There’s a shop sign-painted with the words “The Fortune Teller” and just opposite, at a pub, there are racks of vintage clothes being sold on the street alongside patrons having a Sunday afternoon drink. A group of four guys look around self consciously which causes us to notice that they’re absconding with a “keep left” road sign. Erskineville is just one of those suburbs where something interesting is always going on.
Mr NQN and I are on our way to brunch, well actually lunch at this hour at Fleetwood Macchiato on Erksineville Road. A tiny cafe seating about 22 people, it’s full when we arrive but they tell us it won’t be long. We end up coming back an hour later around 2pm once we’ve run some errands and there are two tables free. We’re seated near a come hither display of luscious cakes, brownies and breads. A stack of cookbooks including the Momofuku and Movida ones sit above the open kitchen where everything is cooked in front of patrons. I had first heard about it from the lovely Gucci and Gyoza. It looked like a good combination of good food and relaxed service and just the sort of place to have something to eat-if you can get a table that is. I almost expect Fleetwood Mac to be playing (although, would this be too much?).
Macchiato $3.50
There is a separate menu for drinks and food and my eye is drawn to the home made cordials-today has a choice of three on the blackboard: ginger, lemonade and pink grapefruit. I go for a combination of the first two while Mr NQN orders a macchiato-a departure from his normal long black but it seems the way to go when you’re at a place named after a macchiato. The coffee is by Golden Cobra and he reports it as being a good coffee (he downed it before I could try it).
House made ginger and lemonade cordial $5
The ginger and lemonade is fizzy and is strong in lemon although less so than with ginger which I don’t really taste at all. It is tart and refreshingly fizzy although I would have loved a bit more ginger and sweetness to it.
Smashed egg breakfast roll with avocado, mustard aioli, sriracha, pickles and mushrooms with ham $14.50
Once, when Mr NQN tried to get me to ride a bike, he was dismayed to find that there was no way that I was going to fit on an adult’s bike. For a good two minutes, he looked at me and then he looked at his bike completely perplexed at how a seemingly normal looking adult could not fit on an adult’s bike. What does this have to do with the sandwich? Well as I was nibbling on this enormous sandwich packed with avocado, mustard aioli, pickled radish, miso mushrooms and good quality ham, I couldn’t fathom how I could get my mouth around it, try as I might. But then Mr NQN picked up his half and ate it easily. So the point again? I found it delicious but hard to eat all of it at once but Mr NQN didn’t -it’s a sandwich for those with big mouths. And it’s not often that I get to call him a big mouth 
Herb and black olive rolled poached eggs, saffron pickled eschallot, blood orange hollandaise and carta di musica $16.50
What lies under that super crunchy round disc sheet of carta di musica? Why this:
Too pretty not to take a picture of underneath the bread. Taken on a Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS lens, focal length 17 mm, ISO 200, 1/25s.
I know, this doesn’t really look like what you might find at a typical cafe does it? The kind of pretty doesn’t usually come out until around dinner time. It’s two poached eggs rolled in herbs and black olive with two thin layers of saffron pickled eschallot and a dollop of blood orange mayonnaise and plenty of herbs and flowers. The egg is appealingly runny and while I really do appreciate an alternative to eggs benedict we both felt like there might have been something missing from this. The carta di musica is very hard and some softer bread would have been great to mop up the gooey, creamy yolk and mayonnaise. Although apparently one customer said that this dish made her day better so who knows?
Pear, ginger and rosemary cake $5.50
Served with their own house made lemon myrtle yogurt (divine stuff) this cake is like a cross between a rosemary cake and a tarte tatin but somehow, it is so much more. When I was paying the bill the pastry chef (whose name I didn’t catch but he was lovely), asked me which I preferred. It was hard but this one just slightly pipped the chocolate brownie, mainly because I usually take a forkful of cake and pass it on but this divine rosemary scented cake with a touch of ginger was so moreish I stopped at 66%. Yes I measured it because I knew I’d be in trouble.
Chocolate brownie $4.50
I love it when people toast nuts before cooking with them. It makes them beautifully crunchy and brings out the flavour of the nuts. There are lots of crunchy hazelnuts in this crunchy topped rich brownie which according to the pastry chef “is pretty much all chocolate” (magic words!). It’s so dense and comes in a generous large, thick slice.
It’s 2:30pm and everyone seems to have cleared. Across the road, a homeless man who Mr NQN points out looks just like his father goes through a clothing bin. I wonder where the boys are going with their street sign…
So tell me Dear Reader, what do you think they were up to with the street sign? And when you find that a cafe has a wait, do you wait around or do you find somewhere else to go?
Fleetwood Macchiato
43 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9557 9291
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27 Comments | Add your own
Hopefully they were taking the sign straight to Parliament House.
Love rosemary in desserts!
How lovely is it, Ive been meaning to go here for a while just for the name only. Nice Miss NQN
Aaaah firstly the name of this cafe is awesome
And the drinks! Wow I love the idea of homemade cordials! And their dishes are so gourmet but the desserts – now that chocolate brownie would be eaten by yours truly 100%
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
The food here looks top class indeed! There seems to be a lot of attention paid to little details, and that always pays off.
