Cornerstone Of Northcote

The Verdict

Cornerstone Of Northcote is a light, airy café with polished concrete floors, pretty aqua-tiled tables and lots of hanging greenery. It’s the type of place that instantly feels like your local, even if you’re coming from across town.

Standouts on the menu include turmeric scrambled eggs, which arrive with thick slices of buttered sourdough and are interspersed with kipfler potatoes, oyster mushrooms, banana peppers and leeks. A plastic syringe full of smoky hot sauce is not only fun to squirt over the top but takes the spicy heat from the banana peppers to a whole new level.

The porridge is an unexpected hero dish for the colder months: made with organic oats, pumpkin, nutmeg, rhubarb, bee pollen and lavender honey, it’s got textural crunch from a moreish nut crumb. Coconut charcoal waffles are both visually arresting and 100% guilt-free, sitting pretty on a thick dollop of coconut yoghurt with a scattering of macerated berries and drizzle of blood orange syrup.

You can check out Cornerstone’s twilight tapas and cocktail nights on Friday and Saturday evenings starting RN.

Image credit: Madeleine Gill