Andrew Carter is in love with Sydney, with Elizabeth Bay and with the location of his newly-minted marine café, aptly named The Lookout.

The Lookout looks out over Elizabeth Bay to the heads and enjoys wonderful views.

“I always dreamed of coming to Australia,” he says. His café is not just on the edge of the water but actually over it, or perhaps floating in it. It sits, almost hidden beyond the end of a cul-de sac in Ithaca Road, Elizabeth Bay at the new Beare Park marina.

It’s a local knowledge thing – or was. Word is out. Only opened five months ago, it’s already wreathed with honours and is listed as one of Sydney’s top 20 cafés.

Real estate agents are right: it’s all about location, location, location.

It hovers alongside the local Elizabeth Bay beach sitting snugly calmly in the fulcrum of its liquid setting.

Andrew Carter’s marine café is a water whisperer. Patrons can sense the water beneath them caressing, lapping and sipping at the beach alongside, whispering “Relax. Enjoy.”

Patrons enjoy the rustic timber planking, smooth, warm wooden tables and panoramic vistas of the Sydney’s glittering sapphire blue harbour, shining like a jewel in its setting. They lounge under coloured parasols. As Governor Phillip stated in 1788: “…we had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world …”.

Beyond them, a 270-degree, ever-evolving diorama fans out on the harbour-scape with regattas of yachts sailing like Vikings, tacking with their jibs and unfurling spinnakers like flowers and floating on zephyrs.

Ferries, pleasure boats and water taxis flit from side to side like papillon as mighty majestic ocean liners bow in and out “en passant” on this moving mellifluous stage that is our precious heritage-listed harbour.

“I really enjoy the setting, the hours, the fabulous views and casual, al-fresco Sydney lifestyle. It’s my perfect office: the locals are so welcoming,” says Andrew, in his buoyant, effervescent style.

One of the biggest challenges was getting the rotating, seasonal menu just right. He has coffee running through his veins. He honed his skills with 13 years in hospitality with his coffee boutique at polo and equestrian events in the UK, then Jones the Grocer here in Neutral Bay and the Heritage Coffee brewers coffee shop, Summer Hill.

Coffee-cognoscenti aren’t disappointed at The Lookout which has its own espresso of the month. The art of coffee is revered here. Some local intelligentsia have even suggested Elizabeth Bay may have as many baristas as barristers!

So now he’s now starting his own-brand, artisan coffee roasting house. Andrew will directly oversee the complete bean-to-cup process; each individual bean’s source, selection, mucilage (excess fluid removal), pulping, fermentation, washing, drying, the parchment membrane and skin removal, grinding, brewing, storage and delivery.

No bean is safe under Andrew’s eagle eye.

Patrons also enjoy a combined breakfast/lunch ensemble menu including fennel sausages, zucchini and halloumi fritters, avocado, coconut flour pancakes with pineapple & coconut jam, “real” Belgian hot chocolate made from pure Callebaut block chocolate, not sugar-laden cocoa powder or syrup; free-range eggs, porridge with caramalised apples, an uber-healthy, low-ice, fruit slushy, burgers or a mushroom melt with sriracha sauce, amongst many other items.

“I just love the relaxing ambience and mesmerizing water views here,” says one new local, munching on her Dukkha egg breakfast, having only moved in last week.

The Lookout Café

1 Ithaca Road, Elizabeth Bay, entrance via Beare Park Marina

Hours:  7:30am to 3:00pm seven days a week

Phone: 0454 945 651

Email: thelookout2011@icloud.com

Instagram: @thelookout011

By Andrew Woodhouse