Sweet Caroline, Gosford, Caters to Your Every Culinary Whim

It’s all about the details at the newly opened Sweet Caroline in Gosford.

The coffee is roasted by the owner, Tony Benvenuto, at his friend’s roasters. Mojo, a smooth blend with a sweet caramel undertone, sells in the bag as much as in the cup.

There’s the menu, each item handpicked with care. At breakfast, the baked eggs use the sauce that Tony’s nonna used when he was growing up. It’s rich and thick and, most importantly, delicious. And on a Friday and Saturday, as the sun goes down, the café turns into a tapas bar with cocktails.

Tony and his wife and co-partner, Elize, spent months hunting down vintage armchairs, quirky photos for the walls and a hundred or so plants that breathe life into this once-unloved spot. Ask anyone what was there before and it’s likely they won’t be able to really recall. Nothing as spectacular as Sweet Caroline.

That beady eye on detail even goes down to the music. There’s no “Cafe Chill” playlist being played off Spotify. Tony, a former DJ, handpicks the music, with the likes of Fleetwood Mac easing you into your day, or some funky party tune to kick off those Friday feels.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not Benvenuto’s first rodeo. Before meeting Eliza, he was behind the Yellow Brick Café in Sydney’s Castle Hill then afive-square space called Little Phoenix in Parramatta. “When we looked at the property we couldn’t believe the space we would have to play with,” he smiles.

Sweet Caroline opened in early September and to a sweet amount of fanfare thanks to the couple detailing the refurb of the premises in short videos on Instagram. Before opening they’d already accrued a following of a 1,000 locals. “We just wanted to share that journey with people,” says Eliza. “And everyone has been incredibly welcoming to us.”