Wild Thyme, Cairns
This week I found myself having a Wild Thyme at breakfast. Wild Thyme is a self confessed “funky little cafe” providing a range of breakfast, lunch and grab ’n’ go options. This Shield Street venue is blessed with ample outdoor seating and that ultimate drawcard in the summer in the tropics, full air conditioning. The menu has it quirks and interpretations but has its core in a solid base of breakfast, brunch and lunch favourites. Particularly of note are the Mexican beans, which come with guac, pickled chilli peppers, smoked tablelands bacon and a fried egg, and there is an option to add a chorizo too, which I personally can recommend. From the lunch menu I can also recommend the crispy fish tacos, these come with healthy slug of tangy slaw, a jalapeño salsa and some delightful barramundi fillets along with the usual bits and bobs.
For breakfast the coffee is excellent, they are currently grinding Ransom, a locally roasted brand strong enough for mornings and mellow enough for lunch, and there is a limited wine list and cocktails on offer for those not on a school day outing. So this little eatery has all the hallmarks of a great cafe, but dig a little deeper and there is another dimension to this clean and tidy venue. The whole place is owned and backed by National Job Link and designed, quite delightfully as a social enterprise, putting back into the community through providing meals for the homeless (all distributed and delivered by Rosies outreach) and operating as an RTO helping train people into or back to the workplace in catering and hospitality.
Trainees work along side the highly professional staff so they can get a real feel for what is involved. It is rare to see social enterprise that doesn’t falter at some stage of the process, but Wild Thyme really do seem to have perfected the formula.
Not only is this a great place to hide from the heat, get a quick (or extended) bite but also it has conscience and higher purpose, this is unusual, inspirational and, perhaps most importantly, tasty - I heartily recommend it.
41 Shields Street, Cairns
