ABOUT US

Cornersmith owners and staff

Cornersmith is a a family run business. We have a cafe, a cooking school and cookbooks. At the heart of everything we do is a desire to build community through ethical food choices, education and sustainable business practice.

WHAT WE ARE ABOUT

  • BUILDING COMMUNITY
  • REDUCING WASTE
  • SEASONAL FOOD
  • FOOD EDUCATION
  • TRADING
  • BUYING LOCAL

 

WHO WE ARE

Cornersmith's Alex Elliott-Howery started out pickling excess fruit from neighbourhood trees

We first started thinking about opening a café when our kids were very little. Probably having the same fantasies a lot of people do about working for yourself and creating the kind of local cafe you wish was on your street.

James had moved from a background in permaculture and had been working in the coffee industry and felt like he was ready to have his own place. At the time Alex was home with little kids, getting deep into food ethics, eating seasonally, cooking from scratch, reducing food waste and discovering her obsessive love for pickling.

She noticed the neighbourhood backyard trees laden with fruit and decided to take on the excess citrus, mulberries and figs. Knocking on neighbours doors, she began picking the abundance of fruit and taking it home to bottle, always dropping a jar back the grower.

The word spread around the neighbourhood and parcels of homegrown produce started appearing on her doorstep.

We decided to put our heads together combining our interests in gardening, good home cooking, coffee, preserving and our love of urban community, to begin our own family business. We opened the doors of Cornersmith in 2012 on a street corner Marrickville serving great tasting food and coffee, plenty of pickles and launched our trading program, where locals could bring in their excess home grown produce.

As Cornersmith grows, we are determined to keep their original ethos alive. We hope to inspire people to make more things at home, to think about where their food comes from, to understand the seasons and most importantly to make meaningful connections with their communities.

 

COLLABORATIONS

We’re always looking for great businesses and individuals to collaborate with. If you would like to work with us, get in touch with your idea.

OUR COOKBOOKS

Cornersmith's original cookbook Cornersmith salads and pickles cookbook  Cornersmith cookbook Use It All