No Avocado Toast? Marrickville’s Superfreak Cafe Proves It’s Possible

Don’t expect standard fare at Marrickville’s Superfreak. The café doesn’t offer bacon spring rolls or classic brunch dishes. “No one’s even asked us for avocado toast,” says co-owner Michael Ico. “It’s kind of refreshing not to have it.”

Avoiding such basic elements was not a statement-making decision; it was simply the effect of limited space.

Ico has been running several cafes since 2011, starting with Baron in Castle Hill. Superfreak has the smallest floor plan of all.

So, the smashed avocado, fried bacon and egg with toppings template that usually automatically populates Sydney cafe menus? Superfreak has chosen not to use it, as the kitchen is quite small.

The location also has advantages, which initially attracted Ico and Superfreak co-owner Daniel Harrison to the site.

“Dan’s partner (Trisha) actually works at Scout Pilates, next door to Superfreak,” Ico explains. “And she told us they were looking for someone to go there.”

They could imagine creating a place with a “nourishing” vibe for people to refuel between stretching and strength training sessions. With Enmore Park across the road, locals would also be looking for salads, smoothies and sandwiches to take away. So the duo launched Superfreak in July.

As someone who last hit the gym during the Obama era, I’m not the target audience for the healthier offerings on the cafe’s menu. The drinks mention marine collagen and adaptogens, things I wouldn’t typically take. But the hot chocolate tastes like real chocolate (with real chocolate flakes, even): not a health facsimile loaded with medicinal mushrooms and devoid of any sweetness. The spirulina smoothie is a lush, coastal blue optimized for Instagram close-ups, but its blend of peanut butter chunks, toasted coconut, and honey-laden sweetness is legitimately delicious.

Trisha Harrison can be thanked for the drinks menu, while Michaela Johansson of Aplenty caterer deserves credit for the food menu. Ico gave her the brief: “Healthy but not ‘Bondi healthy’” – all delivered with a big, warm touch of nostalgia.

Superfreak porridge perfectly sums up her approach. It’s made with oats, rye and buckwheat. “This porridge, without all those refined grains, was something my dad used to make for us when we were little,” she says. The caterer fondly remembers the way the butter mixed with the milk and oats.

She recreated this flashback in style on Superfreak. Mixed cereal is cooked until creamy, becoming a land mass covered in poached rhubarb, oozing sunshine of cultured butter, and swirls of caramel-colored brown sugar, all set in a moat of oat milk.

At first, the staff was very reluctant to add sugar. “And I would say, ‘More, more, more,’” she says.

I’m not a porridge fan, but after hearing so many raves about this dish, I gave it a try. I went from skeptic to convert in one spoonful. It’s the joyful stacking of ingredients (fruity rhubarb, dark caramel ridges, hints of salt) that make it excellent.

Ico says the porridge is “topped with brown sugar and butter…because we didn’t want to be pigeonholed into the ‘healthy place’ category.”

That’s the appeal of Superfreak: It has nutritional intentions, but doesn’t rob the menu of fun or flavor. The MVP of the protein-packed morning roll with egg and Comté cheese is the cilantro-shallot salsa, which evokes Argentinian chimichurri and Hainanese chicken rice. It’s a welcome addition to a sandwich, especially after the pesto we’ve been enduring for decades. The cilantro-shallot salsa also brightens the roasted pumpkin salad with cilantro cashew cream.

You may know Ico and Harrison from their excellent Soulmate and Splash cafes (which they run with Harry Paton and Mitch Jones), but Superfreak has a distinct identity. Nostalgia drives the pastry counter, which features melt-in-the-mouth moments (made with a recipe Johansson has been repeating since she was a teenager) and Bundt cakes from in-house chef June Kim.

YSG Studio’s interiors also have a vintage feel: the cork flooring evokes Ico’s childhood home, while the shag banquette is inspired by Meret Oppenheim’s classic 1930s surrealist work of fur-lined tableware. The vinyl collection underscores the retro feel, alternating between Crowded House’s 1980s hits, Patrice Rushen’s 1970s soul-funk, and High Vis’s abrasive 2020s post-punk.

But Superfreak also has an appealing take on how we eat today – and how nice it is to give bacon and egg rolls and avocado toast a break every now and then.