The details
UK-born Pete Jeary and New Zealand native Clark Lynn first met while working together for renowned London steakhouse and cocktail bar chain Hawkesmoor. Over there, pairing alcohol with breakfast and brunch is far more common, and while the lads were used to customers (and themselves) enjoying Bloody Marys and mimosas with their morning tea, when they arrived in Australia, the concept was a little more green. After spending the last few years working across the Gold Coast’s hospitality scene, the duo set out to bring a little slice of that London fun to the city’s north in the form of Cross + Feather, a daytime hang where locals can enjoy refined cafe fare, specialty coffee and convivial vibes – with cocktails on the side.
The food
You’ll find a little more than your classic bacon and eggs here. Heading the kitchen is chef John Leslie, formerly of Northern Territory luxury eco-resort Cicada Lodge in Katherine, who has put together a tempting breakfast and lunch offering that’s dotted with influences from native Australian ingredients. The champagne-infused eggs Benedict, offered with optional sides like butter-poached lobster and salmon cured with green-ant gin, is understandably the signature of the breakfast menu. It’s joined by dishes like French toast with burnt fig, rosella-glazed pears, green mango and smoked-cherry and lavender ice-cream, as well as house-made granola served with wild-passionfruit panna cotta, poached rhubarb, guava gel and blood-orange sherbet – and instead of milk, you get a pitcher of cornflake-infused custard to drown it. Lunch sees both share plates and sizeable mains hit the pass – think charcuterie boards, kingfish ceviche with sea fennel, burnt mango and fermented cucumber, 12-hour confit pork belly with ponzu and kimchi, as well wagyu beef burgers and a daily butcher’s cut of steak with kipflers, greens and French butter.
The drink
There are two separate lists of cocktails – a menu for breakfast-style cocktails and a menu for lunch/all-day cocktails. Co-owner Pete Geary (aka Shaky Pete) is at home behind the bar, serving up ‘morning’ sips like the breakfast martini, infused with a spoonful of chef’s hand-made marmalade, as well as nostalgic concoctions like the Cornflake Hard Shake, a blend of house-made cornflake ice-cream, milk and goat’s milk vodka. If you like ginger of a morning, don’t go past Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew – essentially a turbo-charged ice-blended shandy made with gin, fresh lemon, ginger and amber ale. Once lunch time swings around, the cocktails look like this – a twisted dark and stormy (aka rum and ginger beer) topped with a refreshing ginger-and-lime sorbet, a summer negroni made with rhubarb-infused gin, and the punchy Parad-Iced Tea, which involves lemon sherbet, Coca Cola and a mezcal mist.
Cross + Feather is now open! Opening hours, address and contact details can be found in our Stumble Guide.
