Sitting out front in the morning sun on a Sydney weekday at Superfreak, it’s easy to remember – and savour – the café culture of the city’s inner west. Indeed, the busy stream of customers stopping by for both a seat inside and takeaway orders speaks to the deep demand for what feels like a rooted neighbourhood café.
Located on Enmore Road in Marrickville, Superfreak is opposite a popular park and set within what used to be the well-known Serendipity ice cream factory. Owner Michael Ico speaks about how the vision for Superfreak involved a focus on healthy food when describing the drive and vision behind the project.
With its prominent street frontage, the first noticeable feature of the design is the choice of colour for the exterior. This rich green receives the morning eastern sunlight beautifully and sets the scene for the interior palette. Inside, the café has a “lounge-like ambience” thanks to touches of cork and avocado greens, while custom-printed retro curtains featuring matching pea greens and browns provide shade.
YSG’s design began by gutting the interior space and effectively starting over. The internal dining area is relatively compact, and a key success of the design is smart use of limited space. The entry threshold, featuring a striking Wonka-esque lamp by American artist Autumn Casey, is delineated by placing the working area on one side and dining on the other; everything is visible in Superfreak, but subtle floor plan distinctions allow for a demarcation of different spaces. As such, the sunken dining area takes on a cosiness, with a vinyl record-player providing a finishing touch. Similarly, there are also small moves to add concealment and privacy for the open kitchen, such as extending a solid timber privacy screen above the counter’s surface.
The walls and ceiling in this main dining area are lacquered in a mellow buttery yellow, while the ceiling of the service and counter area is rendered in a high gloss ‘fresh veggie’ green. The colour and texture palette as a whole is designed to resonate with dappled sunlight and shade. Spongey caramel-hued sealed cork, for example, is laid underfoot, while layered toffee-shaded Maple timber joinery is another notable aspect throughout the design.
Providing a further cosy and even surreal touch, the banquette seating and counter face are clad in carpet. Like so many other small but significant moments in YSG’s design, they combine to create a space that feels welcoming, yet distinctive. Vintage timber dining chairs sourced from 1st Dibs add to the ambience, part of a composition that makes use of both highly customised elements and vintage finds. Local makers, Think Positive, were also commissioned to create a silk-striped fabric that functions as a screen that can be raised to enable DJs to operate transportable decks.
Other eclectic, even nostalgic pieces of the overall puzzle include an abstract leafy garden landscape mural painted across concealed storage and refrigeration by long-term YSG collaborators, Creative Finish, as well as custom tiny cushions crafted from vintage Japanese fabrics from Chee Soon & Fitzgerald with raw-stitched edges. A suspended artwork in the shape of a fan by Venezuelan-Australian artist, Nadia Hernández, that declares ‘DESTINO’ (DESTINY) offers an exciting focal point, while rice paper lanterns, a vintage sconce paired with a directional Olivia Bossy wall light, and a large vase sprouting verdant snow peas and a kitsch vintage Italian ceramic tower of lemons also feature. Finally, artworks such as ‘Custard Apple and Pink Basket’ and ‘bánh mi roll’ by local artist, Mechelle Bounpraseuth, round out the treasures.
Superfreak is indeed a den of delight that punches well above its weight. The sumptuous design led by YSG packs a lot into a small space, achieving a sense of community, eclecticism and convivial warmth.
