Paris Cafe

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You know when you go to restaurant and there are ten thousand things on the menu and you don't want any of them? Paris Café is not one of those places.



Tiny and hidden in a courtyard behind the James Street antique shops in Guildford is Paris Café, a small coffee and gift shop popular with readers and writers alike.

The menu –like the space – is small. Intimate, as a writer would say. There were only a few choices for our lunch time foray, but my dear Mum and I couldn't quite decide on what we wanted, so we did what any self-respecting women do when faced with a difficult choice: we ordered everything and shared.



While we waited for our lunch, we perused the shop. With a welcome focus on local authors and produce, Paris Café sells cook books and novels, skin care and scarves, gourmet produce and gifts.

I even found a birthday present for my Mum (happy 29th birthday Mum, cough). Well, she found it, I just paid for it.



The owner of the shop is the delightful Tracy Bock, a self-confessed writer and obvious lover of local talents. From Paris Café she runs not only a writers group but a book club as well.



Luckily she is also a talented cook, with a selection of cakes and slices available for morning tea but also lunch time tarts and quiches.



If you aren't looking for coffee or tea ($3-$4.50) then the drinks options are somewhat modest, as the Café stocks only four Sanpellegrino fruit drinks, but she is extraordinarily fair and was quite happy for me to pop to the nearby bakery to buy a Diet Coke if we wished. However, we were quite happy with the Limonata and Aranciata Rossa.

They are also licenced if you happened to come by on your way home from wine tasting in the Swan Valley.

We ordered the leek and spring onion frittata ($14) and the smoked salmon and feta quiche. Both came with simple but tasty salads that were enjoyable on their own and clearly not afterthoughts as tends to happen. The salads were very fresh and included local olives and a delicious dressing.

The other items on the 'all day' menu consisted of sandwiches, tarts and a tasting plate with olives, tapenade, chutney olive oil, dukkah and crackers ($15 for 1, $25 for 2 people).

With a sunny al fresco area and some groovy tunes to eat to, I can imagine that Paris Café could well be a good place to write (or at least read) the great Australian novel.

#swan_valley
#lunch
#guildford
#gifts
#escape_the_city
#breakfast
#books_writing
%wnperth