Smashed Gero (on toast): Poppies by the Park review

The work week is a grind, so if you’re treating yourself to a cafe breakfast this weekend, demand that it’s sprinkled with desiccated coconut. Speaking as an ex-waitress, please don’t actually make demands of anyone who got to work before sunrise on a Sunday. But do head down to Dongara — Geraldton’s funkiest neighbour — and try a little cafe that knows what it means to pay attention to detail. Poppies by the Park is run out of a quaint limestone building surrounded by trees older than you and I combined. Inside, they serve all the best bits of European cuisine and decadence, complemented with service that made me feel like I deserved it. The cafe doesn’t have a printed menu you can take to your table to mull over, so I just made like Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and pointed at the things I wanted, telling my date we would just split them all. I chose a salted caramel cruffin (a muffin made from croissant dough), a berry tart and a vegie toastie sandwich. My date was happy to oblige. We also ordered soy and regular cappuccinos, as usual. It wasn’t too dark a blend, so our double shots were a perfect strength. The glass mugs and heart-shaped latte art primed our palettes for what was to come. We were just expecting staff to put the tart on the plate and wash their hands of it, but it came out with a dollop of whipped cream and a halved red grape. Presented on the kind of plate my mother would tell me to “look out for at op shops”, it had a light snowy covering of coconut and icing sugar. The biscuit on the outside tasted like chocolate flavoured Tiny Teddies. The creamy filling was nice and light, with most of the sweetness coming from the purple berries. The cruffin — made in Geraldton by the Breadwright Microbakery — also looked like a deconstructed dessert-themed snow globe, but this time Poppies by the Park staff added a drizzling of rich chocolate syrup. It was served warm enough for the salted caramel sauce to be liquid. My date and I pulled the cruffin apart with our forks and then our hands, discovering there was no right (or wrong) way to eat the chaotic dish. Finally, we dug into the toasted sandwich. It came decorated with seeds, aioli, sprouts, tomatoes, and more halved grapes. But it was not just a pretty face. In most circumstances, I would consider warmed avocado an absolute abomination. The minds behind Poppies by the Park made it work. The complex variety of ingredients and the bread’s super-firm outer layer, made it taste calzone-like. It reminded me of something my school canteen stopped serving after the health star rating system was introduced. Eating at least four types of dairy in one dish is one of the best parts of being an adult. Poppies by the Park is a tiny little outfit overflowing with Dongara charm, which somehow makes a finger-food breakfast feel like something Marie Antoinette would eat while revolutionaries looked on and sharpened their guillotine blade. Let them eat cruffins, I say.