Topiary Café, Tea Tree Gully
An outing closer to home to post about.
Reading some other people’s travel blogs I saw that restaurant and café reviews
are regularly posted. I thought “hmm I eat out, I can include some of the more
interesting ones too!”
Here’s my first attempt, an old favourite
of mine to visit, the Topiary Café at Tea Tree Gully. The café is part of the
Newman’s nursery complex so a drive out to the café tends to conclude with a
wander through the nursery as well.
Entrance to The Topiary Cafe
The enclosed outdoor verandah, heated with those outdoor overhead heaters so pleasant even on a cold winter's morning.
We were there bright and early on a
Saturday morning just after they opened at 9am for breakfast. Walking through
the café to the outdoor seating, I could see that all the indoor tables had
reserved signs on them, it’s very popular! We booked, so had a table set up for
us.
I had been to the café many times for
afternoon tea, lunch, and even high tea (which was very nice!) and once before
for breakfast (not a morning person so not something I do regularly!)
The setting is lovely as the café is in a
valley (so hillside either side) at the entrance of the road going into the
Adelaide Hills to Birdwood. With it being part of the nursery the garden
seating area is pretty as well. It’s winter at the moment so not a lot of
colour, but come spring the wisteria blooms and it’s stunning to be outside.
Summer outdoor area.
Topiary garden next to entrance, the young tree with the purple flowers is a tulip magnolia, they were being sold in the nursery. Very pretty and very different.
The group of friends who breakfasted with
me went with the traditional cooked breakfast route. With a “Don’t eat anything
yet, I want to take a picture first!” exclamation from me, I’ve got pictures some of
the café’s breakfasts. Verdict from all, it was delicious.
This was mine, scrambled eggs with haloumi cheese, which they make on the premises. (I don't eat red meat so no bacon (bleugh!) and as far as I'm concerned cooked tomatoes should only be in pizza or pasta sauce!) The haloumi was superb! This was the Landscaper's Breakfast with added haloumi.
Scrambled with bacon.
Others had the Gardener's breakfast with different variations of eggs.
Link to the café’s website to see their
menu as well
With breakfast and conversation over, it
was time for a stroll through the nursery. As it’s winter the camellias were in
bloom, I love camellias so sighed contentedly when I saw them.
Newman’s Nursery is a historic one, old for
Australian and South Australian standards as it was established in the late
1850s closeby to its present location. (The ruins of the original nursery are
in the nearby Anstey’s Hill Conservation park, it’s something to see when out
bushwalking) The current location dates back to the post WW2 era and was
originally part of the garden for one of the Newton’s, the hillside plantings
of camellias are from that garden.
Hillside camellias
The family then established the commercial
nursery which is still going today.
A bit of trivia for non-Australians, the reality of living in Australia is that there will be major fires during the dry summer months so people need to be on alert. Entering a fire danger area such as the Adelaide Hills there are these signs:
they're a visual reminder for people, that they need to take care and modify what they are planning on doing that day. (Eg don't use electrical grinders as the sparks from these in recent years have caused some major fires, which burnt large swathes of land and threatened people's houses!)
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