Little Brown Wolf,266 Brunker Rd, Adamstown, every day 6:30am-2.30pm.
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The shopping strip at Adamstown has been abuzz lately, energised by the kind of excitement that accompanies something fresh and necessary. Drive or walk past and you will detect it straight away - there is a new place for coffee and the locals are all over it.
Right next door to the Nags Head Hotel, Little Brown Wolf has earned the affection of both the weekend and weekday coffee sets. On a warm Saturday morning the crowds are gathered at the outside tables, reading papers and comparing canines. On a weekday, it's a cafe that bustles with urgency, with workers stealing a minute to refuel with something quick and delicious.
From the inside, where the walls are lined with arresting, technicolour portraits, it's a cafe that looks and feels completely novel. From the outside, where a crowd always appears to be now gathered, it looks as though it has been in the suburb forever. Maybe it's easier to say that this is a cafe that seems to neatly fit with exactly what Adamstown needs: a new kid on what can sometimes feel like an old block.
Although Alma and Victoria Karozis first opened their cafe Little Brown Wolf in March, their plans for establishing their name as a go-to espresso, breakfast and lunch spot were scuttled by the pandemic. But upon reopening, their inventive and generous menus and slick fit-out have ensured that their names are here to stay.
The coffee they serve is Darks - the award-winning Newcastle coffee roastery. These days you can more or less mortgage the house on the quality of a Darks roast - a consistently rounded, sweet and carefully blended selection that these guys obsess over on your own behalf.
This is a cafe that seems to neatly fit with exactly what Adamstown needs: a new kid on what can sometimes feel like an old block.
Ground up at the Little Brown Wolf is the Darks U-47 - an ever-reliable medium-dark roast that is poured here with all the care and attention it deserves. Malty, sweet and easy to drink with a double shot - the espresso here is now the pick of the strip.
Equally reliable here is an enormous all-day food menu, which adds lashings of creativity to some old Newcastle favorites.
A selection of freshly squeezed juices, smoothies, bowls and old school milkshakes are a nod to the old and a welcome embrace of all that is on trend.
It's hard to go pass a Haloumi High ($24), a colourful, vegetarian celebration of the saltiest and most delectable cheese in the cafe universe. This haloumi party features baked pumpkin, grilled zucchini, avocado, baby spinach, baby tomatoes and a salsa verde drizzled over poached eggs and Turkish toast - a genuine crowd pleaser.
Over on the carnivorous side is the Hungry Like The Wolf ($24), where field mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, roasted potatoes, a house relish and sourdough are laden with pork sausages, eggs any way and free range local bacon.
