I travelled toย Sydney from my Melbourne coffee-haven home for MAD SYD, a food symposium thatโs beenย called โthe G20 of food.โ The theme of MAD SYD was “tomorrowโs meal,” and I was excited to visit one of the most buzzy specialty coffee-focused cafes in Sydney while I was there. News of Edition Coffee Roastersโ intriguing food and beverage service had already made its way to Sprudge headquarters in Portland, Oregonโlater I’d learn, too, that Edition was the Sydney cafe of choice of Rene Redzepi, MAD founder andย chef/owner of famed Copenhagen restaurantย Noma.
This is brothers Daniel Jackson and Corie Sutherlandโs first project together, but both are cafe and coffee veterans. After years of coffee industry experience in Australia and abroad, they paired up to open a cafe and roastery in the city they love. Conceptually, Edition is a fusion of Nordic and Japanese cuisine and beverages. The brothers have found the sweet spot where the two cuisines overlap and pushed boundaries by venturing out on either side of that unconventional Venn diagram. On the most basic level, what Nordic and Japanese cuisines share is a focus on clean flavors, umami, and pickled local produce. Rather than mechanism or technique, the spotlightย here is on ingredients.
Sutherland lived and worked in Japan, and told me that he was moved by Japanese dining experiences. โThere is a real sense of pride in what they do,โ he said, โbut it is disciplined.โ He also developed a deep appreciation for Nordic cuisine first through his interest in Redzepi. When Redzepi moved Nomaโincluding the restaurant’s entire kitchen and service staffโto Sydney for ten weeks, Sutherland was delighted. He had always wanted to emulate Redzepiโs ability to โcreate something that had a magic to it, like an in-house secret.โ When Noma landed on Australiaโs shores, just a hop, skip, and a train ride to Edition, the teams became great friends. In addition to the cafe in Darlinghurst, Edition operates a coffee cart in Barangaroo, which was Nomaโs temporary neighborhood.
Sutherland and Jackson are most proud of their roasts and coffee service. โCoffee service is paramount; we are a coffee company,โ says Sutherland, who is responsible for all aspects of coffee service and roasting. Heโs a passionate follower of coffee culture. Inspirations include the work of international coffee superstars Tim Wendleboe and Gwilym Davies. In 2013, Sutherland attended the World Barista Championship in Melbourne, where Davies made him an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe that changed his life; heโd never had a coffee like that. He became obsessed with barista technique and developing his palate. From there, he decided that he wanted to cultivate a coffee service in his future cafe that would excite customers like that Yirgacheffe excited him.
Now Sutherland roasts beans offsite for retail and cafe use. Ultimately, he hopes to visit the farms and farmers from whom they source and learn more about green coffee ethics. Itโs clear that both Sutherland and Jacksonโin their distinctย but equally important jobs at Editionโare deeply passionate about quality, which extends to include cafe equipment by brands like La Marzocco and Mahlkonig.
Keeping espresso-based and filter coffee company on the drinks menu are specifically curated tea and juice offerings. Prodjuice provides organic cold-pressed juices, including a healthy-sounding concoction of pear, fennel, rainbow chard, and lemon. Edition is one of only a handful of cafes in Australia to serve theย Elixir Specialty Coffeeย drink. As the menu reports, it looks like whisky, feels like tea, and is made from coffee. The drink is only available in select international outlets:ย San Diego, Los Angeles, Tijuana, and Sydney.
The first item on the food menu is smรธrrebrรธd, an open-faced sandwich that is quintessential Danish fare. Although in this item the scales are generously tipped towards the Nordic aspect of their menu, the sandwich is topped with sake-cured beef, pickles, activated seaweed, blackberry, and burnt butter. Many fusion concepts take one dishโusually one thatโs famously a pillar of a cuisineโand add one or two elements that arenโt traditional. Editionโs fusion concept manages to honor elements of Nordic and Japanese cuisines where they overlap, and highlight the unorthodox relationship between them. On traditional smรธrrebrรธd you could expect smoked or cured fish, some pickled vegetables, and a fat of some kind on a piece of rye. Editionโs version is appropriately still called smรธrrebrรธd, resisting the popular temptation to rename all fusion dishes with a campy portmanteau.
The Mushroom Pond is an umami bomb of mushrooms: warm mushroom broth, mushroom cream, udon noodles, and soft herbs including nasturtium leaves. The menu changes frequently to reflect seasonality, but diners can expect creative takes on classic Sydney cafe fare, like chrysanthemum bircher muesli.
If the brothers behind Edition Coffee Roasters have anything to say about the conversation their friend Redzepi started, โtomorrowโs mealโ includes both creative fusion and single-origin coffee. And that future looks deliciously bright.
Phylisa Wisdom (@wordsofpwisdom) is a freelance journalist based in Melbourne. Read more Phylisa Wisdom on Sprudge.
Photos courtesy of Daniel Grendon and Edition Coffee Roasters.