DOVETAIL ON OVEREND -NORMAN PARK, QLD

{ A beautiful space for locals to connect, enjoy unique specialty coffee, tea and hot chocolate complemented by healthy and delicious food and desserts. }

You know you’re in safe hands when the café owner is coeliac.

That’s why gluten-free diners are flocking to Dovetail on Overend, a hole in the wall coffee house nestled just outside of Brisbane’s CBD.

Named by Beanhunter as one of Brisbane’s Top Cafes in 2014, the café serves award-winning coffee and delightful brunches. All of the desserts are gluten free, while dairy-free and vegan options are available.

The pretty-as-a-picture café is a dream come true for coeliac Adam Thomson and his wife Rejoice, who shared a vision for providing a friendly, safe and welcoming dining experience for the gluten free.

“We both immediately fell in love with the site we chose for Dovetail. It’s such a picturesque and tranquil location, set right in the middle of one of Brisbane’s most beautiful suburbs.

“Although we are only a few minutes from the CBD, we aren’t located in a busy commercial district. So we knew we had to create a unique destination café with deep ties to our local community.”

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Proving his commitment to coeliac safety, Adam has assigned exclusive gluten-free zones in the kitchen and staff are trained in allergy awareness.

Best of all, Dovetail on Overend promises never to charge extra for gluten-free options.

“Being coeliac myself, I have a deep understanding of all the challenges people like me are faced with when eating out,” says Adam.

“There have been so many times I paid extra for a smaller and lesser quality dish, or ended up feeling unwell. I knew we could do much better.”

Diners are treated to an inviting alfresco area and communal bench, which has set the scene for new friendships, rekindling old ones and even forming mothers’ groups over a coffee, or two.

The signature dish ‘Dovetail Supreme’ is an epic combination of Baked Eggs #7, two free range eggs baked on a beef chilli con carne base with goats cheese, topped with the house Caponata Siciliana, a mix of grilled eggplant, capsicum and caramelised onion, and two slices of toasted gluten-free pumpkin bread. For something lighter there’s the Avocado with Goats Cheese and Dukkah on Gluten Free Toast. No visit to Dovetail is complete without an Uncle Joe’s coffee. The 1+1, an espresso and a piccolo, come highly recommended, with milk options including local A2 dairy, lactose free, soy and almond. And be sure to leave room for dessert, with offerings like gluten-free Nodo Donuts and Rejoice’s own baked goods.

It’s a long road from Adam’s former career in IT. Perhaps those long hours at a computer screen were to blame, but a few years ago he found himself thinking about coffee around the clock.

“I started doing cafe reviews both for my own research and because I felt there was an opportunity to contribute to the local specialty coffee movement. I also got to know a lot of people in the scene during that time, and felt a connection with them.

“At the same time Rejoice had taken baking from a hobby to a serious passion. In 2012, things just fell into place and I felt the time was right to walk away from IT to focus 100% on coffee.”

Adam says the experience of working at Uncle Joe’s Coffee House made him extremely passionate about the coffee he serves up at Dovetail.

“Our local roaster, who is also a long-time friend, is also quite humble in his approach. He still comes and washes our dishes sometimes,” laughs Adam.

“It’s fair to say Uncle Joe’s is definitely one of the most talked about coffee roasters in the country right now, having won some pretty significant awards in the last 12 months.”

But as every food lover knows, great food and coffee are only one part of the equation. Customer service is essential to complete the package.

“Rejoice and I have also been fortunate to have attracted such a customer-focused and talented team, and it’s one of the main reasons we were recently named by Beanhunter as one of Brisbane’s Top Cafes in 2014,” says Adam.

“Any café owner will tell you how important it is to have the right team, and ours is like a big family.”