Mammoth Leads the Cafe Evolution – BROADSHEET
You haven’t seen a menu like this anywhere in Melbourne.
https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/article/mammoth-leads-cafe-evolution
Published on 16 September 2015 by ANNA WEBSTER
Hospo power couple Loren and Jamie McBride, who are behind Touchwood, Barry and Pillar of Salt, have expanded their culinary influence on Melbourne’s cafe scene with their latest suburban offering.
Tucked into the stand-out, albeit awkward, triangular building on the corner of Malvern Road and Beatty Avenue that once held Treat Catering and Cafe, Mammoth meets all the requirements we’ve come to expect from the pair: good food, good coffee, good parking and access to public transport. Yet, for all the similarities between this new venture and their previous ones, there are differences, too.
Creating a menu with a difference was a brief chef Emma Jeffrey (ex-Hammer & Tong) was only too happy to oblige. The lobster doughnut burger with green mango and papaya slaw is definitely not a common cafe menu item. Nor is the spanner-crab egg crepe, blackened with squid ink and served with a tangy, refreshing scoop of lemon sorbet. Rarely elsewhere will your chia pudding come adorned with a hemp-seed crumble, or your bagel be infused with lavender. There is the option of a side of egg and bacon popcorn.
“It sounds all kinds of crazy, but really, it’s just adding technique to things that are really quite simple,” says Jamie.
Design firm Technē Architecture + Interior Design has created a space that is super bright and airy, decorated with blue steel and brown leather stools, American-oak surfaces and a pastel blue terrazzo tiled floor. The excess of blue creates a very calming, tranquil atmosphere, and the triangular shaped space means there are plenty of nooks to hide away in. Three urban prints by photographer Tom Ross (who, coincidentally, also shoots for Broadsheet) adorn the white brick walls, adding splashes of pink, yellow and orange to the space.
If you’ve been to one of the McBride’s other venues, you may notice some familiar faces. Every front-of-house member has already worked for either Jamie or Loren, which has eradicated many of the teething problems new businesses normally suffer.
“It’s a massive load off, having a reliable team. You’re only as good as the people who work with you, so it’s made things so much less of a worry, having that support,” says Jamie.
Mammoth
736 Malvern Road, Armadale
(03) 9824 5239
