Holly

Cafes serving healthy, wholesome food are not new in Sydney. But few of them have had a veteran chef consult on the menu. Tomislav Martinovic has worked in Heston Blumenthal’s lauded UK restaurant Fat Duck, and used to run well-regarded Darlinghurst restaurant Tomislav, among others.

He worked with the owners of Holly, Justin Stevenson and Laura Hayes. They’re behind brunch houses Coop & Cart in Haymarket and Redfern’s Everyday Espresso, the latter of which also benefitted from Martinovic’s menu input.

Holly is familiar. There are oats soaked overnight and served with coconut yoghurt, fresh mango, lime, blueberries, freeze-dried apple and walnut crumble. And eggs any way with tomato and salsa verde. At lunch there’s a vegan bowl of house-made falafel, wild rice, turmeric “yoghurt”, avocado, kale and toasted walnuts; hot-smoked salmon poke; and a couple burgers.

The Hulk smoothie is made with a jumble of green ingredients such as kale, spinach, spirulina and non-greens such as hemp oil, banana and apple juice.

Three blends of coffee are featured each month including Holly’s own blend, the Boulevard. Choose how you want it brewed: batch, chilled, filtered and manual pour-over (where the beans are ground to order). If the choice is manual pour-over it can be done through a V60, chemex, or kalita.