Now Open: Carton Deli, a New CBD Sandwich Bar Doing Ham and Pineapple-Mustard Toasties and Korean Fried Chicken Burgers

Photo: Kyle McLean

The “accidentally nostalgic” menu features slow-cooked sarsaparilla pork with apple slaw, a sous vide chicken roll, and an inspired spin on the ham-and-cheese toastie (with strong Hawaiian pizza DNA).

It’s a sunny spring day when Broadsheet visits Carton Deli. Tables are filling up for the lunch rush, occupied by workers from the surrounding office buildings, uni students, and guests staying at the Pullman Hotel. We beeline for an outdoor seat that’s poking out from underneath the awning to enjoy some rays with our sandwiches. It’s the kind of day owner Zac Schneider (ex-Dayjob) envisioned when he pulled the trigger on the site.

“This is the perfect day I pictured when we were starting to put everything together – the sun shining, tables outside … You can get a takeaway and sit outside on the grass,” he says, eyeing the northeast corner of Hindmarsh Square.

“I know there’ll be a honeymoon period for a couple of weeks or so and hopefully by then we’ll have a few more people and businesses in the area [aware of us] ... it’s been really good getting to meet lots of people and having a chat.”

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The cafe opened earlier this month in the former Dunfor Noodle Bar site, on the corner of Hindmarsh Square and Pulteney Street. The minimalist space – all timber, concrete and tiles – is largely the same, but the menu is now dedicated to things between bread: specifically, burgers, rolls, toasties and baguettes.

Start the day with a bocadillo (a Spanish-style baguette) filled with cheese, omelette, jamon serrano and onion chilli jam. Or head in for lunch for a Korean fried chicken burger with gochujang sauce, wombok, Kewpie mayo and cheese (vegos can sub in a crumbed and fried portobello mushroom – one of Schneider’s favourites).

Also on the menu: a toastie stuffed with apple slaw, mozzarella and pulled pork slow-cooked in sarsaparilla, inspired by the cola wings at Dumpling King; a tricked-up version of the classic Aussie roast chicken roll, featuring sous vide chook, cabbage, quince aioli and pickled daikon; and an inspired spin on the ubiquitous ham-and-cheese toastie (with strong Hawaiian pizza DNA) featuring smoked ham, melted cheese and a pineapple-mustard brulee.

“A lot of the menu is accidentally nostalgic,” says Schneider. But the result is nothing like the sandwiches of your childhood. Chef Duane Tilka was most recently at Clutch, where he was preparing the likes of kingfish pastrami, duck breast prosciutto, and carrot ham (sliced carrot fermented with koji then smoked and air-dried). He’s joined in the kitchen by Connor Fletcher, who was previously at Shosho.

“[The kitchen is] not my area of expertise so having people I trust in there … to just know they’re pumping out great food is awesome. And I can focus on things I’m more comfortable with,” says Schneider. That means coffee and service.

“I’m really passionate about just being able to have a chat with customers,” he told Broadsheet back in July. “Being able to give them something that they obviously really want, but do it at a high quality, and then be able to have a chinwag with them at the same time, is really good.”

As for the coffee, he’s using locally roasted Kindred Coffee beans for espresso and batch brew; he'll soon add rotating single origins by Canberran specialty coffee star Ona, Melbourne’s Wood and Co and micro-roaster Seek Coffee. Pair your cuppa with a pastry by Prove Patisserie.

The buns and baguettes are supplied by Skala Bakery while Sam Ferguson (Elementary Coffee, ex-Clement & Herron) is baking the bread for the toasties. “He's also working on some buttermilk buns for our fried chicken and fried mushroom – that's a work-in-progress,” says Schneider.

Carton Deli
62 Pulteney Street, Adelaide

Hours:
Mon to Fri 7am–3pm

carton.adl

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