Paper Plane

How's this for enterprising spirit? A pair of young Sydneysiders quit their jobs in finance, fly overseas for a year of travel and adventure, throw themselves into local cafe culture and cut the trip short to come home and have a crack at the cafe business themselves.

For Carla Soriano and Ben Mora, a trip to South America was the spark they needed to open a fun and breezy cafe in Parramatta. Having virtually no experience in the industry was no barrier, with Mora hitting the pans and Soriano on the espresso machine.

"Building a paper plane and making it fly – that's kind of what we wanted to do with this cafe," Soriano says. "Just putting our imagination into a shop and seeing if we could make it work."

A year on, it seems they have. The cafe, one of the few in the suburb open on weekends, is now a hub for breakfast and bean-hunters from all over the area. Time your visit well and you can also drop by the local craft markets Riverside Theatre (the next one is on March 21).

With bifold doors that open on to the street, fresh flowers on each table and stylish farmhouse furniture, the venue is a casually inviting place, made even more so by the creative tips system on the counter.

On the morning of our visit, two bottles labelled "hip hop" and "rock'n'roll" cry out for our spare change. The results of previous "competitions" (Monday sickies v Friday sickies; Star Wars v Star Trek, Michael Jackson v Chris Brown etc) are recorded on a board on the wall. I'm tempted to demand a recount for one result, however. Game of Thrones received more tips than Breaking Bad – really?

Questions of vote-rigging aside, we have a win of our own by slotting into one of the generously sized outdoor tables.

Coffees arrive quickly, with Numero Uno's Picasso blend delivering smooth, honey tones to a round of milk coffees.

Then it's on to breakfast with a board of French toast. Covered in cinnamon, crushed pistachio and strawberries, it's a sweet start to the day made even sweeter with a generous splodge of creamy French vanilla custard rather than the usual maple syrup. A dollop of rhubarb compote cuts nicely through the milkiness.

The "tiny dancer" (an allusion to Soriano's tendency to bop about when excited) is in no way small – it's easily enough for two and arrives as a colourful spread of avocado, tomatoes, asparagus and smoked salmon alongside poached eggs and wilted spinach atop crusty bread.

Equally handsome is the eggs benedict, a splay of smoked salmon, wilted spinach and poached eggs on organic sourdough.

Both dishes are healthy and satisfying, though a little restraint on the mustard would help lighten the heavily seeded hollandaise.

The cafe's spin on the Monte Cristo – essentially a fried ham-and-cheese sandwich – comes with extra turkey and cranberry sauce between two French toasts. It's a salty-sweet-savoury mash-up that's dangerously easy to eat despite being, as my companion says, "the weirdest combination I've ever tasted". The Swiss cheese lends just enough bite though texturally it could do with extra crunch.

Finally, we launch into the vegetable plate, a colourful platter of ripe avo, tomato and asparagus alongside a huge upturned mushroom loaded with perfectly pungent pesto and feta. The yellow cloud of scrambled eggs comes with just the right hint of truffle oil.

Service, though friendly and eager at first, begins to flag as the crowds arrive. We'd hoped to sample the tea (the options run over a page long) but no matter – with portions this generous, we can barely manage even a sip.

As for hip hop versus rock'n'roll – who was the champ? You'll have to keep an eye on that blackboard.

THE LOW-DOWN
THE PICKS Vegetable plate and Monte Cristo
THE COFFEE Numero Uno Picasso blend with rotating list of single origins
THE LOOK Inner-city industrial meets farmhouse chic
THE SERVICE Well-meaning and friendly but flags under pressure