Sydney put on an absolutely beautiful day yesterday for WOOP! Rolling Festival, a festival to celebrate the completion of the Bourke Street cycle way which runs from Waterloo to Woolloomooloo. The event, which was organised by the Facebook group I ♥ Sydney Bike Lanes & Cycle Ways, involved lots of food and entertainment right the way down the cycle way.

Our first drink stop of the day was at the to be completed Deus Ex Machina for a free coffee. While the shop and Deus Cafe are still under construction the team were offering free coffee’s and a couple of sweet items for purchase. Unfortunately none of the food was gluten free, however they informed me that once the cafe was up and running there would certainly be gluten free options. The coffee was great and I will definitely be back to check out the shop and support the cafe once it opens in a couple of weeks.

Deus Cafe Bourke Street

Deus Ex Machina, Bourke Street

Off our bikes we get

Free coffee thanks to the team at Deus Ex Machina!

Deus Cafe staff working hard to keep up with demand

The beautiful windows and authentic seating

A peak inside the unfinished shop

Once we had all finished our coffee’s we set off on our bikes again. After a professional photo shoot by Karl (who has a studio just off the cycle way) outside Sable & Argent we made our way to the end of the cycle way and turned around to head back up to The Beresford Hotel for lunch.

Bike photo shoot (thanks to The Spotted Pufferfish for this initial pic - professional shots to come!)

I grabbed a copy of the menu and was excited to see that The Beresford Hotel label all their vegetarian and gluten free items!

Lots of gluten free choices!

Fellow food blogger The Spotted Pufferfish ordered a Pear Bulmers which sounded really nice for a sunny Sunday afternoon. I however was unsure if Bulmers was gluten free as I was aware that some ciders contain barley. I decided to do a quick Google search on my phone (what did we do before internet on our phones?!) and found out that Bulmers was in fact gluten free (see info here). At this point I was ecstatic and happily ordered a cos lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, house made poached tuna and soft egg salad and, of course, a Bulmers Pear cider.

Gluten free Bulmers Pear cider

My salad came out and it was delicious, the egg was cooked perfectly and the tuna was very tasty. I also really enjoyed the cider.

Poached tuna salad

Delicious!

If anything you have to go to The Beresford Hotel to check out the great decor.

The back area

The funky wall hangings

The bar

More interesting decor

The Beresford Hotel

The beer garden

After our food and a couple of drinks we hopped back on our bikes to head home. I made a slight detour via The Buckland Hotel where I was excited to find they also had Bulmers on tap.

Thanks to the organisers of WOOP! Rolling Festival for a wonderful day.