I felt peckish but not hungry. It was 11am, blood sugar was low and the Empire Cafe was near at hand. I politely enquired, ‘Do you have a small treat I could have with a tea?’
I was incognito but stopped short of writing a review on the crazy collection of banana breads they then offered me.
Head baker at the Empire, Michelle Connon, is regularly baking eight loaves of the wackiest compounds, and I thought it worth an honourable mention this week.
Sourcing local ingredients, they’ve come up with flavours that include (if you can stomach the idea): Pumpkin and blue cheese – I confess this was actually lovely; Bacon, maple and pecan; Chocolate and Chai; Coffee; and Rum and Raisin as well as some more standard combos such as Raspberry/Pineapple Coconut; Carrot/Walnut; Mixed Berries; Figs/Honey and Apple/Cinnamon.
If trying to choose a flavour drives you bananas, then beware: it’s unlikely you’ll run out of choice here.
Mullumbimby Empire Cafe
20 Burringbar Street, Mullumbimby,
phone 6684 2306.
Photos Matthew Michaelis
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