Ellen & Rod

Ellen & Rod is a cool cottage cafe in the heart of Ipswich serving top-notch coffee, breakfast, lunch and sweets.   

Replacing popular coffee haunt Smith, new owners Jolie Beckett and Pete Tate, have created a warm, relaxing space where customers can soak up the sunshine on the footpath or sit inside the tiny café.  

The excellent coffee on pour is the café’s trademark True Grit, roasted by Jolie, and currently only available here and online. It goes down a treat with Pete’s banana and nutella bread, baked fresh daily.  

Breakfast fare, available until 11am on weekdays and all day on weekends, ranges from homemade granola and hinterland bacon with free range eggs to breakfast burgers (bacon, fried egg, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and beetroot relish) and buttered mushrooms with thyme on toast. Shakshuka is the stand out dish though - a spicy Middle Eastern breakfast of vine-ripened tomatoes baked with egg and served with pumpkin sourdough.

Lunch, available from 11-2 weekdays only, includes classic BLT’s, steak burgers, smoked salmon bagels with dill cream, baby spinach and capers and slow cooked Darling Downs pork on toasted milk bun.

Nice to know – Ellen & Rod prides itself on using fresh, local produce including Scenic Rim milk.

By Deb Lidster

And, for more great things to see and do in Ipswich, visit Discover Ipswich HERE.

The menu may have changed since our visit.