Smashed Gero (on toast): Skeetas Restaurant

Skeetas is the first venue along the foreshore to turn on its coffee machine in the morning, making it an early dog-walker’s dream. There are even special seats in front for locals to park up with their pups and enjoy their mid-walk coffee while looking over the harbour. If you want to dig into the brekky menu, you need to leave all fluffy friends at home. The decor is a real treat. It has neutral fittings and furniture, but the ceilings and walls are a regal shade of blue. Fairy lights and bird’s nest light shades add further texture to the space — it looks like Mia’s mum from The Princess Diaries has had her way with a high-end hotel bar. We started by ordering coffees. I ordered a soy cappuccino, and my date ordered a long mac. He loved that the milk came separately. We have both worked as baristas and there is a lot of confusion around how to make a “real” long mac. Self-professed “coffee experts” in Perth and Melbourne have shown me contradicting methods. There might be a traditional Italian way to make one, but technical correctness won’t stop customers from turning up their noses. Serving the milk on the side seems a great way to side-step the whole issue. We see you, Skeetas. Very smart. Next, we ordered two dishes and decided to share — a sweet and savoury to keep things well balanced. First, we dug into our house-made beans in a rich tomato ragu with cheese, Turkish toast and a poached egg. The dish was a mighty elevation from your classic beans on toast. The saucy, cheesy and delicious dish reminded us of shakshuka. It was lovingly baked and contained a rich spectrum of flavours, with the tang of capsicum dominating my tastebuds. As a light breakfast, it would have been enough for both of us. Damn good for $19 in the swankiest part of town. We moved on to our sweet meal — doughnuts with lemon curd, macerated berries in moscato syrup, and almond crumble. It was not a breakfast menu item. It was a morning dessert. I am so here for a 7am glucose-rush. But let’s call it what it is — a deconstructed cake. The doughnuts were house-made and divine. Crunchy on the outside and fluffy. The coating of cinnamon sugar was more fur coat than a cardigan. The lemon curd was basically icing, and the crumble was also very sweet. I don’t know if the berries needed to be macerated. But, as you may already have noticed, I am saltier than I am sweet. After 29 years in town, Skeetas is part of the furniture in Geraldton’s gastronomy scene — a no-brainer when it comes to a reliably good feed at any point in the day. While exciting new brekky spots are popping up all over Geraldton, my meal this week served as a reminder never to forget about old favourites. SKEETAS RESTAURANT 3/219 Foreshore Dr DIETARY REQUIREMENTS Soy, lactose-free, almond milks. Some gluten-free menu options, including gluten-free bread. COFFEEDelicious medium roast. Order a double shot if you like your coffee strong. PRICE$50 for two people