A week after Paramount Coffee Project opened in Surry Hills, I had an opportunity to check it out with my mate DD. My first visit was at lunch time. As it was only a week old then, it was not flooded with people yet. I loved the wide open space of the interior when I stepped in. It was larger than I anticipated but quite cool actually! There were a few bicycles stacked at the rear wall and it reminded of the bikes I saw when I was at Seven Seeds in Melbourne last year. Not surprising since this project is a joint one between Mark Dundon of Seven Seeds and Russell Beard of Reuben Hills.
And I liked the separate coffee station where serious coffee aficionados can hang out.
I had the Double Fried Chicken which was a spicy coated fillet with house slaw and creole relish. The chicken was tasty and I liked the slight kick in the relish. The only thing I found wanting was I would have liked the chicken to be crunchier. But the flavours were certainly there.
DD had the Joey chestnut which was a wiener with mustard, ketchup, cheddar, onion jam on milk bun hot dog. In other words, an upmarket version of the very American hot dog. DD also ordered some pickles with it. I had a bite of the hot dog just so I could taste the flavours and textures. The wiener was really good, there was a nice bite to it. The only thing we found wanting was the texture of the bun. It wasn't as soft as we had expected. It was actually quite dry. Maybe the bun was toasted too long. But that diminished the other good things about the hot dog. But I have been reading other blogs since then, some of whom had the hot dog and there were comments on how soft the bun was. So I take it as an anomaly that DD was not lucky enough with his hot dog bun.
