I’ve often thought that bookshop cafes are a good place for a first date. Like a movie, they provide a welcome distraction and reprieve from silences and also furnish either party with fodder for conversation. Conversely, they’re also great when you’re by yourself and can find solace and company rifling your fingers along the spines of books.
We’re in neither of these situations however one after when meeting up with friends Buxom Wench and Silver Fox. The holidays and late nights have us meeting for brunch rather than breakfast and Bondi seemed a good enough place to visit considering the summery warm weather. Gertrude & Alice is a bookshop cafe named after Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
Buxom Wench and Silver Fox are there first while we try and nab a parking spot longer than one hour which we find in the side street (at Bondi rates-grumble grumble). They text us that they’re at a table at the rear of the shop and we walk past the people sitting at communal tables, comfy lounges talking to friends or reading books. Children have found their spot in front of the colourful, small kid’s section and Buxom Wench and Silver Fox are sitting at a large table looking at a book called “Beautiful Chickens.” The books are a mix of new and collector’s books.
Ordering is done at the front counter and Buxom Wench and I go to have a look at what looks good in the front display. A couple of items are marked as their signatures and after a bit of uming and ahing we decide on a range of items.
Alice’s Famous Spiced Chai $5
Their chai is said to be “famous” and one peek into the pot looks very promising. It’s a spicy, aromatic mix steeped in milk, not water which is just the way that I like it. It comes with a little honey and I sip every single drop all the while Mr NQN hints for some too.
Moroccan mint tea $5
Veggie burger $14
The veggie burger is a sweet potato and brown lentil patty and is hidden under a warm blanket of mountain bread. The burger itself is full of flavour and soft and it’s not really a pick up with your hands kind of burger, more a knife and fork one. The hummus is creamy and the summer slaw salad accompanying it has a fresh vinaigrette dressing and a good range of crunchy and soft texture with pepper rocket as the base.
Grilled Corn fritter with bacon $15.50
The corn fritter is a large, thick fritter, a little more floury than how I prefer them (I like them slightly more eggy) but nevertheless well seasoned, with a fantastic spicy, slightly sweet chilli and lime sour cream which I could dip chips in or eat straight. It comes with roasted tomato, salsa and a half an avocado.
Breakfast bowl – large $12
I try a bit of Silver Fox’s breakfast bowl. Originally, we had thought that from the wording on the menu you got a bit of everything but I think you are supposed to choose from the fruit salad, Bircher muesli, granola and gluten free cereal. It turns out not to be a problem to give him a bit of everything except the gluten free muesli (which would have been a bit of a double up) and it’s a healthy start with tangy honey yogurt, fruit salad and muesli.
Famous Lentil stew $14
I tried a little of Buxom Wench’s lentil stew and it was a hearty serve with a strong tomato base. It was served with some avocado salsa, sour cream and sourdough bread.
Spelt scone
As Buxom Wench is lactose intolerant (except for butter), we bypassed the cream cheese iced carrot cake muffin and went for the spelt scone. It was served warm so we slathered it with butter and it was blissful. The dates, apple and sultana gave it additional moisture and the warm butter oozed into the soft spongey layers of the scone.
Fruit crumble
I wasn’t as taken with the crumble which was quite dry and didn’t have a great deal of fruit with a middle layer of fruit. It was more a streusel cake or a crumble cake than a crumble.
Some more browsing and some purchasing and our day was complete!
So tell me Dear Reader, who are your favourite authors? And do you buy paper or hard books or ebooks nowadays?
Gertrude & Alice
46 Hall Street Bondi Beach NSW 2026, Australia
+61 2 9130 5155
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32 Comments | Add your own
The corn fritter and chai look amazing..hope you had an incredible Christmas!
What a beautiful beautiful place.
What a cool place! I’m going to look for that chicken book..
Food at Gertrude and Alice looks very interesting. Love the idea of bookstores/cafes combined. There are 2 at Leichhardt that we frequent if we are early for a movie. I could never get bored looking at books, especially if they relate to cooking, although other half thinks I already have every cooking book that has been published! I still love ‘real’ books, as I call them but have resorted to buying one ebook after I thought I had left a great read on the train (turned out the minute I purchased the ebook, the real thing emerged from in amongst a pile of husband’s newspapers!!) Do like hardback books but when it comes to choice I usually go for the cheaper paperback version if available. Don’t have a favorite author as such, just read a diverse range of novels.
Sounds like a lovely place for a cosy meal, browse and chat:)
I love Rosamunde Pilcher,(I read her Winter Solstice every Christmas without fail!), Maeve Binchy, Monica McInerney AND Nigella Lawson, because I love the way she writes as well as cooks!
I buy most novels as ebooks these days but definitely prefer cookbooks as hard books. However, I admit to having both paper and ebook versions of Nigella’s books so that I can take her with me wherever I go!
