Ebenezer Place seems to be the current trendy area for Adelaide's coffee and breakfast needs. At 745am, my first target was East End Providore (Urbanspoon 95%) which seems to be one of the newer ones and for that reason (or maybe it's also just plain good) the coolest of the lot. However considering the place didn't open until 8am, the ensuing 10minutes allowed me to read about it - that there is a limited menu (especially for breakfast) and some of the great ratings relate more to the providore/deli side of things. In any case it was more of a time factor that led me elsewhere on this occasion.
Wandering less than a minute in either direction or across the road gives the options of Sad Cafe (91%), Hey Jupiter (84%) and Nano (90%). Sad Cafe wasn't yet open (although already had 3 people waiting outside) and Nano was better rated than Hey Jupiter and seemed to be the oldest institution of the lot making the decision for me.
Clientele was a mixed combination of beards, suits and bike shorts with some random Italian phrases being thrown around too (presumably because the owners are Aussie-Italian). The menu reflects this and it largely Italian bread/pizza based with a slightly disappointing lack of fresher options (only saw one with yoghurt and fruit). In any case the Incarozza caught my eye (holy bread sauteed with egg, crispy pancetta, mozzarella, napoletana sugo) as interesting. It was a quite delicious thick serve of bread seemingly panfried on both sides embedded with fried egg. The topping had (not very crisp) pancetta, some melted cheese and a lovely tomato sugo and a few basil leaves (would definitely have appreciated more). It was reasonably heavy for early breakfast but a satisfying start to the morning.
Given the air was bordering on 30C, ice coffee was a welcome treat. Unlike the typical liquid versions with a token scoop of icecream, this was more of a blended smoothie incorporating coffee, icecream and (probably) ice into a thick smooth whip. It was great.
Next time I would order for lunch and test out some other bread/pizza options. I think for breakfast I'd try one of the other 3 places for something a bit lighter.
