The gluten-free toast from A Healthy Loaf is one of my favourites because it’s crusty and breadish. The omelette was packed with delicate pieces of house-smoked fish along with braised leek and mushrooms. The pour over sauce, though theatrical, added little in terms of flavour. It was covered in seaweed, bonito flakes and some Asian-looking greens. I ordered Jack’s omelette and was impressed with the unique Japanese vibe this dish had. Mismatched plates and little pots of stuff – check The coffee of the day, single origin from El Salvador was advertised on a blackboard. The drinks menu contains the requisite chai, a range of milks including almond and soy, and a drink I’d never heard of before – a matcha latte. Single origin coffee from El Salvador – check Despite the menu’s kind request for customers to refrain from menu changes during busy times, Jack’s people seem keen to help accommodate my food intolerances. Key ingredients such as gluten and dairy are not marked but the waiter tells me that everything except for the white pudding can be made gluten-free. The small breakfast menu contains a suitable variety of unusual ingredients including black pudding, chicken crackling, house-smoked fish, and milo crumb. Clipboard menus – checkĬlipboard menus, baskets and jars for vases, and mismatched industrial barstools complete Jack’s look. Jack is appropriately dressed in “Scandustrial” style (thanks to The Block for teaching me the lingo) including copper light fittings, polished concrete floors, random jars of food on shelves, and a suitably oversized retro coffee machine. Like all good hipster cafes, he has a suitably nostalgic name with a twist – Jack B.
Jack has even kept his original “hot bread” sign, at least for now. Prior to Jack’s entry into the world, his birthplace, in a small shopping strip in Maidstone, was mostly ungentrified unless you count the great South American restaurant, Los Lantinos a couple of doors down. Coming from Seddon, I long for a new kid on the block who offers an alternative to hipsterism but taking the advice from the wise – “you’ve gotta see the baby”. By all accounts, he’s doing well and has the key markings of a successful hipster cafe. Nimble was born on Wednesday in Maidstone weighing in at 6 pounds of single-origin coffee beans.
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