Come for the kids’ playground, petting zoo and open spaces; stay for brunch hits cooked with care and pristine estate-grown produce.
14/20
Cafe$
If it looks like a cafe, sounds like a cafe and sells banana bread and house-made granola like a cafe, then it’s probably a – do I really need to write it?
In many ways, Cubby Cafe fits the description for your garden-variety, neighbourhood coffee and brunch destination. Which is exactly why it has the potential to become one of Perth’s most important hospitality operations.
Young mothers in athleisure are a common sight, babies in arms, their half-finished alt-milk lattes slowly cooling nearby. Mary Street Bakery doughnuts wait by the till for the weak of will and harried of parent. The playlist includes Leon Bridges, Sault and other bubbly, late-morning favourites.
It’s only when you zoom out that you’ll start to see the bigger picture. Cubby Cafe is part of 11 Acre Farm: an ambitious mixed-use property in semi-rural Forrestdale that’s been established according to the principles of permaculture: a holistic, environmentally minded philosophy developed in Australia during the late ’70s.
Writing in his authoritative permaculture guidebook Retrosuburbia, the movement’s co-originator David Holmgren describes permaculture as “a design system for resilient land use based on universal ethics and ecological design principles”.
For Stephen and Joyce Erceg, daughter Erin Erceg, and Erin’s husband Rowan Keilar – the core team behind 11 Acre Farm – permaculture thinking involved buying a former equestrian centre in August 2019 and using clay, compost and manure from other farms to turn lifeless soil into fertile garden beds; rehoming unwanted fruit trees and farm animals for said gardens and a petting zoo respectively; plus scouring Facebook Marketplace for building materials and cubby houses – hence the cafe’s name! – to build Cubby Lane: a toddler-sized play-village that boasts its own fire station, theatre and disco.
While it’s clear that permaculture treasures the trash of others, equally important is making the most of what’s at hand. In this instance, that meant converting an existing home into a farm-based childcare centre, plus rebooting the former hay shed into a folksy, largely al fresco cafe where heat lamps and throw blankets help keep guests warm. Sadly, planning issues with the City of Armadale have left the childcare centre in limbo, but the cafe was able to open in September. Team Erceg-Keilar, it would seem, have plenty of can-do spirit.
“It’s one giant experiment,” jokes Erin about her family’s decision to start the farm and scale up their own permaculture efforts. “We don’t have a background in farming or hospitality, but what the farm has done is attract amazing people that are interested in what we’re doing and have the knowledge and experience to bring everything together.”
These collaborators include the cafe’s industrious, seemingly omniscient manager Kelly Pitman who does everything from take photos for the QR code menus, to mix zippy whisky highballs: one of many sharply priced options on the unexpectedly contemporary booze menu. Bonus green stars, too, for serving drinks with metal straws. Cheery barista Krittika “Blue” Nunthasrirat is your go-to for beverages that aren’t so potent, while former Millbrook Winery gardener Mitchell Seward tends to all the plants and trees on the property.
While the gardens, for now, aren’t productive enough to supply all the cafe’s fruit and veg, Indonesian-born head chef Fendi Bong makes the most of his opportunities to showcase ingredients from the farm.
The foraged harvest bowl made with sweet potato and fermented brown rice, for instance, is a chance for our man to cook whatever Seward has picked for him in sensitive, thoughtful ways. Maybe he’ll char vast parasols of silverbeet before serving them at room temperature slicked with confit garlic oil. Or maybe chunks of pumpkin will get a light roasting to accentuate the versatile squash’s latent richness. Gentle grillwork accentuates the verdant sweetness of just-picked runner beans.
Weekly soups offer further opportunities to connect eaters to what’s been happening on the farm. A warming roast fennel and butter bean soup strewn with gauzy nasturtium petals and torn herb leaves combines the abundance of now – the sweetness and grassiness of the fennel! – with the frugality of then (the beans were picked last winter and dried). Add sourdough toasts golden with melted cheese and kiss those cold weather blues goodbye.
Often, the homegrown element might be a sauce or preserve. The sharp romesco sauce served with golden tiles of fried polenta cake hums with the zip of fermented ancho chillies. Waxy skin-on chips seasoned with a dried herb salt taste terrific as is, but only a fool would say no to the accompanying condiments of thick garlicky aioli and a tangy barbecue sauce.
While Bong knows flavour, he also understands the assignment and realities of running a 100-seater attached to family-friendly attractions. But even for those visiting largely, so the kids can coo at dwarf Norwegian goats, cool flourishes like crowning spiced apple muffins with pistachio praline inject some special into an everyday luxury. (I’m not sure how many muffins Bong baked while working at Icebergs in Sydney or Charlie’s in Darwin, but he’s good at it.)
Farm-to-table dining isn’t new, yet it’s often pitched and, understandably, priced as a special occasion meal. Cafe Cubby, however, serves carefully grown, seasonal ingredients in an accessible format that should be familiar to anyone that’s ever gone out for coffee in the last three decades. (The cafe also hosts seasonal dinners, classes and workshops.) As Erin said, this is an experiment that needs amazing people to make it work. Do I really need to tell you who the amazing people are?
(Spoiler: it’s you. Go. Go here now.)
The low-down
Atmosphere: an accessible, inspiring and important farm-to-table food destination.
Go-to dishes: foraged harvest bowl.
Drinks: all the usual cafe and coffee suspects plus a short – and surprising! – hit-list of contemporary wines, beers and cocktails.
Cost: about $40 for two people.
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
