Like all great delicatessens, crammed with delicacies prepared with passion and expertise, King Street Deli identifies the essentials and then perfects them. Meat. Cheese. Wine. Coffee. The selections appear to be so simple. So long as you have experts like these to curate it for you beforehand.
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Just stepping inside this deli will feel as though you've entered the intimate realm of the gourmand. Or maybe it's more of a quick brunch spot on a fancy food tour of Sardinia. The allure of this place is that it's both. It's a licensed wine cellar that serves pasta; an early morning coffee stop that stays open until 6pm; a cafe to sun yourself at outside while your charcuterie plate is prepared inside.
"The local area deserves a place like this and the community around us fits the concept perfectly," deli owner Darrell Stapleton says. "The demographic is one that will pick up some triple-smoked ham or some amazing cheeses on their way home after work."
Whether or not you are on the move or have the time to sit back and take in the scene, King Street Deli has been designed to accommodate both of your moods. After work you can take home and indulge in a selection of imported and local cured meats, served with fresh bread and pickles ($18 for one, $34 for two) or eat in while trying a Coppabella Single Vineyard Pinot Noir by the glass ($9).
On the weekends you can crack into a Murray's Whale Ale ($8) and a bacon, egg, cheddar and paprika aioli panini ($14). Bacon and beer or Pinot and prosciutto? One half is effortlessly stylish and fancy and the other half remains so humble and simple.
Salads and pasta dishes conceived by head chef Janine Manley (known lovingly in local cafe circles as J Bird) display a dedication to creativity and inventiveness that has found a welcoming home here. An Italian tuna and char-fired baby fennel salad (small $14, large $18) is served with preserved lemon, capers, green beans, Spanish onion and a piquant, smoky dressing.
It's a dish that expertly shapes the warm and colourful Mediterranean influences that this delicatessen has interpreted and then built upon. Or maybe the salad is just an everyday staple, cobbled together from jars in the pantry, delicate and succulent and ringing with authenticity. Its allure, once again, is that it could easily be both.
Striking this balance and duality between the basic staple and the chef's special, the delicatessen and the cafe space, is an essential part of the story at 181 King Street, Newcastle. This nook once housed a little Ethiopian restaurant called Habesha, a venture that Stapleton started up more than eight years ago with his wife Lydia. Through her distinctive vision and talent, Habesha has become a dining destination that has permanently taken its place in the hearts of local food lovers.
Once Lydia and Darrell decided late last year that it was time for Habesha to shift to larger premises at The Junction, the perfect opportunity to transform their King Street space presented itself. The established Ethiopian became the newborn delicatessen. And you only have to stroll past this place in the evening to witness how bold a transformation it has been. Where through the window you could once see an intimate, softly lit table for two, there now sits an imposing, jet black San Remo espresso machine. At night it looks like a Maserati left its high beams on after parking in a farmhouse.
"I'm a details-oriented person," Stapleton says. "I'm fastidious. I designed this new space myself knowing from experience what things work. The machine really does look amazing at night."
By day the San Remo pours a contract roasted, three-origin blend from New Guinea, Nicaragua and, quite fittingly, the famous Sidamo region of Ethiopia. Like everything else at King Street Deli, its simplicity has only been achieved through a weaving together of subtle, complex flavours with a consummate expertise.
It's an espresso that begins with dried raisin, malty notes but then evolves into something milder and slightly less adventurous. It could be a typical dark roast or an unusually flavoured lighter one. Or maybe its allure is that it can be both.