LOCATIONLocated in Rose Bay.
PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAOn a quiet, tree lined avenue opposite a lush green golf course, is a buzzing cafe where the general volume of chatter is cut only by the hiss and click of a coffee machine. This is Bernasconi’s. It’s been serving Rose Bay customers for the last twelve years, and on a weekday mid-morning it’s bustling and comfortably full with a good range of all-ages customers. It was renovated last Christmas, and the new interior is sleek and makes the most of the large wraparound windows. The best seats in the house are either outside, or in the semi circular window area facing the greens and sandpits across the road.
Dinners are a recent addition to Bernasconi’s so they offer a small but careful Italian menu between 6pm-9pm, plus the weekly whiteboard specials – this week a braised beef stew with mushrooms and gnocchi. The menu has one of everything: a pasta, a fish, a steak and a burger. The salad section is pretty exciting, and there are eye-catching entrees like crisp potato pikelets with smoked salmon, sour cream and salmon roe. There are only two desserts but they are hugely enticing: the whisky bread and butter pudding and the Belgian chocolate pot served with Italian biscuits
Sarah Theeboom