As I continue to eat and drink my way around the Canton burb of Cardiff, I noted that Hardlines (with a cafe in said burb) had recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Bearing in mind the shitshow for hospitality and retail that has occurred since 2016 this is no mean feat. Doesn’t make them old enough to have an Itsagramaaaaazing account mind, but only another 6 more years to “reel” in.
As a result I thought lunch at this place was in order and thus I sojourned down to Cowbridge Road East (for non UK readers think of it as Cardiff’s Avenue des Champs-Élysées/Fifth Avenue/Magnificent Mile – there is a hell of a lot of tongue in cheek in pthat).
Before I get to Hardline it would not be me if I didn’t go off on a bit of a tangent (usually a moan) and this one relates to parking.
Times are hard enough without the powers that be adding even more to the travails of small business (including retail and hospitality) and, with that in mind, you use to be able to park in the Canton carparks for free for an hour (enough time for a bit of shopping and a coffee or a spot of lunch).
Cardiff Council have, however, in their infinite wisdom limited this to 30 mins (not enough to do anything meaningful) and thus seem to have adopted a “If you bill them for it they won’t come” approach to boosting footfall for the beleaguered retail and hospitality sector (oddly to the seeming benefit of the out of town conglomerates, such as Tescos and the drive through coffee people, at the expense of indies). I, thus, either had to pay to park (which I was prepared to swallow but I suspect operates to drive footfall off the high street and into the arms of the out of town conglomerates) or drive around for ages looking for a fee free spot on the road (yes I am that miserly).
Ok it isn’t (in the grand scheme of things) that much, but there is bound to be a steady creeping up of charges applied (and probably in no time at all the free time period with be reduced to 15 mins and then probably to zero). I mean income tax was meant to be a temporary thing to fund the Napoleonic wars and look where we are now!
To me the battle between indies and the big boys is already very much a David versus Goliath contest and, in this instance, the rationale seems to be that it would be fairer to tie both of 5ft 4″ David’s arms behind his back, kneecap him and then kick him in the balls so as to “level it up a bit” for 9ft tall Goliath. I really dont get what was wrong with the first hour is free approach, other than it didn’t operate to rinse yet more cash out of the public.
Somewhat peeved at the parking position (as ever the nearest ticket machine wasn’t working, which begs question as to what the “extra” money is actually being spaffed on), I was looking forward to a restorative spot of lunch to soothe the parking payment pain.
So back to Hardlines Cafe, the menu centres on an Americana style breakfast offering,
with lots of interest to the likes of me (not a smashed avo, praise the Lord, in sight).
The menu does lead me to another (there are oh so many) bugbear of mine, which is out of date menus on websites.
The one here on the website is priced rather differently from the one on the table (Big Diner Breakfast is £12.50 in the on line version and £13.50 in reality). I am an absolute dunce when it comes to IT, but I assume it isn’t that tricky to upload a picture of the latest menu as and when it changes (especially when there are pretty much across the board price increases)?
Back to what to eat, on top of the breakfast mainstays, they also offer a limited number of lunchtime specials
and it was these I was rather drawn towards.
Whilst the cornbread number on the main menu did pull me back to the main menu,
it was the Canton Reuben (it is nice to see a place unashamed of being in Canton), which sounded more like a Rachel to me (but no matter as I love both proper corned/salt beef and pastrami), I decided on.
This was a good looking beast with plenty of spicy pastrami, creamy Swiss cheese and a good hit of acidity from the pickles, tangy coleslaw and mustard mayo.
Good sarnie this, with a nice bit of chew to the ciabatta bread which was not too dense and had a good crust.
The Reuben/Rachel is a classic sandwich for good reason, with a great balance of flavours and textures (when done correctly). Top notch rendition here.
It came with a side of spuds
which has some nice gnarly bits and the dill throng adorning it worked well (with a pleasing hit of anis). They were a bit lacking in seasoning and whilst, in theory where this is the case, you can self apply here there was no salt or pepper on the table. Personally I don’t think it needed the spuds, with the sarnie more than enough for lunch.
On the drinks front, I am always very much at the tip of the spear trends/fashion wise (I mean flannel shirts over a Henley top have never gone out of fashion right and I drive a jalopy whose external styling was inspired by a brick!?) and thus thought I might try the rather fancy sounding cold brew tonic (despite the fact that after a false” we are all going to boil alive” dawn we were back to the standard dank and cold drizzle on the day of my visit, back to “we are all gonna die” this week mind). I reasoned I like coffee and I like tonic so could this be a match made in heaven (mind you I like anchovies and apple pie, just not together).
This was an interesting drink, with it reminding me of those chocolate orange sweets you get if you pull an unlucky dip out of a packet of Revels.
Oddly, bearing in mind the chocolate orange cream vibe, it was very refreshing and after the initial “what the ….. have I ordered” I warmed to its chocolaty orange charms.
Against my better judgment, I actually found myself rather enjoying it with it very much growing on me the more of it I consumed. Seems to me the key is the proportion of coffee to tonic. Too much of the latter and it becomes weak sauce and too much coffee and it would lose the refreshing quality.
The verdict
After 10 years the place is rightly as popular as ever, with pretty much a full house on a dreary Wednesday lunchtime. The place is probably the closest you get to an old school Americana diner in Cardiff and I think it is so popular due to it getting the simple things right. Service is very good (attentive, but not overly so) and it offers an interesting selection of quality food and drink which clearly keeps drawing in the punters. If as a hospitality business you have survived the last 10 years you may well be able to survive pretty much anything (new tax nuclear bombs aside). Let’s hope they will be celebrating 20 years come 2036.
The details
Address: St Canna Court, Cowbridge Road East, Canton Cardiff, CF5 1GX.
Opening hours:
Probably no blog next week as on hols and likely will be concentrating on not going too pink (forecast is “You’re going to be the colour of a boiled lobster, Bluey” hot). Oddly will be much hotter where I am than the UK,, but I am quite confident I won’t spontaneously combust.
Soliciting Flavours 