101 Things I Love About Sydney

Located on the corner of Parramatta Road and Norton Street, to call this cafe unassuming would be to hype it up too much. It's pretty average in every respect - the coffee, the foccacias, arancini and croissants are all merely sufficient. But in a city where every place tries to outdo everywhere else - this is a refreshing change.

If you're ever awake before dawn and in the area you're probably familiar with this place because it opens at 4:30am. As a result, I wound up spending a large chunk of my high school muck up night here in 1997 as i had nowhere else to go, and on many a sleepless night have trecked over for a super-early pre-work brekkie of lame ham and cheese croissant with the ham only slightly warm, and strong coffee.

After getting dumped once many years ago and not being able to sleep I rode my bike over to Leichhardt at 4:30am to have brekkie, and there was a nature doco on the tele in this cafe which featured lengthy shots of elephant fornication, and i thought, 'Great! Even the elephants on the tv in this shitty cafe at 4:30 in the morning are getting more sex than me right now." I don't know why that memory stays with me, but it does.

Bar Dei Castelli is at 395 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt.