Skip To Main Content
Issue 61 - Vintage Modern Issue

Issue 61

Vintage Modern Issue

The breadth and scope of Habitus has always been extraordinary. With how we live at heart of every issue, we have stepped it up with Guest Editor David Flack of Flack Studio shaking the ‘how’ and looking at new ways to make a house a home. With Vintage Modern as the issues theme, we look at the way iconic design has stayed with us, how daring pieces from the past can add the wow factor and how architecture and good design defy the pigeon hole of their era.

Order Issue

A Product of

Cornersmith: A Cafe With a Conscience
HospitalityHolly Cunneen

Cornersmith: A Cafe With a Conscience

Australia

A second location wasn’t really on the cards for Cornersmith – until it was. A building with great bones and a likewise community-minded locale proved to be an offer they couldn’t refuse.


Five years ago Alex Elliott-Howery and her husband James Grant had a small idea and a big vision. They wanted to eat at a café that shared their philosophy on making thoughtful decisions concerning food, food waste and the environment. A café that – coupled with “really good food and really good coffee,” – had great vibes and a real sense of community. When they couldn’t find one, they opened one. Situated on the corner of Illawarra and Petersham Roads in Marrickville, Sydney, Cornersmith was born. A dedicated picklery and workshop, also on a corner, was opened 18 months later and now, at the corner of View and Piper St South their eagerly anticipated second café has opened in Annandale.

Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living

But Annandale isn’t a carbon copy of Marrickville; it isn’t a carbon copy of anywhere for that matter. Where Marrickville is slightly dark, moody and maybe a little industrial Annandale is decidedly lighter in appearance and atmosphere – inspired by the Australian Bush. “We’re very much about Australian products and looking at what we have rather than outside of that [so] the Australian Bush is what we went with, which is the colours I guess,” says Alex. The interiors are a combination of blonde timber, shades of blue and pale pink marble. “It feels very nice and light and calm in here. Even when it’s crazy busy,” she adds.

Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living

The bespoke joinery, cabinetry and furniture are the handiwork of their dear friends and keen collaborators at Smith and Carmody and Jonathan West.

And if you’re worried about growing businesses finding it harder to stick to the guns they first started with, don’t be. “We’re getting better and better at it,” says Alex. There’s a huge composting system outback, they’re still very much trading with locals for excess backyard produce (and excited to see what the new area has to offer) and Sabina, the head chef, “is constantly coming up with ways to make new delicious things out of things that would otherwise get thrown into the bin,” says Alex.

Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living

Despite burgeoning business it seems the biggest challenge for Alex isn’t moving forward but taking a step back.

“I just want to make sure that everything is still very Cornersmith, very us, but with other people doing a lot of it. [In the past] James and I have been so hands on and now we’re taking that one step back. It feels like a very exciting time for us. We’re tired but we’re good.”

Cornersmith
cornersmith.com.au

Smith and Carmody
smithandcarmody.com.au

Jonathan West
jonathanwest.com.au

Words by Holly Cunneen

Photography by Joshua Morris

Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living
Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living
Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living
Cornersmith Cafe | Habitus Living

About the Author

Holly Cunneen

Tags

Alex Elitott-HoweryAnnandalecafecornersmithHolly CunneenInner WestJames GrantJonathan WestJoshua MorrisSmith and Carmody


Related Projects
Issue 61 - Vintage Modern Issue

Issue 61

Vintage Modern Issue

The breadth and scope of Habitus has always been extraordinary. With how we live at heart of every issue, we have stepped it up with Guest Editor David Flack of Flack Studio shaking the ‘how’ and looking at new ways to make a house a home. With Vintage Modern as the issues theme, we look at the way iconic design has stayed with us, how daring pieces from the past can add the wow factor and how architecture and good design defy the pigeon hole of their era.

Order Issue