For nigh on two years, a slap up Saturday breakfast at Goodness Gracious has been our favourite way to top off an early morning amble round the markets - the perfect way to cut ourselves into that weekend groove. Down a little side street behind the pub, the good people of Goodness Gracious - Sandee Burnell and Steven Mahoney - have created cafe nirvana.


So, how do you create cafe nirvana? Here follows a step-by-step guide, with photos.

1. Ambient Atmosphere
Comfy-cosy, laid-back, unpretentious and bursting with soul - Goodness Gracious has it all. It's the home you want to be at when you're not at home. Well it is, after all, in a house - a nana and pop post-war bungalow complete with yawning casement windows; shady backyard sprinkled with ferns, geraniums and other old school horticulture; and a pocket hankie-sized porch piled with cushions, vintage tableware and the papers. (Best spot in the house. You need to rock up early - pre 7:30 am - to snaffle it!)


2. Originality
Everything about this wonderful place is an expression of its imaginative owners: their interests and passions, their keen eye for detail, their sense of nostalgia and wry humour, their blatant joy in gathering the quirky and the kitsch.


Should that cute porch be occupied, there's still a fine choice of dining nooks and crannies - indoors and out. Settle back in this sunny sitting room. Browse the vintage wares whilst you await your order. Snap up some original gifts - yep, just about everything is for sale!


Real collectors are not just bowerbirds but curators - relentlessly sorting, grouping, arranging - drawing the eye to the beauty in the banal.


3. Good People and True
They certainly are. No "cafe attitudes" here. (Know what I mean?) Always happy to see you. Always buzzing. You can't help but love people who love what they do. Look at Steve pumping that machine. He can pour a hearty mug of coffee - a "bucket" even - without losing any integrity of flavour. What a triumph.

4. Food Excellence
Do the words 'gluten free' have you in reverse gear? Ready to plead guilty of intolerance towards food intolerance? Swallowed enough lumpen slabs of almond meal masquerading as cake? Fear not! The food here is scrumptious - and just happens to be gluten free. Every cake, tart and muffin is baked in-house - including the fruit bread (and it makes such heavenly, sticky rich toast).
And the menu? From the retro to the nouveau - from baked beans to quinoa porridge to berry pancakes to okonomiyaki (Japanese omelette) - Goodness Gracious put their clever, inimitable twist on it all.
The hash brown they have completely reinvented.


And finally - joyfully - a place that honours both the herbivore and the carnivore. Finally, a place that understands those who relish their vegies as much as their meat. And at Goodness Gracious they really know how to cook vegies to perfection, to bring out that deliciously jammy, toffee-taste explosion when natural sugars caramelise.
Slow roasted pumpkin and crispy bacon? Oh mercy!


And savoured round a vintage laminex table on a fine Yandina morning? Cafe nirvana.

Goodness Gracious Organic Cafe
3 Conn Street Yandina
5446 8444
Closed Sundays