When opened its second Sydney branch in last year, it also rolled out a menu that happened to be entirely vegetarian. The approach was so low-key and not-a-big-deal that even today, some people may not even realise the café is free of meat.
“There’s still a lot of people who haven’t noticed!” says Cornersmith co-owner Alex Elliott-Howery. “I often mention it in my cooking classes and there’s a lot of shocked faces … I actually had a strange semi-argument with a woman who swore she ate meat there and wouldn’t believe me that it was a vegetarian place.”
Besides the surprise factor, the response from diners has been “incredibly supportive”, she says. “Occasionally, you’ll get a grown man almost in tears because there’s no bacon, but we give him a hug and talk him down.”
Some people won’t mention the café’s vegetarian status to their friends or partners before turning up – for fear they might think the worst and not want to go – “and then most of them don’t notice, either”, she says. “I think it’s because the menu is really interesting and people get distracted by that, so don’t go looking for the obvious meaty options.” Like corn tortillas with smoked pumpkin, broccolini, pepitas, green tomato mole and ricotta salata. Or spring vegetables and farro with miso and brown butter dressing.
It’s also a reflection of how Elliott-Howery and James Grant (her husband and Cornersmith’s co-owner) approach their own meals. “The way we eat at home and the way our menu works there, is that seasonal vegetables are the hero. Then we add grains, cheeses, meats or eggs to that. Rather than the other way around.”
Occasionally, you’ll get a grown man almost in tears because there’s no bacon, but we give him a hug and talk him down.
This evolution isn’t too wildly far from Cornersmith’s origins – the café pro-actively supported free-range meats and ethical meat production when its first Marrickville branch opened in 2011.
“We still have a board up in that shop that says ‘Cornersmith does not support factory farming’. There wasn’t a lot of cafes doing that then and it got a lot of attention and support,” she says.
“Five years on, when we were thinking about opening another shop, we decided to push that idea a bit further. Really, we just wanted to show people how delicious vegetables can be and that you don’t need to eat meat every day with every meal … The environmental impact of mass meat production is awful. So we’re just encouraging our customers to start thinking about it.”
The menu is really interesting and people get distracted by that, so don’t go looking for the obvious meaty options.
Sustainability cred aside, this vego-friendly approach is also a cute tie-in to the fact Cornersmith’s owners met at vegetarian institution Badde Manors, back in the late 1990s.
“He was the cute barista with huge sideburns and yes, he was a vegetarian then. I pretty quickly bullied him into eating meat – free-range, of course! I was so mean. But I think it was my mum’s eight-hour slow-cooked lamb that eventually tipped him over.”
Cornersmith Annandale’s menu is a major progression from the couple’s 1990s diet of bean nachos and lentil burgers at Badde Manors. The menu’s unshakeable interest in sustainability is one key difference – and has sparked lots of creativity from the kitchen.
Cornersmith owners James Grant and Alex Elliott-Howery with head chef Sabine Spindler. Source: Cornersmith
Head chef Sabine Spindler has taught her team to maximise and extract flavour from all parts of the vegetable. “Stems get pickled, skins get turned into syrups and sauces, green tops end up in krauts and kimchis – which works really well because our focus is not just on vegetables, but on reducing kitchen waste, too!” says Elliott-Howery. This ingenious sense of thriftiness has been channelled into the pair’s new cookbook, . Like the café, it happens to be meat-free, too.
Elliott-Howery has been careful not to soapbox or get out the megaphone and overtly spruik Cornersmith Annandale’s veg-friendly status, though.
“I’ve never done a #vegetarian post. Like most things, I don’t think it needs to be labelled. It’s just our approach to food. We’re not about diets or #lifestyles or food fads. We just want to celebrate all the incredible seasonal vegetables and fruits we have access to.”
Piero Pignatti Morano shares this attitude and doesn’t make a lot of noise about the fact his businesses – café in Sydney’s Marrickville and , its sister pizzeria around the corner – are vegetarian.
“We just chose to not really talk about it – that’s our way of talking about it.”
So you won’t see any signage or hyped-up declarations about the meat-free approach in any part of these eateries. Instead, Two Chaps makes a great case for vegetarian dining by just serving appealing food – such as chocolate crumpets with Earl Grey and rhubarb curd or a brunch dish that’s headlined by hash browns.
Ditto Madre, with its sourdough pizzas topped with warrigal greens, cavolo nero tips and three well-melted cheeses – or a margherita crowned with smoked buffalo mozzarella. Most of the dishes can be made vegan at both eateries (Madre even produces its own vegan cheese) – which speaks to the inclusive nature of ditching meat from your menu.
“If we started with just vegan food, we can serve everybody. There’s this idea that you’re only serving vegans is crazy. Everybody can eat vegan food,” he says. “There are lots of vegetarians and vegans who come in here because it is that way and there are a lot of Muslim people who come in here as well, because we don’t have any pork in the place, so we can assure that everything hasn’t touched any of it.”
But the majority of his customers are not vegos or vegans. “Because most people are not vegetarian or vegan.”
There are lots of bonus side effects of running vegetarian businesses (“the coolroom’s cleaner, the kitchen’s cleaner, people’s hands are cleaner, everything”) and this approach has led to many occupied tables at both venues.
“If we’re going to serve a great deal of people food – [and] now we’re serving more people than ever before – we should do so in a manner that reflects what we think personally but also reflects some kind of just way of doing it.”
And when you’re making your point with, say, chocolate sorbet with chocolate crumb and fresh strawberries, or charcoal raviolo stuffed with mushroom and buffalo ricotta in a white wine butter with hazelnuts and chive flowers – well, it’s easy to be convinced about the pros of sustainability, smaller carbon footprints and eating mainly plants.
88 View St, Annandale, NSW; 314 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville, NSW.
122 Chapel St, Marrickville, NSW.
205 Victoria Rd, Marrickville, NSW.
