Lunch review: Hey Jupiter
To sell more than 28,000 sandwiches in three years, you must be doing something right.
The Berkshire pork belly sandwich is the flagship menu item for Hey Jupiter owners Christophe Zauner and Jacqueline Lodge, who say it sells out by about 2pm each day.
The pair opened their small café with a distinctly French feel in Ebenezer Place in 2012.
“When we started, there wasn’t much here, but we like that there are a lot of people doing things in the East End,” says Zauner, who is from France but has come to call Adelaide home.
“It’s good that so much is happening.”
Zauner and Lodge (pictured above) are an energetic couple used to facing challenges together: they have travelled extensively through Europe and rode all around Australia on bicycles five years ago.
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“This was so we could get used to being with each other every minute of every day,” Zauner says, laughing.
“It’s hard work, the café. We work hard; we are here seven days a week together.”
During the busy lunch-time trade, the couple and their team are flat-out.
The Hey Jupiter lunch menu is based around some small plates and a variety of sandwiches, which can also be served as salads, without the bread.
Favourite dish: The roasted Berkshire pork belly roll with cumin-spiced slaw and Italian parsley ($14.50). Hey Jupiter’s flagship sandwich is served on a Skala bakery soft roll with mildly spiced and creamy slaw. The pork is what sells this roll – the salty skin is super-crispy, the meat is soft and it’s cooked to perfection. All the quality ingredients make it an amazing fresh and generous sandwich.
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Zauner and Lodge roast their own Berkshire pork every day in their small kitchen and have sold nearly three tonnes of pork since the café opened.
Other dishes: Hey Jupiter also sells a range of other sandwiches, from roast beetroot and goats curd to salmon and wasabi mayo.
The more adventurous can try French specialties, such as a frisee salad with apples, walnuts and roquefort dressing, or escargot in puff pastry with garlic butter and parsley puree ($12.50). This writer was tempted to try snails for the first time: they had absorbed the garlic and butter, with a nice mushroom-like texture.
Something sweet / to drink: The dessert cabinet is delightfully old-fashioned in its offerings. All the pastries and desserts are made on site, including chocolate and lemon tarts, almond and chocolate croissants, and traditional Madeleines.
Hey Jupiter serves Five Senses coffee in its own custom blend, as well as Proud Mary single-origin coffees. The café is licensed, offering a range of French wines.
Hey Jupiter
11 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide
Open Monday-Thursday, 7am-5pm; Friday, 7am-7.30pm; Saturday, 8am-4pm
