New Brisbane

Cirque Café

618 Brunswick Street

New Farm

There’s nothing like a gorgeous, sunny Sunday to make you want to pack yourself into a small crowded room and fight for elbow space while you carve up your bacon and eggs on an unforgiving slice of thick-crusted bread.

Well, there’s nothing I’d rather do more!

Cirque Café, tucked in on Brunswick Street in New Farm, gives one the perfect excuse to wait in line for 10 minutes for a chair and a surface to eat on. And there seems to be many who share this fetish.

Cirque was being ‘slaughtered’ - as our waiter put it, when we arrived just before midday on Sunday. But we, like most of Cirque’s clientele, happily pulled up a sidewalk stool and balanced coffees on our knees while we waited for a free table.

True to word, the rooms were packed with a swarm of customers leisurely devouring large plates of fresh aromatic breakfasts and waiters frenziedly serving these out. The specials were crayoned onto mirrors, hanging on the wall, and the atmosphere exuded a vibe of anticipation and fun – despite the harried staff.

While waiting for our table we perused the café’s front room, which is small and seats only a row of tables, but seems to be the heart of the action. Upstairs provides more seating and a quieter arena, along with a long bar where customers can watch the street below from behind warm, sun-spilled windows.

The menu offered up a yummy all-day breakfast selection- although I felt prepared to eat anything after our little sidewalk wait. The Vego Chowdown ($14.50) came highly recommended, featuring potato and parmesan rosti, and other tasty goodies like onion jam and sourdough toast. Creamy porridge also sounded pretty mouth-watering but my eyes were drawn to the crayoned mirrors.

“Free range poached eggs, wilted spinach, Persian fetta, pine nuts and zatar” ($12.50) sat upon that mirror, reflecting its way into my eyes and onto my tongue. My companion opted for a sweeter dish and ordered French toast with spiced pear and orange blossom mascarpone ($11.50).

We prepared for the lengthy breakfast wait, but were surprised to find the food came out fairly quickly. As did the coffee - an impressive feat for a ‘slaughtered’ restaurant.

Anyone as hungry as I was, was going to have eyes too big for their stomachs and so I was a little worried when I met my plate, with its single piece of sourdough stacked neatly with spinach and two eggs, liberally seasoned with other aforementioned goodies. I compared it very briefly to those generously decked out plates sprouting spinach leaves, heaped in bacon curls and lusciously round eggs – which we surmised were the chowdowns for those with really big eyes. My eyes were definitely too big for my stomach because I fit my mini-chowdown in – crust and all - without space to spare.  The food was fresh, flavoursome and not heavy - like a lot of eggs on toast breakfasts.

My companion’s meal was also distractingly good. Her’s had a whole different range of interesting taste textures to it with the warm thick French toast, cool clove/cardamom/vanilla-flavoured pears soothed by the delicately plain mascarpone flavours. Swirled in a little maple syrup, the dish was entirely absorbing.

Coffees were decent- as opposed to burnt and bilge-watery – and started at $3.00. Lunch ranges between $8.50 and $13.50; breakfast $4.00 to $14.50.

We spent a few hours in the place, finishing coffee, lazing around in the digestive aftermath and enjoying the swirl of café tracks oozing into our ears. When we had our fill of this we wandered up the street and into the Valley. Cirque has a younger clientele, is obviously well-loved by its regulars and, as my companion put it, it’s nice and New Farm, not so much the ‘Valley mall scene’.

By Alice Blackwood.