Nordie Cafe

Open since November 2017, Tom Portet and wife Rina established Nordie Cafe as a warm, inviting and uniquely Scandinavian destination in Red Hill. You’ll find it easily among the other shops with its dark facade and green benches. Just two doors down is their other venture, Red Hill Wine Collective, featuring 300 of the best curated wines from Australia and beyond.

The combination of dark facade and light interior are indicative of the Nordic inspired food to choose from. Their menu boasts the cafe classics as well as choices less familiar; you can try Smørrebrød, an open rye sandwich, or the Copenhagen hotdog, a locally-made bratwurst with all the embellishments. Nordie’s evolution has been quite dramatic, not in ethos but in offering. “We probably changed our menu everyday when we first opened, and then every month," Tom says, "Now we’ve just settled on a really nice winter menu”. It’s this constant revision that makes Nordie one to remember among the wine country of the Peninsula.

The perfect place for a breakfast date, casual lunch or afternoon pick-me-up, Nordie also makes available goods from their mini-mart and a selection of HAY furniture and other small goods for purchase. The kids aren’t left out of the fun with a courtyard garden and cubby house out the back ready to entertain them. Enjoy a wine from two doors down in the sunshine or settle in for a long lunch at the communal table, each spot has its own charm.

Tom describes the daily Nordie crowd as “extremely local”, seeing a lot of the same faces on weekdays, as opposed to the many curious visitors come the weekend. Whether you’re a Red Hill local or just down for the day, Nordie hits the spot for anyone seeking something a little different.