Have you ever been drinking and dancing in France or Italy and then woken up the next morning to see the exact same bar you were at the night before, pumping out espressos and pastries? That’s the dream at El Chapel, Two Chaps’ new Enmore Road venture.

Right now, it’s a tiny, tiled version of its parent cafe, doing only morning coffee, sandwiches, pastries, a single salad and a tortilla. But soon its courtyard and empty backroom will have kegs of wine, plates of homemade pasta and will seat between 50–80 people. “The idea is to move the menu, our night trade [at Two Chaps], down here,” says Piero Pignatti Morano, the owner of the two venues. “It will probably start with a small, snacky bar vibe, and the restaurant thing will evolve.”

The kitchen will be headed by Two Chaps chef Kim Douglas and Morano will be joined in the bar set up by Tio’s Cerveceria and The Cliff Dive’s Alex Dowd. Until then he’ll work with the Two Chaps team to provide its brand of produce-driven, vegetarian and vaguely Italian sandwiches and baked goods.

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Although most of the menu is the same as the one at Marrickville, there will always be a few Enmore specials. For the opening it is serving a toasted Rueben-campfire jaffle with mushrooms, béchamel, Dijon mustard, tilsit cheese and pickles on Two Chaps’ malted rye semi-sourdough; a seedy ciabatta roll filled with a hearty and bitter mixture of haloumi, cime di rapa, eggplant chutney and harissa mayo; or a purple corn tortilla with spiced black beans rapini, hot sauce and an option of smoked mozzarella.

In pastry news, the new cafe will serve Two Chaps’ recently rolled out range of croissants; chai-spiced melonpan (a Japanese sweet bun); and stuffed brioche buns. “For me there is an essentially Euro experience of a cafe brioche,” says Morano of his post-Euro-party morning ritual. “That was always really cool. This is just a nice little outpost for you to have a croissant or a brioche and a coffee.” Little indeed, until the bar is up and running, the chequerboard-patterned cafe will be barely more than a takeaway joint with just four benches inside and two facing the park.

El Chapel
373 Enmore Road, Marrickville
(02) 8384 8673

Hours:
Mon to Fri 7am–3pm
Sat 8am–2pm

facebook.com/ElChapelMarrickville