Cornersmith

Cornersmith is at its heart a family business. It all started as a fantasy for Alex and James to create a type of café they wished was on their street. At home with little kids, Alex discovered a love for eating seasonally, cooking from scratch and an obsession with pickles. 

Opportunity knocked, literally, when Alex noticed her neighbour’s backyard trees laden with fruit and started knocking on their doors asking for excess citrus, mulberries and figs. She would take these home, cook and bottle them and return to her neighbours with a jar. Word spread and soon parcels of homegrown produce started appearing on her doorstep.

At the same time, James was working in the coffee industry and together they decided to put their passions in gardening, good home cooking, coffee, preserving and their local community to open Cornersmith in 2012 on a street corner in Marrickville, Sydney. It was a place that served great tasting food and coffee, lots of pickles and the start of their trading program, where locals could bring in their excess home grown produce.

Today, Cornersmith is a café based in the Sydney Inner West suburb of Annandale, a cooking school teaching people the importance of seasonal eating and reducing food waste in their own sustainable kitchen, and a bunch cookbooks. All of which continue to be based on their principle of building community through ethical food choices, education and sustainable business practices.