Fresh Face: Tucker Silk Mill

If you want some genuinely tasty tucker, there’s a new Aussie café just off Route 22 in one of Easton’s hottest destinations: its newly-renovated Silk Mill.

“Tucker” is an Australian slang term for really good food—in this case brought to you by Jason Hoy, who hails from Wagga Wagga. In addition to creative breakfast and lunch items, the menu sports plenty of Aussie specialties, including savory toasties and housemade baked goods, such as the iconic chocolate-coconut Lamingtons and salted Caramel Slice.

But Tucker Silk Mill is about more than food. It’s about community and creating a welcoming experience, a place where patrons can stake out a spot and settle in. The cheery industrial space filled with vintage finds features super fast Wifi, plus a sunny courtyard.

And, of course, they have excellent coffee.

“We don’t do any drip coffee,” Jason says, “just espresso, using really good beans roasted by a bunch of Australians from Toby’s Estate Coffee in Brooklyn.”

Jason and his wife, Melanie, moved to the United States about three and a half years ago. Melanie was editing one of the most successful food magazines in Australia, donna hay magazine, and Jason had been in the fine wine business for over 25 years.

“Our ambition was to open up a café by day and a wine bar by night,” he says.

Phase One has been a gratifying success, and Phase Two, the wine bar, should be up and running in the next six months. In the meantime, the always-changing menu showcases the best tucker this side of the International Date Line.

“And if it’s local and sustainable and organic,” Jason says, “that would be perfect—and we work with all of those things to the best of our ability.”

“We want to make sure that people can feel good without being militantly healthy. We like putting good things in our face.” Now that’s a philosophy we all benefit from.

For more information and a sample menu, please visit tuckersilkmill.com.