Mockingbird spreads wings, opening another cafe at Lovedale's Tatler Wines

The husband and wife team's latest project opened at Lovedale's Tatler Wines in November, taking the Hamilton cafe's popular breakfast menu (including their Instagram-famous Persian fairy floss-topped red velvet pancakes) to the valley.

"The Hunter Valley sort of found us," James tells Weekender.

"We own Fennell and Co Catering as well and we are out this way all the time with weddings and events, so it is something we have talked about doing.

"We were approached by the owner of Tatler, so we came out and had a look and we fell in love with the space, the view. It just felt right."

The cafe is the third business the couple has launched in six years.

It began in 2016 with Fennel and Co. which has become one of most in-demand catering businesses in Newcastle and the Hunter (last week alone they catered 10 weddings).

Four years later, James, a talented chef, and Tess, whose career spans front of house and management roles, decided to expand their passion for food with the opening of their first cafe, Mockingbird.

While the Hamilton lunch menu is known for its elevated take on cafe food, the move to Lovedale has allowed James to develop a new lunch menu that is designed to bring a taste of Newcastle's thriving food scene to the Hunter's wine country.

Encompassing the creativity that has earned Mockingbird a following among foodies in Newcastle, the menu offers dishes designed to be shared and enjoyed with drinks.

"We took the breakfast menu from Hamilton and that will always be the same between the two, but we wanted to bring all of the businesses together in some way with this menu," James says.

"At Fennell And Co we do so many banquets for weddings and, being in the Hunter Valley and it being more about wine and cocktails, we wanted to do food that we would like to go out and eat for lunch, so it's share plates.

"We are proud to be showcasing that we can step it up from just cafe food.

"You can have Italian and French in the Hunter Valley but there's not a lot of that light, bright mixture of "now".

"The food scene has really changed in Newcastle and we wanted to bring that to the Hunter Valley."

The lunch menu combines small plates, large plates, sides and desserts which reflect James' broad palate.

Dishes include tuna carpaccio with daikon, nuoc cham, coriander and puffed rice; oysters with pepperberry mignonette; 18-hour shawarma lamb shoulder with whipped fetta, chimichurri, pine nuts, pickled onion and pomegranate; half chicken with tandoori, tomato, lime, coriander and raita; corn with harissa yoghurt, salsa verde and dukkha; and papaya salad with carrot, cucumber, asian herbs, chilli peanuts and nuoc cham.

The menu's international influence stems from James' early years growing up surrounded by a melting pot of cultures and cuisines in South Western Sydney.

"I always had a broad range of friends growing up and I was used to eating in their houses with their families, so I got accustomed to everything and all sorts of flavours," he says.

"The food on our menu is Middle Eastern, it's got a bit of Asian influence, it's all the styles that we like to have.

"People always ask how we describe our food and it's really just the way we like to eat.

"At the moment we have a satay French toast on our menu at Mockingbird and we thought 'Let's take something that everyone knows but how can we flip it on its head?'

"We come up with an idea and then think 'Well, how do we make it Mockingbird?" and build on it from there.

"The cafes allow us to create the food and the style and everything that speaks of our passions of who we are as people."

Even in the midst of COVID-19 the Lovedale cafe has been buzzing with patrons since opening.

"It's a funny time to open cafe in the middle of a pandemic," James says.

"It's hard to get a good grasp of what it will be like in the future but with the way things have been going since we opened, we can't complain at all."

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