May-2017
Kickaboom, Glenbrook
A playful menu and premium coffee give this Blue Mountains café extra spark.
“I’ll have the poached eggs and avocado,” I say to the waiter at Kickaboom café in Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains. I’m half-expecting an eye-roll at the banality of my order when there are so many other interesting things on the menu, but then comes my punch line:
“…with a side of fried chicken.”
That’s right, folks: FRIED CHICKEN. For breakfast.
In all the years I’ve been going out for breakfast in the Blue Mountains, I never realised something so essential was missing from morning menus – and menus in general – as these crispy, crunchy, salty, flavourful nibblets of gold.
Nibblets of gold … Fried chicken at Kickaboom in Glenbrook
A delicacy of the southern United States, fried chicken can be had at Kickaboom on its own with a dipping sauce, as a side or in waffle form served with chilli honey roasted walnuts, pickled red cabbage and miso caramel sauce.
This relocation of savoury into the home-ground of sweet hints at the playful approach to food here.
Kickaboom owner and Blaxland local Dylan Johnson, formerly of Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills, has created a menu serving familiar fare in unexpected ways. The “roo-ben”, for instance – an Australian take on the classic New York Reuben sandwich, this one with corned kangaroo and kimchi. Or the now ubiquitous (in cafés) brunch bowls with a garden of healthy things such as broccoli, roasted vegetables and slivered almonds, but here with coconut rice and peanut sauce or a drizzle of tahini-miso-tumeric dressing.
Harvest bowl … a healthy warm salad with miso-tumeric-tahini sauce.
“It’s food we’d love to go out for,” says Dylan. “We wanted to do stuff that was a bit of fun, not stuff you’d cook up at home for breakfast.”
Another outlet for fun is the daily specials menu, which features a few experiments (today’s are a butterscotch latte and a “not banana split” – with waffle cone, grilled banana, soft-serve ice-cream and tahini chocolate sauce) and an ever-changing batch-brew filter coffee.
Coffee is a big focus.
Kickaboom uses Reuben Hills coffee beans, roasted in Surry Hills, for its milk coffee. This grind has its own flavour – very nuanced, very drinkable, and since it’s not incredibly strong you could easily order a second.
Sweets revolve around soft-serve ice-cream with two tempting sundaes – choc brownie or ritz caramel – or else there’s a small selection of baked treats. I choose a strawberry and rosewater cake with butter-cream icing. Delish.
Everything’s rosy … strawberry and rosewater cake.
The interior of Kickaboom is mostly white with a splash of timber and a few one-tone-grey prints on the walls. The monochrome acts as a kind of blank canvas for the colours and flavours appearing on plates. Above the entrance to the kitchen, a little neon-lit word – “boom” – encircled in a lightning-strike cloud alludes to the “kick” you’re about to receive.
I thought the café’s name summed up how you’ll feel after hanging out here for a while. Turns out I wasn’t far off:
“We wanted to create a place with a good vibe, good service, good coffee – where you’d go in feeling good and come out feeling even better,” says Dylan.
I leave with pleasant caffeine buzz and a lingering memory of fried chicken. Mission accomplished.
DETAILS
- Address: Shop 1, 6 Ross St, Glenbrook NSW 2773
- Phone: 0466 399 796
- Web: www.facebook.com/kickaboom
- Opening hours: Mon–Fri 7am–4pm, Sat–Sun 8am–4pm
- Prices: $6–$19
- Cuisine: Café
- Licensed: No
- Bookings: No
- Views: No
- Wheelchair access: Yes
- Cards accepted: All cards except EFTPOS
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