The busiest and most popular restaurant in town currently has got to be Crumb Street Kitchen (or CSK as it is more familiarly known), at 144 Harrington Street
I am a Face Book friend, so get sent all their FB entries, and every day it’s the same…..”sorry guys, we’ve sold out”….at around early/mid afternoon. So it would appear if you want to eat their food, you need to get there spot on at 12.00 or you miss out.
They very cleverly have thought of the most popular food Australians love – ever! BBQ’d meat. Well-cooked and smoked BBQ meat. So you have a small but compact menu with a few ways to have each days BBQ offering.
All food is served in a pizza box, whether you are getting it to take away or eat in at one of the four or five tables. The plastic cutlery and assorted sauces are kept on the front counter so you can pop over there if you need to, from your table. Very smart = no washing up required!
The décor is shabby, pseudo-trendy chic. It was obviously done on a budget but in this place it really doesn’t matter. The clientele is a mixed bag. I have never seen such an eclectic bunch of customers coming and going as at this little restaurant. There are old, pot-gutted guys in singlets queuing up for food alongside families with young children, and smart-looking Sandy Bay-ites.
When you order, you select and pay, and they ask for your first name. Your name is subsequently called out by chef when he brings your pizza box full of ordered goodies out of the kitchen and leaves it on the counter for you.
The menu is pretty limited to whatever meat the owner/chef has managed to have had time to slow cook overnight (around 10 hours) the night before, served in a few ways. Mainly in sandwich form (you get a pile each of the separate fillings you have ordered plus bread, in your pizza box, then make it up yourself at your table, within the confines of the pizza box) or soft taco form.
Yesterday you could get:
TACO
burnt brisket $7
eggplant $4.50
bean $3.50
pulled pork in brioche bun with coleslaw $10
shaved brisket with BBQ sauce $7
The prices are very reasonable, and the food tasty. The concept is brilliant.
We ordered two pulled pork brioche buns with the coleslaw (one to drop off at Bec’s friend who was at work), and a serve of the burnt brisket taco with some BBQ sauce. It came in the same pizza box, so was easy to transport home. Bec wanted to try the food at CSK, and ate most of it. I was merely an interested onlooker, so only sampled each item.
To be honest, the food didn’t really excite me, but that’s beside the point. It excites pretty well everyone who goes there, and that’s the main thing. I note today that the owner/chef comments that it must be time for them to open another shop (which, at this stage, would have nothing to sell, given that they run out of food in the Harrington Street Kingston
I reckon it would be easy for them to franchise it out, then they would have great suburban coverage, and, an added bonus would be that they themselves are now the distributors for one of the BBQ’s they use. Call me stupid but I foresee as many CSK’s as there are Banjo outlets, down the track!
Crumb Street Kitchen
144 Harrington Street
Hobart
Ph: 6234 7002
Crumb Street Kitchen
144 Harrington Street
Hobart
Ph: 6234 7002
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14 comments:
those are some nice cookbooks in the first photo - do they make their own bread?
Hi Debbie Ann - I would say they're way too busy just getting enough meat prepared, so would hazard a guess that they don't make their own bread. If they do, then I grant them kitchen royalty status!
Enjoyed the review, will have to check it out Rita, thanks :)
RE the bread, no not made there, also check this link;
http://www.eatingtassie.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1020
Hello long lost Rita!! Hope you are doing well. So I've been dying to go to Crumb Street and haven't made it yet so was happy to see you and Bec had been. Must get ourselves there soon. I too have them on Facebook and my mouth waters with every post. Recently went to Smokey Joes in Launny and had their pulled pork and coleslaw. Pretty bloody nice, so I'm interested to see how Crumb matches up. Am quite good at it myself (she says modestly)so it had better be good! To sell out like they do every day it must be great.
p.s ran in to your friend Deb who I know through work, and she suggested a lunch?
Hey Christina - happy anniversary! Yes, I'm still around, and feeling so much better than I have for 2 years. Can't wait for you to visit CSK as I think you will be able to make an informed comparison. Also, am up for lunch with you girls any time. I'll call Deb and set it up. x
Im glad this place has opened coz it means the bloke running it can stop shafting every other cafe/restaurant in town who has he has worked over the last few years
I noticed the cookbooks in one of the pictures. Didn't know Shannon Bennet, Rene Redzepi, Brett Savage or Justin North did BBQ?
Anon 8.35 - pretty harsh call! Please can you elaborate on what you mean when you say he shafted past businesses he worked for? I don't know the guy, but if you mean he worked at many previous places then subsequently left, well, yeah, looking at it from that perspective, he DID shaft them, but I don't know that that justifies your statement.
Anon 8.50 - most likely all chefs have BBQ'd in their lives, I'd have thought.
I have food jealousy. And I shouldn't!
don't you think you should remove the negative post about the owner as it is pretty defamatory and verging on illegal.
Anon 1.20 - if you think that comment is defamatory, you should read many past comments on this blog over the 7 years it has been present online! I allow people (ie I read them when moderating, then publish them if deemed acceptable) to express their comments, both positive and negative on any particular subject. We are all different, with differing opinions. Not everyone is going to have the same positive reaction to things I do. This is not a touchy-feely blog, where everything is all light and wondrous, accompanied by warm and fuzzy pics of delectable food, stunningly set out 'randomly' amongst fine china and surroundings. I try to be honest but respectful. As I said previously, I haven't a clue who the owner of CSK is, or know him at all, but if he has detractors, then he is welcome to read what they have to say and at least it gives him a fair assessment of what might be being said behind his back about him and his business. He would probably know who they are, and be able to address it directly with them.
Anonymous sounds like they may be running a business that isn't quite doing as well as Zac is.... Just saying
If they franchised CSK I'd be horrified. It needs to stay as a one-of-a-kind. And I'm pretty surprised to see someone say they don't do their own bread, I know Zac's a baker.
The defamation has nothing to do with the quality of the food though and as such makes it seem pointless and off topic in a food blog and the Blogger a tad irresponsible. Just sayin'
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