CAFE STRIP
SAND AND SURF ARE ONLY PART OF THE ATTRACTION OF SEMAPHORE WITH QUAINT CAFÉS BECOMING A DRAWCARD
Swedish Tarts patisserie brings a tasty slice of Scandinavia to Semaphore.
The patisserie and café is owned by Louise Vanzati (pictured left), who originally hails from Järsvo, in the north of Sweden, and also owns the Argus House Bakery in Strathalbyn.
Louise makes a tantalising range of cakes, tarts and pastries including banoffe tarts, Sarah Bernhardt cake with chocolate ganache and an almond meringue base, Swedish postkakan (post cake) honey-glazed hazelnut cake and the intriguingly named but delicious scab cake covered in flaked almonds. The blackboard menu features a blend of Swedish and Australian foods with all-day breakfasts such as smoked bacon and free-range eggs on house-made bread, omelettes, Swedish waffles with cloudberry jam or fat Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam. Lunch dishes include freshly cooked filled flatbread, salads and savoury crepes or waffles.
Louise has transformed a previously run-down space into an eclectic little café with cherry-coloured fabric banquettes, timber tables and chairs and feature walls painted by a local Estonian artist.
A benchtop with stools offers Swedish books to read over a coffee while a chandelier adds some bling near the front of the café with its red Ruggero espresso machine serving Brasilia coffee.
Swedish Tarts is known among the locals for its Bowl Latte which is a popular tradition in Europe.
“People sit here and drink them for about half an hour!” Louise says.
Other drinks include Swedish Glogg, which is a hot, spiced blackcurrant juice, homemade chai with honey, ginger and milk or warm blueberry or rosehip soup served with whipped cream and crushed amaretti biscuits.
In a delightful twist, Louise met her Swedish partner Bo in Adelaide’s IKEA store!
“I hadn’t set foot in Semaphore before I met Bo and I have really taken to it… I can’t believe how beautiful it is.”
Lovely Jubbly
The aromas of eggs and bacon and hot roast beef rolls make it very hard to pass by the laidback Lovely Jubbly café at Semaphore.
Since husband and wife team Martyn and Wendy Flevill opened the café in 2008, it has become a local favourite for freshly cooked breakfasts and lunches.
Martyn, who hails from Hampshire, is a trained chef and prepares everything on the premises. He roasts his own chicken breasts and joint of topside beef to create burgers and there are always homemade soups.
Favourite dishes include their hearty Full Monty breakfast with eggs, mushrooms, sausage, bacon, tomato and beans or the popular egg and bacon muffins made with rolls from the nearby Skala bakery at Port Adelaide.
The café has simple décor with an open kitchen, aubergine walls, linoleum floor tiles and a long window bench. The outside courtyard is a peaceful zone with palms and bamboo fencing, and is a meeting spot for a local Dog Club.
Wendy says the café name wasn’t inspired, as many think, by chef Jamie Oliver but rather by a character played by David Jason in the British sitcom, Only Fools And Horses.
Whipped Bake Bar Cafe
Whipped Bake Bar Café at Semaphore breaks the mould for suburban bakeries.
The designer cafe is owned by Kate Palmer who comes from a baking background and helped start the popular Ned Kelly Bakery with her father, Murray Price, four years ago.
“I always wanted to remain part of the industry but do something different, a little more funky, and this is it! “ she says.
Kate, who says she is a frustrated interior designer, renovated the building and knocked down walls to create the spacious, modern café with polished floor boards, chic Belgian light fittings, stripy fabric banquettes and retro-style wallpaper (Woodstock from Cole and Son in the UK).
“This place needed work, everyone told me I was mad, it was a hovel, but I didn’t see it as it was, I only saw it as it would be,” she says. Kate balances working at Whipped with raising her young sons, Patrick and Jack, and she is often helped out by her husband Kim who works in IT but is also a qualified cake decorator.
The Whipped menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner is based on fresh, local and often organic produce with free-range eggs from Paskeville, smoked bacon from the Argentine Butcher a few doors along and all house-made condiments.
There is a compact range of boutique SA wines and local beers from The Brew Boys, while a bright yellow Marzocco espresso machine turns out coffee made with beans from The Organic Coffee Co.
Kate says signature dishes include the “big night out” breakfast, a best-selling house-made chicken burger and a sunrise parfait with layers of Whipped’s own muesli, SA yoghurt and berry compote.
The display cabinet is filled with an eye-catching selection of homemade cakes, cupcakes, pastries, éclairs, muffins, doughnuts and slices.
“Semaphore is a great place to be, it’s definitely changing, but most people down here want the character to remain as it is,” Kate says.
Swedish Tarts, 40 Semaphore Rd, Semaphore
Lovely Jubbly, 170 Semaphore Rd, Semaphore
Whipped Bake Bar Café, 35 Semaphore Rd, Semaphore, www.whipped.com.au
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