Lynwood Cafe

Yesterday afternoon we paid a visit to the well-regarded Lynwood Cafe, just off the Federal Highway in the small hamlet of Collector, at the northern end of Lake George. On a sunny winter's day, with the blue sky, yellow tussock lands, neighbouring creek, aged leaf-less trees, and restored white colonial cottage, it's all bit of a contemporary Australian-Arcadia.

As an Arcadia, from this and previous visits, it is one populated primarily by upper-middle class baby boomers on their way between Canberra and Sydney. By way of example, a waitress asked the three couples in the small room we were sitting in, if we had seen the National Gallery of Australia's recent Monet-Turner exhibition. One of the couple said they had just come down to see it yesterday...

For the most part, the Lynwood Cafe does a good job reflecting this certain demographic - comfortable, visibly successful in worldly affairs, but not too flashy. Cream it most certainly is not. One absolute strength of the place is the service - which was friendly without a hint of ingratiation or world-weariness. Funnily enough, our only quibble was with the food. While the basil, tomato, and onion semolina gnocchi we ordered was delicious (with a tangy smokey flavour), the gorgonzola and mushroom risotto was a bit average (Chats at the ANU, does a much better and cheaper job). Like its upper-middle- class clientele though, such a flaw did not seem to much damage its general projections of overall authenticity and deserved esteem.