Jimmy Barry has rebranded Gilles Street café Sibling, into a coffee-centric, foodie friendly and aesthetically pleasing coffee spot.
Jimmy Barry wants to set the record straight: his Gilles Street baby, Paddy Barry’s, is a ‘coffee spot’ not a ‘café’.
“It’s more of a hangout,” Jimmy says.
“Somewhere you… come in, sit down, take your time, hang out with your friends, enjoy the sun, enjoy the music — that’s what I feel like a coffee spot is.”
The team roast their own coffee out the back, using South American beans for clean, bright flavours.
The experienced hospo worker says the pathway to roasting his own beans has been “a natural progression”.
“I’ve been working as a barista for a long time [at a] number of different cafés,” Jimmy says.
“If you want to make a career out of it, the steps are: you open your own business, and then start getting into roasting as well.
“I was always pretty interested in that — getting something different instead of just being Front of House, working behind a coffee machine. It’s another layer.”
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Cawfee
So, when Jimmy bought Gilles Street café Sibling in April 2021, he always had a vision for where it could go.
Jimmy decided to rebrand to Paddy Barry’s in March this year, to complete his city coffee stop vision.
“I’d always intended to change it because it was someone else’s brand, someone else’s vision, idea. I’d always wanted to make it a bit more personal,” Jimmy says.
“I was really slowly changing things like the menu, our coffee offering — just small things like that.
“Then when the time came and I was like ‘oh, we’re ready to rebrand now’, it wasn’t such a big shock.”
Part of the Barry offering
Sibling’s offering “was almost entirely vegan”. When Jimmy took over he wanted to change this because it didn’t make sense for them.
“[Sibling] had a couple of things like eggs and cream cheese, and I think otherwise that was it,” Jimmy says.
“That was one of those things when I took over. I didn’t want to scare everyone away by too many changes, so our menu is still very vegan friendly.
“You know, lots of gluten free options, lots of vegan options — but they’re options. A lot of them start off not vegan, but we will have a good substitute ingredient.”
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The menu now follows a “brunchy” structure.
“We do have some sandwiches, some toasties — we have sandwich specials every weekend,” Jimmy says.
The most popular is the cauliflower toastie, pictured below. It’s filled with spiced cauliflower, béchamel sauce, bread and butter pickles, cheese and caramelised onions.
“[It] has a bit of a cult following — a lot of people have it once and they keep coming back,” Jimmy says. “Which is funny because we never thought, it was just a toastie! [We said] we’ll chuck it on as like an easy takeaway option, but people love it.”
This toastie has a stronger following than you
Paddy Barry’s is a place for people watching and self pondering.
The interiors are minimalistic, with open sliding doors complementing the white walls, giving the place a bright, fresh outlook into the Gilles pathway.
“We’ve got some really nice artwork on the wall that was painted by Pia [Gynell-Jorgensen] — she’s one of our cooks here. And Thomas McCammon photos as well,” Jimmy says.
The minimalistic branding was inspired by German artist Stefan Matx and contributes to the casual vibe of the coffee spot.
Hospitality has always been in Jimmy’s blood and the Paddy Barry’s name is a tip to family.
“We’ve got relatives who own a bakery in Ireland so it’s a bit of an ode to them and just our family’s heritage,” Jimmy says.
“That bakery was under Barry’s Bakery… so I just added Paddy partly because it so happens that the bakery was opened by a Paddy Barry — my grandad was Patrick.”
Paddy Barry’s is located at 96 Gilles Street, Adelaide and is open from 7:30am until 3pm on weekdays, and 9am until 2pm on weekends.
Connect with the business on Instagram for more.
Artwork by Pia Gynell-Jorgensen
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