It’s been a while since Paddington’s seen an opening like Adelaide’s Kitchen, which moved onto a Paddington corner just off Oxford Street in July.
In a suburb packed with cafes, Adelaide’s Kitchen has launched with the sort of bang most small businesses only dream of. It was packed with locals from day one, with a line snaking out the front door on its first weekend.
The crowd was very Paddington, everyone flocking to take a bite of the opening menu: dippy eggs with sage-buttered toast soldiers; porridge topped with a chardonnay-poached pear, tight curls of dark chocolate and crushed hazelnuts; pesto-topped toast; and house-baked goods, heaped onto trays under the glassy front counter.
The little spot comes from Paddo local Adelaide Darling, who is relatively new to the industry. “I changed my career about five years ago,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to be a chef, but I was a graphic designer for years. I worked at Lee Mathews for a while, and then, long story short, I was in a big car accident. [I had to] learn how to use my hands again – cooking was the best therapy for me, for my hand. So I decided to go to Ballymaloe [Cookery School] in Ireland and did the 12-week culinary course there.”
The cafe’s in a prime area, but the hulk of its popularity comes down to Darling’s expertly executed simple plates and the special vibe in the corner spot. People loved it – too much.
After a full-on first week of trade, Darling and her small team – including her husband Tom Langdon (who founded Lay Day Coffee) and sous-chef Rue Peck – decided to pull back the hot food from the menu until receiving council approval to hire more kitchen staff.
The dippy egg-sized hole was filled by the ever-changing spread of excellent rustic baked goods – sugar-crusted scones with jam and cream, zesty orange cakes, brown-topped Basque cheesecakes and chunky salted choc-chip cookies – and great coffee, the classics plus a popular Mont Blanc-leaning drink with cardamom-infused cold foam topped with lime zest.
The pared-back offering has continued to draw us in, though. When Broadsheet visits again on a Wednesday afternoon, every table’s been snagged.
“It’s a beautiful old heritage building,” says Darling. “It’s been a barber. It’s been a fashion concept shop. It’s been a clock shop, of all things. But it’s the first time it’s been a cafe.” The fit-out, like the menu, is very inspired by Scandinavian and European cafe culture. Paintings and a striking egg-cup-adorned quilt hang on the walls; the menu is scrawled on a central chalkboard allowing the team to switch things up each day, and a no-laptops policy keeps things feeling happily hygge. Mugs are made by Darling’s mother, ceramicist Alexandra Darling.
“She’s made about 100 of them,” says Darling. “We’ve been working on them for about six months. It’s been such a dream working with her. She’s been a mum, and she’s then come back [to ceramics] and now she’s starting her business again, so it’s been pretty special.”
The plan for the food is a tight menu – scrawled on the blackboard – that changes every couple of months, depending on what Darling feels like cooking. “[It’s] a way I love to cook, and a style that’s very much how I was taught at Ballymaloe. Will definitely be bringing back the porridge, with the toppings changing, and hopefully the eggs – but not all the time.”
In summer, Darling’s planning to open at night occasionally, hosting supper clubs and small community dinners for 10 to 20 people. But for now, her goal is simple: “I would love to just have people coming back as often as possible, to know all their names – and for people to be able to get a seat.”
Adelaide’s Kitchen
9 Regent Street, Paddington
Hours:
Tue to Sat 7am–3pm