“Dinner parties do combine two of our favourite things: dinner and parties. It’s like if you could have an Xbox pancake.” Andy, Parks and Recreation.
I had an “Xbox pancake” moment when we walked by My Sweet Memory in the city yesterday.
Amy and I had finished a great, slightly zany dinner at Chefs Gallery (surprisingly, even this Taiwanese mainstay has gone “dude food” and added tacos and mini burgers to the menu; we stuck to mid-level eccentric choices – the cheese-and-mushroom roti, fried buns with condensed milk, etc, instead.) We then detoured to see some of the hide-and-seek installations tucked in laneways for Art & About and were looping back to do the Sugar Hit at Azuma Kushiyaki when we saw the shopfront for this week-old eatery.
The sign described My Sweet Memory as a cafe specialising in desserts and stationery.
Wow, it was like someone had worked out two of my most favourite things in the world with safe-cracking accuracy and then conveniently merged the two under one roof. Xbox pancake, indeed.
This place not only comes across as a bad influence regarding sweet tooth and card-and-notebook-buying habits, it also sells socks (!), which given my ability to hopelessly drop way too much money on knee-highs and ankle-lengths, is freakishly on-mark that I wonder if I’ve accidentally incepted someone’s brain into making this business happen.
So, the reality is not as dramatic as anything Christopher Nolan would come up with – as I found out when I revisited the cafe properly. Its menu is small and simple (sandwiches, quiches and standard-issue sweets like macarons, friands, etc); what stands out is the fact My Sweet Memory is one of the few places to sell pralines from Kakawa, the best chocolate shop in Sydney. In fact, there’s a museum-like display reserved for the Raspberry and Mint Crisp, Roasted Banana, Yuzu, Sea Salt Caramel, Peanut Butter Triangles and other handmade creations.
The beverages are vintage Chinatown (think green tea lattes, loopy fruit-drink combinations, gelato shakes, etc) and all the notebooks, decorative masking tapes, rustic boxes of rubber stamps, Polaroid cards and post-its have Asian origins, too. I think they’re all from Korea – which is in a title fight with Japan at the moment for “most awesome stationery on the planet” status. The cafe also sells shoes, which is a bit harder to explain – but that’s part of the kooky charm of My Sweet Memory. It’s quite fun and will probably tide me over until someone works out how to merge Ito-ya (Tokyo’s famous nine-level card/journal/stamp-buying heaven) with Black Star Pastry – that’s a desserts and stationery cafe I’d kill/incept for.
My Sweet Memory, 95 Bathurst St, Sydney NSW (02) 8971 7465, www.mysweetmemory.com.au There’s already a branch at 12 Churchill Ave, Strathfield and one opening soon in Chatswood.
Tags: Chatswood, Foodies' Guide To Sydney, My Sweet Memory, stationery, Strathfield
I can’t believe My Sweet Memory highjacked your post of Sugar hit! Haha. I’m looking forward to trying that frosty green tea frappe I saw the other night. Hope you managed to score some cute socks when you went back 🙂
Ohhhh I just got back home (Melbourne) from a week away in Sydney, and stumbled across MSM on my first day there – it was about a minute walk from our accommodation! Absolutely fell in love with it, it’s the most gorgeous little shop!! And yes, the socks, so cute!
Their hot chocolate is amazing, you must try it!