Vance Arellano, Anthony Ianelli and Scott Brewer are the key team members running Recess. Photo: Ash St George.
Recess at Griffith Shops is doing more than ‘little lunch’ with a menu of all-day breakfast staples and a solid lunch menu featuring restaurant quality plates and top-notch, locally roasted coffee. It’s located where the Griffith Vietnamese Restaurant used to be, and the owners have kept the old sign over the door as an ode to their iconic predecessor.
The team was stoked to find a spot at Griffith because they wanted a central location where they could really build community with the locals.
The project is a collaboration between Terra’s Anthony Ianelli and Scott Brewer. Scott also spent some time learning the art of coffee roasting at Barrio to get his coffee chops up to speed and getting a nice work-life balance in place for his family.
“Scott was the manager at our restaurant Terra for almost the first three years until he hung up his boots on night service when he found out he was having a baby girl. Over his tenure at Terra we became good mates, so after he left, we always talked about how we could open a cool shop together,” Anthony told Region.
“When the spot became available, there was no going back.”
Recess opened at Griffith shops this week. Photo: Ash St George.
The kitchen is headed up by former Silo Bakery chef Vance Arellano, who has crafted a menu that could translate equally to a speedy weekday brekky or leisurely Sunday long lunch.
Visiting in their opening week, I was shown out the back to a small rear courtyard as the interior seats were all full (great news for the business).
Anthony says that this business is totally different from Terra, but they’re sticking with their focus on quality, and making sure they don’t cut corners.
“We started this venue with a clean slate and wanted to try to open our rendition of what a good café should be. Somewhere that we would like to hang out if we weren’t working there.”
I ordered the Breakfast Burrito: a compact and tasty meal with generous chunks of avocado, salsa criolla with crisp capsicum and bright onion, hash brown, and house-made turkey sausage that added more in the way of texture than flavour. A very tasty herbed mayo was served on the side, which added a nice lemony zing.
Recess is the long-awaited cafe project from Terra’s Anthony Ianelli and Scott Brewer. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Looking at the lunch menu – which is divided into plates and ‘hand-held’ items – I would be keen to return for the Fusilli Calabrese with Italian sausage ragu and a house-made baguette on the side or a classic fried chicken sandwich served on sliced white bread. The vegetarian options are a little thin on the ground, but there is a note that dietary options are available with staff assistance, so there may be alterations available.
I was disappointed to see out-of-season tomatoes as a side dish on the lunch menu, while other dishes like potato and leek soup track nicely in terms of seasonality.
Where many cafes fail to consider acoustics, the soundscape at Recess has been carefully considered. Tasmanian-made speakers pump out vintage records all day but keep the noise levels to a respectable hubbub
“We’ve sourced bespoke, handbuilt speakers from Tasmania and acoustically treated the interior to provide optimum sound quality. We’ll be spinning our personal vinyl collections all day on a proper sound system, which will be fun, but still allows you to hear your friends,” Anthony said.
The soundtrack of instrumental jazz was also playing in the rear courtyard.
The interior has been designed by MyMyMy Architecture (the team behind the quirky fit-out at Such & Such) in collaboration with Anthony’s wife, Kristin. Warm natural wood tones, terracotta-coloured tiles and blue banquettes give the space a light yet cosy vibe.
Old-school buttermilk pancakes make a comeback at Recess. Photo: Ash St George.
The Breakfast Burrito was a light enough dish that I talked myself into ordering Buttermilk Pancake with maple syrup as a cheeky dessert. The large pancake was fluffy on the inside, with crispy, caramelised edges. I also ordered some seasonal jam, but in the end, the maple syrup (served in a cute retro jug) and a generous serving of butter were perfect. You can order bacon and/or ice cream if you’d really like to treat yourself.
There’s also a pastry cabinet out the front if you’re looking for coffee and cake.
Bags of the Recess Coffee are available to purchase, along with a few Terra-made condiments and limited merch (for the superfans).
Recess is located at 6B Barker Street at Griffith Shops. They are open from 6.30 am to 3.30 pm, Monday to Friday, and from 7.30 am to 3 pm on weekends. Follow Recess on Instagram.
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