Nellie Nights – Big Elma by day
When Big Elma becomes Nellie Nights, it’s like a cat winking at you – a strangely exciting experience.
Feeling self-conscious about being in a small group gathered around a laptop (we wanted to write this review ‘as it happened’), we were forced to feign a D&D game – repeating the phrase ‘the left fork in the path leads you to a bubbling brook’ whenever a staff member was in earshot.
Big Elma is the new-ish cosy cafe on Nicholson st, near the ill-fated Harding st bridge. The owners originally hoped to annex the block next door to establish a deli, allowing more kitchen space, as the little cafe makes ‘pretty much everything’ from scratch. With that falling through, they instead create many of their ingredients in a separate warehouse in Preston.
Having recklessly already had dinner, we are not best placed to write a review of the food. But, the wine and dessert themselves were worthy of a plug.
The house red wine was a King Valley sangiovese, apparently chosen during a staff tasting night involving 25 wines. What we can only assume was a heady affair, still resulted in a fine selection.
We ordered two different vegan cakes, mango swirl, and a burnt caramel chocolate, which was tasty, moist, rich, and intentionally salty.
The port-poached pears were sophisticated, and served on a home-made mascarpone base – buttery and mildly sweet.
The lemon jelly was more of an artwork than a dessert. A yellow wedge of jelly sat on a lemon peel looking like a glimmering plastic lemon slice. “They should make all lemons like this”, was one conclusion.
Always a friendly cafe, this was no different after dark. Adding to the cosy string-of-lights-and-blankets atmosphere of Big Elma’s backyard, was the fact that there were no little cameras that we could find. We appreciated this and decided not to steal any cutlery.
Lastly, the plates were ‘Noritake’, which one of us claimed to have heard of, and nodded approvingly with a superior look in his eye.
Our only real criticism would be that there was nothing to suggest this is open at night, unless you are standing right out the front peering in. We would suggest some sort of billboard or sign out the front could help people in the distance believe a cafe is open after 4pm in our ‘global city’.
By Teddie Burns
The Coburg Meddler 