The Owl & The Elephant

Let me tell you a story, don’t worry, it’s a pop-​up. Pop-​ups are fun!
There’s this little town in the Adelaide Hills called Uraidla. It’s closer to the city than Bridgewater, prettier than Lobethal and has a better football team than Crafers, Stirling and Aldgate combined. It’s also as cold as any of them. One other thing Uraidla has is a few empty shops, well at least that was the case until recently, when the Owl and The Elephant opened.
The building The Owl and The Elephant moved into was a shop front of a disused light industrial building, which was owned by the bank. It’s the sort of pop-​up story you’re more likely to hear in a cool, semi redeveloped inner city suburb, not a quiet rural country town.
Not long after opening visitors and locals alike slowly got on board, liking the idea of a café in the main st (something that hasn’t been seen in Uraidla in many many years). After a little while The Owl’s famous events began popping up. The Italian and French nights are the two I’ve been to, both were lovely evenings under the beautiful liquidamber trees of the main street.
In the cold of the Hills winter, trade drops off a bit leading to reduced opening hours at the café. However having a small warm place to enjoy a coffee and a brownie has definitely become a huge feature of the town. You never know who you’re gonna bump into there.
I’m looking forward to more brownies, breakfasts and hopefully more events in the months to come. Thank you Owl and Elephant, see you soon.

This cool little café in Uraidla really serves up some nice grub. I’ve only been there once, however I will definitely be back. We just moved to the area, so this is our closest café to home which could make me a bit biased, but the great thing is that the food is good, organic or free range and locally sourced.
I lived around the area about 15 years ago, but moved to the burbs and then other parts of the hills before returning to what I consider the real hills. It would be great to see Uraidla and Summertown come back to life, with new businesses opening. I am going to support this little place and hope that it stays open and encourages others to do the same.
The food we ordered were a couple of breakfasts. I had the simple poached eggs with bacon, tomato and mushrooms. The eggs were perfectly cooked, which isn’t the case at a lot of cafés, and the coffee was strong, not too bitter and nicely hot and tasty. The prices were also very reasonable and good value for money.

Well isn’t this a surprise. Uraidla has been a little quiet over the years after the pub and some restaurants had closed down. I have always thought it is a shame. It is a really beautiful little community of people and a gorgeous setting. Well worth stopping to check out rather than passing through.
And then Owl and Elephant opened its lovely doors. I heard rumours of it from some hills folk. A couple had mentioned that I needed to go try out a brekkie there. And I am glad that I have.
This lovely little café offers seasonal and locally produced food. I had a chat to the storeowner and she explained that all of her produce is selected very carefully from organic and free-​range local producers. That is just a true representation of Adelaide Hills mentality. The community supports each other.
The set up of the store is feels vintage and homely. Somewhat like a 70s styled home with a beautiful old record player in the middle of the store. The furniture has been well restored and adds to the charm.
I ordered a big mug of coffee and avocado on toast with poached eggs and feta. It came from the kitchen really fast and was really fulfilling. The poached egg was cooked very well and perfectly avocado was seasoned. I loved the addition of the feta cheese, it added some acidity and extra flavour.
This café is a really important asset to Uraidla. It will assist in bringing people to the town and increase interest in it. I love it and I look forward to my next visit!

I stopped in here the other day for lunch and a coffee, it’s the cutest little café, full of up-​cycled furniture, a vintage (working) radiogram, fantastic wall art and comfy sofas. I had the pulled pork sandwich with cherry chutney in a turkish bread roll with salad and a flat white, all of which I would easily have all over again tomorrow. Great place, great service and great food, highly recommend for a light lunch and a catch up spot!

I visited the Elephant and Owl today and ordered the tempting Choriso Wrap and a Roast Pumpkin salad without chicken. My idea of Choriso is a spicey sausage about 25 mm or more in diameter and about 100 mm or more long, generally oozing paprica goodness and smelling like a tapas bar. The offering that arrived was a flacid wrap around a minute portion of salad and two shavings of a choriso sausage that would not have added up to the size of half a pencil. Very dissapointing. The salad was vaguely better with two pieces of whithered pumpkin, a sprinkling of wallnuts, and vague evidence that some one had walked past the plate with some fetta in their hand. All this on a bed of mizuna and a minimum dressing leaving the effect looking dry and unappetising. True, the part of the salad that had all the ingredients colliding was most edible even nice, there just was not enough of it. If I see choriso on a menu again for $ 10 I will certainly ask to see it before ordering it. Coffee was OK, not great. Sadly the hole in my belly was bigger than that hole in my wallet. $ 25 to walk out hungry is not my idea of lunch. Sad really, Elephant and Owl has all the right ingredients. Looks relaxed and inviting but needs to realise that people go there to be fed. I hope to hear better reports in future.

Relaxing, great food, awesome service. We’ve found our new local breakfast hangout. Avocado and poached eggs was perfect as was the vegan version with lots of delicious greens and tomato. Nice relaxing place to sit and read the paper.

Had a delicious breakfast there this morning — rye bread topped with home made ricotta and poached rhubarb. Can thoroughly recommend. Excellent stop for cyclists to refuel.

A lovely little pop-​up café, The Owl and The Elephant is filling a much needed void in this small hills town!
Temporarily located in one of the stores in the main street of Uraidla, the quirky name and funky décor of this sweet little café make it worth a stop it. Demonstrating some awesome use of space and short term furnishing the café offers a range of tasty treats and snacks, with seating indoors, as well as outside.
Although not the most amazing hot chocolate I’ve ever had (and yeah, my standards are high) the one here is pretty good — and top marks for using delicious Paris Creek milk too! The brownies are delicious — they may not look too exciting but boy are they worth the calories! I’m yet to try other food selections, but I hear rumors that they are pretty good!
My favourite thing about The Owl and The Elephant (apart from the adorable name) is the retro record player, constantly playing some sweet tunes. Pop on by if you’re in the area — or even make your way up for a weekend adventure — you won’t be sorry!

New pop up café in the main street of Uraidla. Very comfortable homely feel inside even though from the outside doesn’t look much.
I tried the coffee and a brownie to go with it and both were excellent. They offer a different soup usually made with fresh local ingredients every day served with turkish bread also made locally and toasted sandwiches with a small selections of cakes.
Opening on the weekend would be a benefit for the town. Hopefully will be well supported by everyone so we keep it going:-)
They even have an old working record player pumping out some tunes!