There’s nothing I love more than discovering a new place and telling you about it Dear Reader. One such instance is a recent visit to Blackwattle Cafe, in Blackwattle Bay Glebe open since December last year. I know that waterside dining is usually the area of restaurants although sometimes, just sometimes, a cafe can sneak into the picture. And in turn it is usually embraced and loved by locals.

After the deluge of rain we’ve been having recently, a sunny day seems cause enough for celebration. I mean it’s not like we’re going to take our shirts off like they do in other cities when the weather turns warm but quite honestly I was shaking my fist at the sky every day while my laundry piled up demanding that the rain stop. So when Buxom Wench, Silver Fox and I find ourselves looking for a lunch date one gorgeously sunny Autumn Friday afternoon we decided to head towards the water. We arrive at Blackwattle Bay and following the map we drive as far as we can down the street.

“Where is it?” Buxom Wench says.

“I have no idea” I answer, completely clueless.

There’s perhaps really only one place it can be and approaching it from the street it isn’t immediately obvious as there is no signage so we head towards the water where sparkling Blackwattle Bay is giving us a prime view of its wares on this beautiful day. The Anzac bridge sits suspended up above and we pass a sandwich board for the Blackwattle Cafe as we take the long way round via the front. There are gaggles of mums with their babies who are playing with the toys provided (Buxom Wench notes with approval that they are good toys).

The cafe is housed in an 1896 Victorian house with Italianate features called Bellevue House. It is very busy this Friday afternoon with two large groups of diners in two semi private rooms and everyone else scattered among the rooms and outdoor area. The building is nicely restored with interesting treatments on the walls and a warm, cozy atmosphere. The menu is compact with about half a dozen offerings in total but it does encompass a bit of everything: a pate, a pie, a salad, a sandwich and a slow cooked dish. Coffee is by The Little Marionette and bread is by Sonoma but everything else is said to be made on the premises.

Chai $4

I try my chai. I’m not a huge fan of hot drinks in glasses and it always seems so counter intuitive to serve a hot drink in a glass without a handle but it seems most places are insistent on serving lattes like this. The chai itself isn’t a standout nor is it bad but I don’t think I would order it again.

Duck Liver Pate with toasted ciabatta $12

The pate comes out first as requested and it comes with caper berries and five generous slices of toasted Sonoma ciabatta bread and a sweet jellied top. The actual texture of the pate is firm, like fridge hardened ganache, perhaps too firm but the flavour is excellent without any bitterness and the overly firm texture is forgiven with the lovely flavour.

Pork and Pistachio Pie with Salad & Relish $18

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Good Monday Dear Readers and Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mums for yesterday! I hope you all had a wonderful day I actually had my birthday yesterday on Mother’s Day which is something that happens every seven years or so. Every year for my birthday I try and stretch out the celebrations as much as possible over a weekend- I mean the more celebrations, the more food and cake you know what I’m thinking right?

This year Mr NQN was given what would be an almost impossible task-to arrange a romantic birthday celebration for just the two of us. My husband is a wonderful being. Sweet, handsome, clever and understanding he is but romantic perhaps he is not.  So thankfully he was offered some help from the Quintessentially team, a high end concierge service and private member’s club that can help any lost soul with surprising a special someone with tickets to a film premiere or dinner at Louis Vuitton or something left of centre but absolutely unique. I felt confident that he, and in turn I, were in safe hands so I unlaced my hands that are usually firmly on the controls and sat back and relaxed.

Mr NQN’s birthday card to me

Mr NQN: A couple of things that I’ll probably never be described as are romantic and a good event planner. I have the best of intentions though for some reason I’ve never been particularly good at either of them… perhaps I just think that things will take care of themselves.  So I was extremely relieved when I found out that Quintessentially were going to help me out with Lorraine’s birthday this year. She’s hard to surprise (although I did manage to surprise her when I proposed to her) and even she will admit to being a bit of a control freak.

Mr NQN had let it slip that there were some choices, the first being a carnivale fairground that was set up with a “last meal” food station of my very favourite foods (kind of like having your last meal without being executed the next day!). The second choice was a dinner at one of Louis Vuitton’s private salons with the food brought in by an external caterer. Like any inquisitive wife I tried to get the final choice out of him by asking questions like “What do I have to wear?” and “Will there be much walking?”. I even tried sneaky things like “Are we bringing the flash?” to find out if we were going to a restaurant because we generally don’t use the flash in restaurants because it disturbs other diners. And when we were getting ready I asked him to pass me a Chanel bag out of the cupboard to which he gave no reaction so  knew the Louis Vuitton idea was not going to happen. He’s good at keeping secrets. “We’re going to be back home by 9pm” is all he tells me.

Mr NQN: The communication with them started by email (which was my preference as I can’t take calls during work easily) then as the day got closer Belinda from Quintessentially rang a couple of times to discuss the night and the final confirmation of details. My original idea of taking Lorraine to Breakfast at Tiffany’s unfortunately couldn’t be done but we went back and forth with some alternative ideas that would impress her. We discussed possible ideas for the night with some great suggestions and I made a decision, clarified some details and locked in a date. I was a bit nervous as I didn’t hear back from them until a few days before the event when the final details needed to be organised (important things like what her favourite macaron flavours are etc). I got the final details the day before.