I still love a ‘real’ book and paper ones are easy to travel with and light enough to read in the bath!
A date at a bookstore cafe is a great idea. I have to remember to suggest that to dating friends. The lentil stew and sourdough looks fantastic. I tend to get current fiction from the library and spend hours in the cookbook rows at bookstores!
Some of my favorite authors are James Mitchner, Tom Clancy, David Balducci and John Grisham and I am currently reading the last book of the Fifty Shades OF Grey Trilogy.
We have a great bookshop in West End in Brisbane called The Avid Reader. I much prefer to have a printed book.
It looks wholesame and generous and it sounds like you had a lovely time. The only problem about Bondi is trying to park and get there on time. That Buxom Wench always seems to have that covered, sitting up at the table waiting. Ha
What a great place to have lunch! Absolutely love the ambience and the food is interesting and ‘comfortably’ plated. Would love to go myself
! Am an avid reader but have no real favourites at the moment: if I want to relax, read mostly political thrillers and those of forensic medicine, an area which has always fascinated. At the moment am into Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Killing Kennedy’, yet another ‘saga’ into what happened to JFK. I am as yet to arrive at eBooks, but mix hard- and softback. Oldfashioned, most of my library does happen to be on the ‘hard’ side 
!
I love autobiographies which means my favourite authors are wide and varied. I do love Tracey Peterson though – she offers me intelligent escapism I often need. I loooove the look of the cafe/bookshop. If only we had more of this culture in Brisbane. It’s enough to make me move…nearly!
Oooh, I totally want to steal the idea of asking for a bit of every muesli/granola/bircher/fruit/yoghurt!
Alice’s Spiced Chai automatically welcomed me,
The spelt muffin and corn fritter looked like both an enjoyment food recipe!
I like authors that take my mind away,
I can pretend I am characters from my childhood, at least for the day!
C.S.Lewis, Lewis Carroll to name a few,
I have difficulty remember authors, and sometimes by association, I pretend some of them I knew!
Welcome back Lorraine!wish we could meet there for one of their delicious meal and a nice long browse through their books and a chat. I just checked with Jo and there are now appr. 5000 “real” books in our house (manningtreearchive)and we have not purchased an ebook version as yet. Ciao, Carina
That’s a pretty cool name for a cafe, and the food looks good. For me, nothing beats the tactile experience of a real book.
I would love a home library like the one in that first image. What a lovely looking shop. Did you or Buxom have a good look at that Emergency Sex book? Do share – I’m intrigued. I’d have the corn fritters xx
Babykins you’re wasting your time cooking you should be in Hollywood.
All the food looks very appetising. If I am ever in Sydney again…well so many choices, so little time
Great post!
Ok… now I am really hungry!!! I love the look of the vego burger and the corn fritters! YUM! What a quaint little cafe
Love it there…it used to be a favourite haunt of mine
this looks like a cute and cuddly cafe to dine in. That lentil stew looks very good!
I love hardcovers but nowadays trying to buy ebooks purely for space reasons. I like any place that combines eating with shopping
What an awesome place! I like paperbacks for fiction reading, but hard or paper for recipe books – not such a big fan of ebooks (…yet! Hah).
Happy New Year NQN! Alas there are too few cafe/bookshops around, they are the match made in heaven!
I agree that books and cafe go hand in hand and definitely a great place for a first date hehe
A shame that the crumble wasn’t as nice and was quite try, but glad the spelt scone was moist and nice ~
I still buy hardbacks because I’m very old school and love the feeling of holding a book in my hands hehe even though I do buy E-magazines because it’s easier and cheaper than getting imported magazines
My favourite authors would have to be LM Montgomery, Roald Dahl, Marian Keyes and Jodi Picoult
Happy New Year Lorraine and MR NQN!
I LOVE bookstore cafes! I absolutely can never allow myself to work in them, because I an useless, constantly looking at books, and spending too much money.
I so love the idea of a bookstore/cafe and would have probably married anyone who ever chose to meet me at one. A perfect combination of my favorite things: Food and Books! As an English Lit major/teacher, I am hard to pinpoint as to my favorite authors, but I have many and I love, love to read. My favorite passtime. I was a bit snotty about the Kindle until I was gifted one by my husband–now I love it, though I still prefer to actually hold a book in my hands. Ah, technology.
You might’ve read an entire book by the time I decided on what to order from the cafe’s awesome menu.
I just love the smell of books. And a bookstore with a cafe? What a winner! I’m seriously eying that veggie burger right now
one of my fav cafes to getaway and cosy up with a good book
love their crumble pie with icecream ^^
clicked post comment too soon ^^”
though i have to say the other times when i’ve had the crumble it didn’t quite look like that and it was loaded with fruit; maybe it was a bad day in the kitchen?
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