Cornersmith is all about keeping food local, ethical and real.

Inside the homey corner cafe you'll often spot someone handing over a box of homegrown veggies as part of the cafe's trading program. The community is encouraged to bring in its surplus of backyard produce in exchange for a coffee or a jar of pickles. The goods are then used in the cafe or made into tasty preserves over at the picklery up the road.

Husband-and-wife team Alex Elliot-Howery and James Grant started the cafe in 2012. They spent six months transforming the former Vietnamese bread shop with friends and family. Now it’s an inner-west institution with a younger sister in Annandale.

Cornersmith aims to be completely transparent about where each and every ingredient it serves comes from. Several blackboards behind the counter act as a regularly refreshed menu and a place to communicate where the produce comes from.

Eggs and vegetables are usually the star ingredients. There are bowls filled with brown rice and buckwheat, with stewed apples, prunes and cinnamon crumbs; a ploughman’s plate featuring Feather and Bone ham, cheddar and house pickles; and a textural bibimbap bowl with brown rice, house pickles, ferments and poached.

The evening menu offers organic oysters from Wapengo Rocks, pickled blue mackerel, and smoked Memphis pork with peach BBQ barbeque sauce, among other things.

The site is licensed, so you can have a Bloody Mary with breakfast, or a wine for dinner from the rotating list , which features the likes of Margaret River’s Si Vintners and Mudgee’s Eloquesta. A selection of Tea Craft and Perfect South teas are available along with Mecca coffee.