I’ve always wondered what people do with stolen signs. Near us there is Love street and Ford street, and those signs got stolen so often the government stopped replacing them and the name is just stenciled on the curb instead
What beautiful photos of beautifully made food Lorraine! Yet another place to visit on our next trip to Sydney. I’m happy to line up and wait for a place where I really want to dine, but it depends if I’m with someone who won’t. When a street sign goes ‘missing’ it is really annoying to me, not to mention dangerous for any emergency vehicle trying to find someone who is in distress. I’m sure the boys didn’t think that one through!
I don’t have the answers to those perplexing questions, but I do love the sound and look of the home-made cordials. Yummy!Just like Dad used to make.
I think its the road sign manufacturing company paying someone to steal it:)
Around my uni in NZ, all mail boxes were abused/stolen and they were replaced with steal proof ones. Someone I know stole one and took it home (overseas)!!!
Wow. Thanks for the post. The food looks sensational. I’m on my way now!
That said, not into lining up for anything. We wait for the in between times. Often it means we have the whole place to ourselves and can relax.
And here I was thinking I was one of the rare people who had difficulty eating big sandwiches and burgers! But that sandwich looks like it had many lovely ingredients to make a tasty sandwich
–Excuse me, but that is not a chocoalte brownie, it’s a SIN.
Xxx Are you well, dear?
Oh great little cafe
And the second dish really doesn’t look like something you will find at a cafe for brunch ~ with all the different flavours and blood orange hollandaise sauce ~ Never heard of it hehe
And the pear, ginger and rosemary cake is very interesting to me
Especially since you said it’s like a cake and a tarte tartin i’m so intrigued hehe
I only wait if I’ve heard really good things and if I’m not hungry
if not hahaha I get angry 
I would say the street sign was pure novelty. Boys and their toys!
What a work of art that egg dish was. I see the edible flowers and microherbs have even made it into brunch plates.
I love a clever name! Especially when the food is good. Street signs disappear regularly. In Adelaide we have Lois Lane and Cleo Lane. The duck crossing signs also regularly disappear. I’d love a duck sign for the garden but would never steal it.
Lovely. Especially love the smashed egg breakfast rolls – yum!
Ooooh..I am drooling over that gorgeous picture of the poached eggs rolled in black olives. What an interesting dish–would love to copy it.
If I am really keen to try a place, I’ll wait.
When it comes to food, always think there is a sign,
Of somewhere specially unique and the food is divine!
Things sometimes don’t always seem as they appear,
But it is fun and exciting to uncover food gems throughout the year!
I could NOT get my eyes off the Pear, ginger and rosemary cake, TRUE!
And I would have thought “Where’s the Fleetwood Mac music in the background?” too!
Fleetwood Macchiato? I love a good pun in a restaurant name (Wok n Roll, am I right?).
If you have to wait to get into any food place it’s usually a good sign. It means that food is really good. There is a cafe in Seattle that we had to wait for an hour,and it was totally worth it!
Depends on the cafe, sometimes I’ll wait if I’m gung ho on going there, or if the food is worth it. Otherwise it’s moving on to the next one
Love Erskineville. We live in the outer suburbs, but drive in and park there, find a little cafe, plenty to choose from, then walk up to movies at Newtown. Erko still has that lovely villagey feel to it. If cafe busy, would go back another day. Deli there is awesome! Fabulous Pear & Ginger cake recipe on the ‘taste’ food site that you can add Rosemary to. Stolen signs? Son, then 18 backpacked Europe and came back with a ‘Tour de France’ No Standing cardboard temporary sign that he had scaled a tall lamp post to retrieve. In the process he hurt his leg badly. Lesson learned, he has never done it again, but 20 yrs on he
still treasures that cardboard sign! As a mother I was absolutely mortified that I had produced a ‘street sign’ thief……
LOL at the street sign. I’m sure its going to a good place
I love the name of this place! Fab food too
I would find it hard to eat that smashed egg sandwich! I would probably have to dissect it with a knife and fork ^^”and that poached egg shot with the herbs looks amazing!
I have a sister-in-law (I may have mentioned her to you!) and one Christmas she seriously gave me a street sign. My surname on a street sign. I had no idea what to do with it and I was perplexed given there were a million and one things on my wish list ahead of a street sign! xx
That huge breakfast sandwich looks delicious and it kind of reminds me of the huge burger I had today. The burger was absolutely delicious but when it arrived, I was staring at it for a while trying to figure out how to eat it.
I’d also be keen to try those home-made cordials too. I always like it when a place has interesting drinks as opposed to just the boring canned variety.
I love the timber on the outside! This would have been a good location for us!
Also, I love Fleetwood Mac.
I’m built very close to the footpath myself. I had to buy a girl’s bike and that’s just fine but pink? It’s just not “me” but I ride it anyway.
I won’t wait for a long time for a table. Too many other places I can try.
Erskineville has sure come a long way over the past 20 years.
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