated by a takeaway service counter and cake display, and surrounded by glassed-in kitchens and a dedicated bakery. Coffee forms the thrumming heart and soul of the place, with three heavy-duty espresso machines, a counter devoted to brewing methods, a dedicated coffee roaster featuring two state-of-the-art 12-kilogram Probat roasters and a coffee ''research facility''.

Let's just say that if you dropped a geodesic dome over the top and nuked the rest of Sydney, you could live here quite happily for the rest of your days.

The lively dynamic comes from the synthesis of its two owners, hospitality entrepreneur Ramzey Choker (Bacco Pasticceria, Rocket) and coffee roaster and former world latte art champion Jack Hanna (Jack and the Bean). It might run like a restaurant, with menus and table service, but it has the happy buzz and casual charm of a cafe.

There's no doubt the place is built on a coffee dream, and the coffee is seriously good; the seven-bean house blend being supple and subtle, earthy and creamy, and firm of body.

The food is a little harder to pin down, with its breakfasts of crunchy, nutty granola, and full-on fry-ups of eggs, sausages, and spicy tomato and spinach ragout. Brunch features banana on toast and somewhat wacky soft-boiled eggs rolled in crisp quinoa; while lunch can be as simple as a steak sandwich with caramelised onion and rocket, or as pretty as a salad of confit ocean trout with pearl barley, edible flowers, herbs and preserved lemon.

There's a good breakfast board ($20) that comes loaded with finely sliced double-smoked ham, a splodge of Persian fetta, sliced avocado and a vibrant heirloom tomato salad, along with sourdough toast and two nicely poached eggs. Silky house-cured ocean trout ($16) is piled onto toast with a fresh tangy fennel and herb salad, and - for an extra $4 - a slather of creamy, curdy, scrambled eggs. It's a gorgeous thing, although the toast underneath is hard to cut; as if it's been done ahead of time and has toughened up. Other toasts come hot and fresh. Everyone's under a fair amount of pressure and it shows every now and then with cooking inconsistencies and the ever-cheery but patchy service.

At lunch, the big orders are pappardelle with slow-braised lamb and peas ($17) and The Grounds Burger ($18) of dry-aged angus beef, cheese, tomato, house pickles and good, crisp chips. The burger meat feels mulchy and compressed, and the mustard and mayo stripes hijack a lot of the flavour. A big two-hander of a sandwich with slow-roasted lamb shoulder ($14) is also as saucy as all get-out. Salads are good, the fresh beetroot, orange and goat's curd salad ($14) with a crunch of hazelnuts a typically colourful example. At this stage, sweet things are sourced from the cake counter - sour cherry pastries, overly sweet ''wagon wheels'' and healthy-looking muffins.

The Grounds is a great initiative, a ground-breaking collaborative gastrodome and a fun place to be; like a loud open-house party with way-hay too many kids. There's more to come, apparently: once-a-month-dinner feasts, a spit barbecue and bar, coffee and gardening workshops. The owners describe it as ''interactive, educational and fun'' and ''an escape from the city, in the city''. It's all that, and more.

tdurack@smh.com.au

The low-down

Best bit The Grounds Roasters coffee.

Worst bit The kids, the prams and the queues.

Go-to dish House-cured ocean trout with fennel and herb salad, dill creme fraiche and scrambled eggs, $20.

Address 7A, 2 Huntley Street, Alexandria, 9699 2225 (no bookings), groundsroasters.com.
Open Mon-Fri, 7am-4pm; Sat-Sun, 8am-3pm.
Licensed BYO (no corkage), with license imminent.
Cost  About $50 for two.

Terry Durack is co-editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.