Arts

Hindley Street’s Newest Cafe Will Definitely Brighten Your Day

It seems the innovative new found glory of Leigh Street and Peel Street in the west end are slowly seeping onto Hindley and thus you SHOULD be noticing Parsec Cafe.

 

You may have noticed lately a little beam of light shining onto the otherwise dim premises of Hindley St. You may have heard some relaxing funky tunes playing and smelled some good quality coffee. You may have noticed the new pastel colours splashed all over one of the shop fronts (perhaps thinking it was graffiti?) Then again you may not have noticed any of these changes. But it seems the innovative new found glory of Leigh Street and Peel Street in the west end are slowly seeping onto Hindley. And thus you SHOULD be noticing Parsec Cafe. Parsec Cafe 8 copy

The aforementioned colourful shop front was painted by 2-7 year olds and is a physical representation of the joyous vibe this cafe is creating. We took a closer look inside the vibrant walls to find out more about what Parsec Cafe is all about.

Parsec owner Harriet Fraser-Barbour is a woman of many talents. There’s not many who can say they own and run a cafe, make the coffee, prep the food and waitress on top of having done all the design, right down to BUILDING the furniture herself! Phewf! Talk about putting heart and soul into a place.

Harriet took some time out of her busy schedule to join us for a coffee and most importantly explain what Parsec means. To be precise a parsec is a unit of length used to measure enormous distances in outer space. It’s 3.08567758 × 1016 metres to be extremely precise, but let’s not get too technical now. We’d describe Harriet as a pretty calm soul, despite her hectic life; so it’s not hard to imagine her contemplating the concepts of space and time over a cup of her amazing coffee. Plus, she says ‘Look at how cool a Parsec actually is! [showing us the diagram on the menu] Don’t you think it just looks cool!?’ 

In collaboration with the fabulous Adelaide concept Format Collective, Parsec is not just a cafe but also hosts an upstairs art studio, a downstairs live performance space and, all going well, will be serving beers in the sunshine come summertime too!

Pulled Pork Arepas

Pulled Pork Arepas

We chatted about the interior design of the space, obviously assisted by the great artists of Format but mainly Harriet wanted the space to ‘feel like home.’ It’s light, bright and airy. A true contrast to the rest of Hindley Street and a haven from the road’s standard hustle and bustle.

We asked how it came about that she also built the furniture too? Turns out, dabbling in just half of a furniture construction course at TAFE leads to beautiful interior design ability, far beyond the boundaries of IKEA constructions. ‘I felt like a renaissance woman’ she said of the late nights filing and sawing. ‘That’s why everything’s a bit wonky and uncentered. But that’s exactly how we like it. Nothing is perfect.’ Even each cup is handmade and unique.

Onto the menu, obviously one of our favourite topics. As with the furniture and the cups, everything is made in house. There’s no particular cuisine in focus, the team instead taking inspiration from their collective travels. You could say the food is brunch-esque, with Miso Scrambled Eggs (or tofu scramble, if you’re so inclined) served with oyster and enoki mushrooms on turkish bread being a popular hit. We also hear the St Louis Bagel with house smoked ocean trout and goats curd is definitely one to try. FYI: word is, bagels are about to take the Adelaide cafe scene by storm. You heard it here first kids.Parsec Cafe 3 copy

We locked our lips around the daily special (which changes regularly so don’t get yourself too attached!) The Pulled Pork Arepas were little house made cornbread pockets stuffed with slow cooked pulled pork, rocket and a divine pineapple chilli relish. To. Die. For.

The kitchen is open from the crack of dawn until 3.30pm Monday-Saturday; and for the caffeine addicts amongst us the coffee is served up hot and fresh until 5pm, none of this closing after 3pm malarky.

The friendly team at Parsec have created a fantastic family vibe (a relaxed family vibe, not like Christmas with your drunk second cousin and weird Uncle Bill) that really does help you feel at home. Plus on top of it all there’s a little bit of a shop front called Phase Space selling handmade jewellery, unique clothing pieces and other knick-knacks too. They’re technically a separate business, but multitasking is cool with us! Coffee, food and shopping? Yes please.

If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on at Parsec, including delicious specials, live performances and artwork displays hit up their Facebook page or follow them on Instagram.  

Photo credit: Alexis Tehel

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