If there’s one thing us Sydneysiders love, it’s a ripper sandwich. And now there’s another joint we reckon you should check out, and that’s at sunny hole-in-the-wall café June’s Shoppe, which has just launched an epic all-day sandwich menu.
Part of the Applejack Hospitality group (also Rafi, Bopp and Tone), the vibrant café is based in the Wynyard Precinct in Sydney's CBD. Applejack culinary director Patrick Friesen (formerly Queen Chow) has created the new bad boys, which were inspired by the giant rainbow sandwiches from King George Deli in Tokyo.
Made with fresh, super fluffy and thick-cut Texas-style bread, June’s sambos are packed to the rafters with fresh salads, delicious fillings and house-made sauces. There are eight colourful creations to choose from, including the salad sandwich with cucumber, tomato, beetroot, carrots, alfalfa, mayo and vintage cheddar; the spicy fried chicken with comeback sauce, cheddar and gem lettuce; curried free-range egg salad with nori, Kewpie mayo and gem lettuce; and the roast free-range fennel pork with pesto, pickled chillies, provolone and rapini (a green veggie, similar to broccoli).
Pat says you should “come give it a try when you’re done hurting your mouth eating sourdough or ciabatta sandwiches".
And if you were wondering what Pat's favourite sambo is, the answer may surprise you. “I think my favourite is the salad sandwich and the broccoli salad.” See, even chefs make friends with salad. Come down to June’s and have a bite for yourself.
Read on for our review of June's Shoppe from 2019.
*****
By Lulu Morris
Sick of millennial pink? Then it’s time to check out June’s, where yellow is the new black. This bright canary-coloured hole-in-the-wall cafe is a cheerful spot to pick up your pre-work coffee and some creative take-away brekky.
The menu, like the venue, is small. June’s Shoppe is open for both breakfast and lunch and serves up simple eats: think pastries, salads and ‘toast and toppers.’ If you’re going for breakfast they’ve got the predictable Sydney stable: salmon and cream cheese; bacon and egg, or avo on toast, but sexed-up with thick cuts of buffalo mozzarella, a smoky tomato dressing, crunchy pepitas, and basil.
The lunch menu expands the offering, adding poached chicken, tuna, and a tumble of leaves and seeds to the mix. We ordered the wagyu bresaola topper on sourdough. The generous slab of sourdough from the Grounds of Alexandria is crisp and sour and toasted perfectly. The bresaola is sheet thin and delectably fatty, but we need a lot more of it to match the sour cream mustard and mountains of greenery. Also, the sweetness of Branston pickle tastes to us like one element too many. Next time we’ll order the pork belly banh mi with coriander, mint, chilli, cucumber, pickled carrot and mayo.
Opt-out of the wooden cutlery (they aren’t cut out for slicing through heavy toast), and anyway, eating-in can prove tricky as June’s only seats are along a small wall facing the footpath. It might just be toast but with lots of toppings things can get messy so take-away might be the suit-saving bet here.
The best thing about June’s is the coffee, and we’ll never complain about more great places for life-giving caffeine in the CBD. June’s gets theirs from Gabriel Coffee, a roaster on the lower north shore. For black coffee drinkers there is a rotating single-O, and for those who like a little chocolate on the top of their milk foam, June’s uses the Easy Tiger Blend, a silky brew with notes of hazelnut and caramel, particularly soft on the palate and very well balanced. If you’re off the caffeine, June’s also has a selection of PS40 sodas made only blocks away, kombucha, cold-pressed juices, and coconut water.
There are plenty of CBD coffee shops that take themselves very seriously, but this colourful café is not one of them. It’s got the relaxed demeanour of a food truck, the staff are friendly, music isn’t obtrusive and the coffee is seriously smooth. Add a menu that maxes out at $12 and this could easily be a sunshine yellow pit-stop on your morning commute through the CBD.