A little bit of Australia in Hastings.
There's quite a bit of Australia at Greyskull. Some of it is obvious, like the lamingtons we bake, the beer we serve by the schooner and the Australian New Year party we throw every December. Some of it is less obvious, like the way we think about coffee, breakfast and what a good café should be.
It all goes back to a trip Daniel and I took long before Greyskull existed.
From Australia to Hastings
When we first started dating, Daniel already had a big trip to Australia planned. We'd only been seeing each other for a few months when I he went out, so Sean took a two week holiday to go out and visit Daniel in the middle of his trip.
Australia has had a special place in our lives ever since. We spent part of those early days together there, and Daniel came home particularly taken with the coffee and café culture.
Years later, when we opened Greyskull in St Andrew's Mews, some of those ideas came with us.
Have a look at our breakfast, brunch and lunch menu →
Good coffee, good food, no fuss
What we loved about Australian café culture was the idea that a really good coffee and a really good breakfast belong in the same place. The coffee is taken seriously, but the atmosphere isn't. It's somewhere you can meet friends, sit outside when the weather's good, or just make part of your everyday routine.
That's influenced what we do in Hastings, but we're not trying to recreate an Australian café.
We call Greyskull a Gastro Caff. We take the familiar food of a British caff and give it the kind of attention you'd expect in a much fancier restaurant. We cure and smoke our own bacon, bake our cakes here and care just as much about the coffee as we do the food.
There's definitely an Australian-inspired side to the place. There's also quite a lot that's just us.
Explore our breakfast, brunch and lunch menu
Ozone Coffee and our New Zealand connection
We serve Ozone Coffee, which adds a New Zealand connection to our Australian influences.
Ozone started in New Zealand in 1998 and opened its London roastery and eatery in 2012. Alongside roasting speciality coffee, they run cafés where food and coffee are given proper attention together.
They work with long-term coffee producer partners and roast a range of blends and single-origin coffees. We’ve got a lot of respect for the skill involved in finding what’s good in a particular bean and bringing those flavours out through roasting.
That approach makes sense to us. We choose coffee we love, then put the work into serving it well here at Greyskull.
Australia and New Zealand have their own coffee traditions, but that combination of carefully made coffee, good food and relaxed hospitality is something we love about both.
More about our speciality coffee in Hastings →
Beer by the schooner
One Australian habit we were very happy to bring to Hastings is drinking beer by the schooner.
We love a schooner. It’s just the right amount of beer, particularly when it’s sunny and you’re sitting outside. You get to enjoy it while it’s still cold and crisp.
At Greyskull, we pour 1936 Bière, a Swiss lager brewed by the Locher family using Swiss hops and pilsner malt. It’s clean, crisp and exactly the sort of beer we want in the glass on a sunny afternoon.
Getting it here takes a bit of commitment. We have to order eleven kegs at a time and have the whole lot delivered on a pallet. It’s the only way we can get it, but we love it enough to make room.
After all that effort, it deserves to be served properly cold. For us, the schooner is the perfect vessel.
Swiss beer, an Australian drinking habit and a courtyard in Hastings. We’re very happy with that combination.
Homemade lamingtons in Hastings
We are obsessed with lamingtons.
If you haven’t tried one, a traditional Australian lamington is a piece of sponge cake coated in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut. Simple enough, but a very good thing to have with a coffee.
Our baker Chloe makes our lamingtons here in the Greyskull kitchen. We make different flavours, so what’s on the counter changes, but lamingtons are a permanent part of what we do.
They’re one of the things we most wanted to bring home from Australian café culture. Now we get to introduce them to people in Hastings who’ve never had one, as well as people who already know exactly why we love them.
Meet Chloe and see what we bake at Greyskull →
The Bogan Burger: our Australian burger with the lot
The Bogan Burger started as a bit of a joke.
We were throwing an Australian-themed party and decided to make our version of an Australian “burger with the lot”. If you haven’t come across one, it’s a burger that takes its name fairly literally. Alongside the beef patty and the usual burger fillings, you’ll often find bacon, a fried egg, beetroot and pineapple.
It’s a lot. That’s the appeal.
We put ours on the menu for a bit of fun, without really expecting many people to order it.
Then loads of people did.
We had Australians in who absolutely loved it and people trying that combination for the first time who were just as enthusiastic. What was meant to be a party special ended up staying on the menu for a long time.
At the moment, the Bogan Burger is taking a little break while we introduce a rotation of special burgers. It will be part of that rotation, and it will definitely be back for our Australian New Year’s Eve party.
Australian New Year’s Eve in Hastings
Why wait until midnight when you can celebrate with Sydney at 1pm?
Our Australian New Year party brings together a lot of our favourite things: Australian music, lamingtons, schooners, the return of the Bogan Burger and a glass of something fizzy for the countdown.
We’ll have Sydney’s fireworks on screen as we welcome the New Year on Australian time, here in Hastings.
This year’s party is on Thursday 31 December 2026, with the Sydney countdown at 1pm UK time. You can pre-book a brunch table or come along for the countdown. Families, Aussies, honorary Aussies and anyone who likes the idea of an early New Year are all welcome.
Australian New Year at Greyskull: details and booking →
A little Australian influence, here in Hastings
Australian café culture is part of how Greyskull came to be, and it’s still part of what we do every day.
Come and find us in St Andrew’s Mews for coffee, breakfast, brunch, a lamington or a cold schooner in the courtyard.