Mr NQN’s birthday present to me

“They’re going to blindfold you too” Mr NQN warned me. The first thing I thought was “Are we going somewhere that I already know?” At 6pm sharp his phone rings and our driver and car have arrived. We slide into the seat of the very tinted windowed car feeling very excited indeed. Oddly, there’s no blindfold and the driver then confirms the address with us which seems like a bit of a glitch. Mr NQN keeps trying to tell the driver that has he no idea what the exact address is and that it is meant to be a surprise for me (in order to get him to stop talking about it in case he reveals the location name)  and quite comically the driver keeps asking to confirm the address. I see Mr NQN tense a little as he squeezes my hand so I whisper to him “Dont’ worry, I don’t recognise the address” although admittedly I spent the whole trip racking my brain to recall places in Camperdown that I know.

Mr NQN: Keeping the secret and chuckling at Lorraine’s attempts to work out where/what we were doing was fun. However I was a bit disappointed by the briefing of the driver. The main issue for me was that there was no blindfold where I had warned her a few times that she would be blindfolded and she loves anything exciting or mysterious. The driver kept asking me to confirm the address which was a bit odd since all I knew was that it was in the inner west somewhere. Given the location (down some VERY small dark streets) the lack of blindfold didn’t really affect the surprise though.

The car enters a dark alley and by dark it is almost pitch black. We turn into a street where there is only one door open and it’s a car dealership. “Oh” I say to myself, “am I taking a car out for a test drive?”. I look at Mr NQN and he smiles “We’re here.”

Our driver opens the car door and I alight. To my left opposite the car dealership a door has opened and a woman is standing there smiling at me. “Lorraine?” she asks. She is Mr NQN’s contact from Quintessentially. She leads me into the door where an illuminated Moulin Rouge sign greets us. She introduces me to Michael who owns this space which is full of every single prop you could imagine. And well, you know how much I love props right?

Belinda tells us that Michael will be our host for the evening. Wearing a mask and a costume he introduces himself and gives us each a mask to wear and we follow him him through the dark walkway past mounted white tiger heads, giant Easter Island statues and costumes. This is as much of a surprise to Mr NQN as it is me and we arrive at a stunning room. Michael explains that this room is called “The Velvet Canopy.”

Mr NQN: I wasn’t sure what to expect when we arrived. I was really blown away after arriving and being greeted by Belinda and then a masked Michael in costume who gives us each a mask to wear we were lead through a warehouse full of props. Finally turning the corner into an amazing room with a masked bartender. They most definitely undersold it in the emails!

There are two nubiles that greets us, ceilings are draped in red satin, a vintage chandelier is suspended from the centre of the room, ornate velvet and leather Louis XV style chairs and sofas abound, glass eggs, bird cages and lit candles perch on every possible surface in this room. The entire room is a lush spectacle and one that I could spend hours playing dress up and play pretend in. Mr NQN is given an embellished Spanish matador jacket and I’m given a fur stole.

Michael introduces us to Alan the bartender who is actually a member of the Knights Templar wearing his Knights Templar medals no less. He pours us a glass of Pommery champagne each and we settle ourselves on the velvet bar stools and look around. Alan senses my fascination with everything and he advises that I try out every seat in the house as says that once I do that I’ll feel totally at home.

So like Goldilocks I try each and every seat in the house. Some are soft, some are hard and some are juuust right. I can’t take my eyes off everything in there as there is just so much to look at and touch. There is the old fashioned telephone, the elaborate headdresses and there is even an Indian feathered mohawk which are all a result of Michael collecting for the past 15 years for his events business called Pure Events.

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One of the best parts of my job (and admittedly it’s sometimes rather difficult to call it a job when you find so much pleasure in it) is travelling around to different regional areas of Australia and sampling and buying the produce on offer in each corner of this vast country. I usually push my baggage allowance right up to the very last kilo bringing back bottles of lovely preserves, olives, oils, vinegars, dressings, chocolates, biscuits and drinks and when I get home I open up my suitcase and unearth it all like the most valuable newly discovered treasure.

The reason why I like buying regional products is because the products are often artisan handmade in small batches and contain only what you would use if you were making them back at home. There are multi award winning products because a lot of care is taken with the products to put the best quality produce in them. These producers can’t stock their items in supermarkets because supermarkets require very large quantities of items among other reasons and so they usually just sell it on their premises and freight is another huge hurdle for these businesses. So eFarmer’s Market consolidates these wonderful producers and sells the products on their behalf to help bring together the consumer with the artisan!

Their website (http://www.efarmersmarket.com.au) just launched this very week and you can buy items individually or you can package them up as a gift. Some of the products I’ve been lucky enough to try on my travels including a divine Gwydir Grove Agrumato lemon olive oil (agrumato is where they crush whole fruit along with the olives instead of using essences as flavour), Lynwood’s fabulous caramelised onion marmalade, Bramble Patch eggplant kasundi or Mount Zero mixed olives which contain tiny and delicious little olives.

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