Trevor Pepys reviews Nanna McGinn’s, Kenilworth
The last time Trevor was in Kenilworth the Cobb and Co was still running from Gympie once a week. Well, obviously that’s not quite true but it had been a long time.
From memory, it was in the previous century and we dined on a “whopper” at the Top Café, washed it down with a few beers at the pub, then repaired to an excellent exhibition of country scenes by young Greg Postle at Neil and Kaye Cathro’s Lasting Impressions Gallery. This time, Trev and the missus were on a much less culturally-inclined sojourn when suddenly the metropolis named after possibly the worst romantic novel written in the 19th century (Sir Walter Scott really was a Wally) loomed ahead.
Look, it was tucker time, no mistake about that, but after one pass down the surprisingly busy main drag, Trev was inclined to grab a pie from the bakery and a couple of beers and sit by the Mary River. No such luck. She who must be obeyed had spotted Nanna McGinn’s in a pretty tongue and groove cottage – everything on Kenno’s Elizabeth Street is a tongue and groove cottage – and while I searched for a parking spot, she Googled madly to get the skinny on Nanna.
“Well, here we go then,” she said. “Jack McGinn and his brother Alex both selected land not far from town in the 1890s, and by the 1920s the McGinn’s had a shop on the main street. Not sure if it was a café.” If it was, Trev replied drolly, Nanna might be a bit long in the tooth to still be cooking the waffles.
As it turned out, the current management had only been around a dozen or so years, but Nanna’s shingle still swung in the breeze and we liked to think that her spirit lived on in the kitchen. Certainly, she’d be happy with the relaxed ambience of the long terrace where our table for two offered an island of tranquillity and a spectacular street view as Covid-crazed tourists, bored out of their gourds, jockeyed for pavement space. Such is a sunny Saturday in a country town in these crazy times.
Enough landscape painting, Trevor, cut to the chase!
We ordered a bottle of the house chardonnay ($25, no name, no pack drill) to sip while we surveyed the surprisingly busy menu. Okay, Nanna’s is strictly snack-land, but there is plenty to pique the interest. Trevor went for the pumpkin haloumi salad ($22) – plenty of grilled haloumi, served in a splendid salad of warm pumpkin pieces, pine nuts, fetta, olives and chorizo (a $2 extra) on a bed of greens with red wine vinaigrette. This was a perfect lunch-sized dish, the elements distinctive yet blended well.
Now we know haloumi is not that good for you, full of saturated fat, high on calories and so on, but Trev’s golden rule is, when you go bad, go hard, so adding the high-fat, high-sodium chorizo was a given. And it was delicious.
The missus also went to the wild side a bit, opting for the supreme melt ($18) – chicken, bacon, aioli, avocado, sundried tomato and Swiss cheese. Although I was flat out finishing the salad, I snuck a taste, and concurred with the better half that it was a little on the bland side, but quite acceptable.
The verdict: Less than an hour from Hastings Street, this is good, honest country tucker, well worth the pleasant drive. And the haloumi salad was just a little bit special.
Nanna McGinn’s Café, 11 Elizabeth St, Kenilworth. Phone 5446 0025.
