Cork Street Cafe in Gundaroo has an extensive pizza menu and a unique location. Photo: Cork Street Cafe.
Until about two weeks ago, I thought the Cork Street Cafe in Gundaroo made wood-fired pizzas.
Never one to shy away from my mistakes, I’m here to admit that I was wrong – they are cooked in an electric oven.
Getting something like that wrong is no small feat considering that I’ve eaten there dozens of times in the last decade. Something in my head just thought, “Good pizzas; they must be wood-fired”.
It was on a recent visit that I looked behind the counter to see the very visible, commercial electric oven on the front wall and realised that I’m very inattentive.
The staff tell me the oven was imported from Spain, and it’s certainly an impressive piece of kit, just not powered by wood.
Cork Street Cafe is tucked away in an unusual location: down a laneway, behind a weatherboard former police station, which was built in 1857, and housed within the old police stables.
Each morning, for nearly 80 years, the Gundaroo police wandered down to the stables and let the horses out to graze in the nearby police paddocks.
Now, with no more police located in the town and no more need for police horses, we have a pizza cafe, and a damn good one.
Cork Street Cafe has undeniable rustic charm. Photo: Cork Street Cafe.
With very few commercial businesses in Gundaroo, I think we can surmise that the Cork Street Cafe, along with the fine dining restaurant Grazings and the historic Gundaroo Inn across the road, in large part can be thanked for the town being named as one of Australia’s top three best tiny towns in Australia’s Top Tourism Town Awards in 2024.
The heritage charm of the historic stables is one of the attractions of dining at the cafe, and the building hasn’t been tarnished by a heavy renovation.
On the outside, you have a mishmash of timber, stone, brick, and even some old stable doors, all sitting under a rusty tin roof. The courtyard garden provides a place to dine, but is definitely more picturesque in warmer weather.
The outdoor dunny is an adventure in itself, but it’s nothing most country-hardy Canberrans can’t handle.
Through the front doors, you enter into the open kitchen, where you won’t find a wood-fired pizza oven, and this leads you through to two dining rooms, both with polished timber floors and an eclectic mix of country furniture.
The dining room furthest from the kitchen still very much feels like a stable with roughly rendered stone walls at the side and rear, and a run of horse troughs.
On the walls hang a mix of horsey accoutrements; if I knew anything about horses, I would tell you more about those, and at most times, there is an exhibit from a local artist, the current one being Colours and Quilts, a series of collagraph prints by Helen Daley, all of which are for sale.
Cork Street Cafe is located inside the old police stables. Photo: Tenele Conway.
I’ve always felt that the pizza service at Cork Street Cafe isn’t fast, but it isn’t slow either. The time taken for your pizza to be prepared and arrive at the table is proportional to the wide range of pizzas on the menu and the quality of the ingredients.
They aren’t skimping on anything here. The menu is big, with over 20 pizza flavours plus focaccia, sides and breads to choose from. The pizza toppings are creative, thoughtful and well-designed, and most importantly, they’re handmade to order, and that’s worth a small wait.
I think I can say that over the years, I’ve tried most of the flavours (someone has to do the legwork, and I’m always a willing volunteer when it comes to eating).
I highly recommend the Campania, which offers a nice balance of sweet and savoury flavours with a gorgeous topping of caramelised fennel, goat cheese, and prosciutto.
The Californian is an excellent option for vegetarians, featuring hearty artichokes, sundried tomatoes, roast garlic, basil, and a pop of goat cheese.
A number of choices, including the Supreme, the Puglisi and the Sicilian, will suit lovers of anchovies, and for those who follow the ‘more is more’ philosophy of pizza, I recommend the Meat Lovers, which is pretty self-explanatory with four varieties of meat plus some onion and mushrooms to help keep the doctor happy.
When all is said and done and your pizza is all mopped up, you will have proven three points: a good pizza is always worth driving for, a great pizza shouldn’t be smothered in cheddar cheese, and a memorable pizza doesn’t need to be wood-fired.
Cork Street Cafe is located at the rear of the old police station on Cork Street, Gundaroo, and is open from Thursday to Sunday.
