PS Soda is a team effort from four friends who have opened a bar that makes its own soda. With smart monochrome looks and high ceilings, the small yet airy space has a corner set aside for the soda-making apparatus. House brews on tap are Wattle Cola, Smoked Lemonade, Blackstrap Ginger and Bush Tonic, plus a seasonal surprise, currently Tonka Bean Creaming Soda. Each is delicious, taken straight, mixed with spirits, or in a bespoke cocktail such as the Batanga! (pictured), with Wattle Cola, green-coffee-bean-infused tequila, lime and smoked salt around the rim. If the suggested combos on the menu don't appeal, one of the friendly co-owners will concoct something special for you, as well as assiduously filling your water glass. The food menu runs to four items, and we try half – macadamias with house-made lemon myrtle dukkah, and pickled tartare, a vego version of the raw classic with grilled eggplant, pickled beetroot and an egg yolk on top. It's unexpectedly marvellous.

Shop 2, 40 King Street, city, ps-soda.com.

FIND

On a bike ride along Botany Bay, a rain squall sends us scurrying into Kiss the Barista, a big, bright space with great water views tucked into the St Georges River 16-foot Sailing Club. Although it's officially past breakfast, the very affable waitress allows us to order bacon and egg rolls, which come with two eggs and a mountain of bacon. Pancakes with strawberries and ice-cream are hoovered up by the seven-year-old, and a goodly pile of avocado accompanies perfectly poached eggs with sourdough. When the rain stops, the children head out to spot soldier crabs on the sand while adults chat over coffee; everyone's happy.

Sanoni Avene, Sandringham, 0433 582 582.

CRUNCH

Westmont Picklery is another team effort, from best mates Joel Mevissen and Calvin Lidden. They started producing pickles in Sydney in 2014, selling to restaurants including Bistrode CBD and Papi Chulo in Manly. Now everyone can buy their bottled wares, including bread and butter pickles, sour dill pickles (pictured), and pickles with chilli. Mevissen became a pickle fiend while bartending in New York, and Lidden is a fine dining chef turned graphic designer, so their pickles taste good and their website looks good.

Sour dill pickles, 1kg, $15, westmontpickles.com.

REWIND

Remember the cream buns you used to get at the school canteen, the squishy ones spilling out mock cream? The Banquerie patisserie-bakery, new to Pyrmont, has its own version, with real cream and that authentic, iridescent cream-bun-flavour jam. The elegant fitout, with Parisian-Venetian looks, stars impressive glass counters so packed with baked beauties they make customers ooh and aah. Old school favourites – neenish tarts, butterfly sponges, vanilla slice – sit alongside other treats such as the choc-hazelnut biscuit (like a genteel Wagon Wheel) and the Hungarian Dobos Torte, with chocolate hazelnut layers and toffee on top. Choices for pie enthusiasts include chunky beef korma, and the tiramisu cake wins the popularity prize. The lovely light space was originally a bank, hence the name. It's an offshoot of Boronia Bakehouse, which has been keeping Hunters Hill in cake for 30 years.

1/125 Harris St, Pyrmont, 9518 4215, facebook.com/Banquerie

EAT

Food Beverages Banter is the motto at Back and Forth, which has joined the cafe throng in the Castlecrag shopping strip. Coffee is serious, with two bearded baristas on the wood-panelled espresso machine, and the menu is a mix of healthy and happy – the buckwheat pancakes come with activated pecans and peanut-butter ice-cream. Spicy lamb merguez sausages recline on a bed of hummus with a bright medley of tomatoes and roast capsicum, a soft boiled egg and slice of rye sourdough, the kind of dish that sets you up for the day. The cakes are special too, from raw vegan bounty balls (if you're into that kind of thing) to lemon, pear and lavender cake (more my kind of thing). The beetroot chocolate brownie looks good too.

Shop 20–22/100 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag, facebook.com/backnforthcc.