BEACH BITES

With its relaxed, friendly vibe, it’s easy to feel at home at Burleigh’s newest eatery

THE LOCAL GROUND FLOOR AMBIENCE, 1837 GOLD COAST HIGHWAY, BURLEIGH HEADS Open: Daily from 6am

SIGNS you’re a Burleigh local: Marcus and Paola over at Nook know your name, coffee order and extended family, you’d rather walk from Miami than pay for a park on Goodwin Terrace, and if you have to direct another Instagram-wielding tourist to THAT rock …

For The Local, the newest addition to the crop of eateries under the Ambience building, being local is an attitude; an easy familiarity and eagerness to treat each customer as more than the sum of their bill.

The comfortable setting is par for the trendy cafe course: exposed industrial ceilings, suspended wooden sleepers and a graffiti feature wall combine with fairylight-strung fiddleleaf figs. Fat, buttery pastries beckon from the front counter.

Arriving for Saturday brunch, not only were we warmly greeted, the team rushed to stack cushions for my mum after noticing she had a sore back.

We were handed a breakfast and lunch bridging menu, heroing local produce and mingling the must-haves with classics. Many of the dishes are gluten-free.

The Burleigh Bowl ($13) is a sweet preview of summer with coconut-set chia, mango, maple syrup, toasted coconut and macadamias. The standard mushies on toast is reinvented with a healthier base of grilled polenta – the earthy Magic Mushrooms ($19) comes to life with smoky puffs of ricotta, thyme and hazelnut.

Maybe less healthy but all the tastier for it, The Local toastie ($17) is a croque monsieur with a quintessentially French approach to its rich components – ham off the bone, truffled béchamel and Emmental cheese.

Moving into lunch territory, the Get in my Bangalow Belly ($24) pairs the homegrown pork with chilli and tamarind sauce, apple, daikon, cabbage slaw and pickled onion.

Coxy’s Got Beef ($21) is a big, comforting plate of fried corn beef, potato, confit red onion, spinach, eggs and a spicy fruit chutney. Wash it down with your preferred poison from a comprehensive refreshment list. The coffee is an easy-todrink home blend, with beans also sold by the 1kg bag.

Balter Brewing, Stone & Wood and Varsity Lakes outfit Aardvark & Arrow are on tap, segueing into regular sessions of tapas and live music.

In a competitive cafe market, The Local is one of a number of eateries offering good food for a fair price. It’s the service that stood out.

A little extra incentive: you can forget the battle on the beachfront, with free parking under the Ambience building.