The latest addition to the Bluestone Lane Australian café empire ”“ more than 50 franchises in the New York metropolitan area and growing ”“ is a bright and airy space on Chatsworth Avenue in Larchmont. A branch in Armonk opened last year.
With the antipodean country”™s strong, urban Italian communities, Australians have long taken pride in their coffee. At Bluestone Lane, it comes in heavy, pale-blue china cups, the size of a soup bowl. Perhaps with a bit of help from the French, Bluestone knows about breakfast pastries, too. These are not on the menu but can be picked up at the counter, ready to dunk into your coffee if you are the dunking kind. The pain au chocolate and the almond croissants are both excellent, I have to tell you, but away from the counter, there are myriad other treats in store.
ThatӪs because Bluestone is a table service kind of place, from a team of clued-in servers who seem genuinely happy and relaxed to be at work here. They start you off with filtered water, which they bring in a carafe, leaving it on the table to top off as often as necessary. And if any staff members feel under pressure as the caf̩ begins to fill up around lunchtime, they never let it show.
Once seated with water poured, there”™s really only one issue to settle and that”™s what to eat. The menu is a cornucopia of goodies, which despite its Australian tilt, won”™t require Google Translate, terms like “brekkie,” “best mates” and “cheeky bees” being fairly self-explanatory. (An Americano is a “long black” in Bluestone-speak.)
The most popular dishes, our server confided, include lemon ricotta pancakes with whipped ricotta and fresh berries and green-baked eggs ”“ chimichurri-baked eggs with spinach, sheep”™s milk feta and field mushrooms. Avocado, that Australian staple, looms large, of course, in dishes like soft chili scramble with avocado and the breakfast bowl ”“ kale, avocado, farro and a poached egg in a winning combination. And I loved the caramelized onion and fig jam that topped the trademarked “Impossible” burger. Not just a clever-clogs chef”™s gambit, this combination really worked. So, too, did the cilantro, red cabbage and arugula slaw in a substantial fried chicken sandwich.
The calorie counts supplied for each dish (whether responsibly or righteously, depending on your point of view,) slightly take the gilt off the gingerbread, though. It”™s alarming to discover that gluten-free granola with Greek yogurt, berries and lemon curd weighs in at a hefty 700 calories. But then again, as everybody knows, calories are just a number.
As Bluestone itself puts it, the caf̩s combine Melbourne cosmopolitan design with Australian coastal aesthetics, which never having been to Melbourne or indeed Australia IӪm hardly qualified to corroborate or deny. But I can confidently share that the white slat-back chairs, navy butcher-stripe napkins and the heavy-duty Duralex glasses are all in keeping with BluestoneӪs workaday aesthetic.
Other non-decorative appealing features include supporting The Bowery Mission, inviting customers to donate an ambitious $5 for New Yorkers experiencing hunger, homelessness and other crises, while a palpable sense of Australian humor stops things from ever getting smug. “We”™ll deliver everything except the barista,” proclaims a banner running across the café”™s online-order page.
Music, pretty chill early in the day, ramps up after the mid-morning lull, and while the acoustics are not exactly the Sydney Opera House, honestly, I”™ve known worse.
So, all in all, a welcome newcomer to Larchmont and a terrific restaurant group to cheer on. And while I know there are plenty of great places serving good coffee and smashed avocado toast, I”™ll say this: You can”™t reinvent the wheel but ”“ just as Bluestone Lane has done ”“ you can certainly polish the spokes.
For more, visit bluestonelane.com. And for more on The Bowery Mission, visit bowery.org.
