Tyranny of Distance, design and coffee

Here we are in another area difficult to compete, Windsor end of Chapel Street. There are so many nice cafés around….and at the end if it becomes to hard to compete it is better to get together. In which way? Style, atmosphere, quality, design, all at a reasonable prize. The café has to have something special of course, and the idea to open in an old car service station is somehow unique, and I believe they won the bet here. They have two areas, outside, in the garage, and inside, in the house. The most interesting one is in the serving station of course where they converted the little office in a small kitchen/bar and the placed few tables and sofas instead of the car. By the way, if you have now problems with your engine, be quick and go to High Street, where there are still few shops, before they close down and they re-open as cafés. In Tyranny of Distance a sculptor, most probably, or a carver has decided to open few gas bottles and weld them in a unique design. People around are typical of this end of Chapel Street, and mostly young generation. Now let's move to the breakfast, well fantastic. I got one of my favourite dishes, eggs with mushroom and chorizo in a earthenware bowl, which you should not touch it for at least 20 minutes (I am still writing with 3 fingers, uh). Leave it breathing for a little bit till it comes down to a good temperature and enjoy your coffee in the meantime. The latte was indeed good, better than usual. It is always hard to find very good latte, and only few places specialize in it, though they than lack in food (as we saw in 7 seeds). Tyranny of Distance was able to impress me more than usual, but I must say it was not as good as the milestones café (7 seeds and St.Ali above all). Service just perfect, quick and friendly.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 3.5 better than average
Food: 4 very nice and below 15$, a good finding
Service: 3.5 something you will remember
Place: 4 there is definitely an artistic touch

147 Union Street
Windsor (close to the Windsor train station)
www.tyrannyofdistance.com.au

Mart 130, "Harry Potter" Middle Park Station

Having a breakfast at a tram station sounds very very weird, I cannot argue that, but having the brekkie at Middle Park Station is one of the best Victorian experience, but avoid the F1 week. The front of the café is really a tram station, but it seems like platform 1.5 of Harry Potter. With few smallish tables and chairs. I would probably decide not to have breakfast there with a tram every 7 minutes though. The Park balcony is just gorgeous, with a view of the tennis courts, all green, with lots of trees around, we are of course in the Albert Park you may say. There is quite a number of tables, but the best one is the square table at the bottom end, a bit secluded, that you can get only if you are extremely lucky or arrive here very early during the week, because the weekend is jumped out. Inside, I love it, it was the station of course, and they tried to keep that vintage and charm character that it used to have. You can see there is a nice taste in interior design, done by a proper architect or the owner itself, and in this case I would say impressive. Not too much not to less. Next time there I would like to have chat with him. My latte was good, right temperature, quick to come, well done. Breakfast was excellent, I order nothing complicated, eggs with bacon and veggies, but all well presented. In another occasion I had a muffin, still fresh and warm from the oven, delicious. The only drawback of this place is the crowd in the weekend, but this is something expected for such a beautiful café, meanwhile during the week is just perfect, I went there in more than one occasion riding the bike through the park before work, and it was just perfect, relaxed and really a suggested way to start your business day. Service is busy during the weekend, but still very friendly; in a working day it seems to be in a family.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 3 Good but not excellent
Food: 4 really nice in presentation, good in quality
Service: 3.5 friendly and more, especially if you go in a working day
Place: 5 till now I used 5 only for another cafe' (Captains of Industry, though everything else was not as good), and once you are in the back balcony you will understand why.

107a Canterbury Rd
Middle Park (take tram 96 and get out at Middle Park Station)

Arcadia, in the middle of Gertrude Street

Gertrude Street is one of the most know street in Melbourne area, because of the nice restaurant, because of the retro art shops, interesting pubs, outstanding architecture (including the Community Housing Development, one of the first in Melbourne, an example of inclusion and not separation, where the less lucky people are moved to the ghettos, far away from the city, as it happened in Paris, with all the problems that still the French capital is experiencing). Sorry I am Italian, and my political background has to come out sometime. Did I forget to mention anything in this nice street? Oh yes, the café scene and lifestyle. Located almost on the border with Fitzroy, has a mix clientele, mostly in the middle class, after a nice coffee and the daily newspaper. It is hard to get a table in the weekend as the café is not as big, but waiting for few minutes is not a huge issue in this street, lots of interesting people and shops around, difficult to get bored. I was almost sure about the quality of the breakky as soon as I stepped in. A big black board with all the specials, many available, and a fantastic menu to choose from. My appetite could be well satisfied I thought. And reality was……fantastic. Really great breakfast, based on eggs and small meatballs, well impressed. Coffee was an experience as well, unfortunately not good experience. The waiter forgot first to place my order, than she placed the order, than I waited and after a long while, after the breakky was all gone (well, in my stomach), it arrived. It must have been only that waiter and just in my case, because O could see coffees going to all tables but mine, so I take is as an unlucky experience, but surely it will not happen again (hopefully). Having the breakfast without any coffee is like going to a pub and not drinking, or even worst ask for a beer and it arrives when the pub is closing.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 3 Average good latte
Food: 4 well done and reasonable price too
Service: 2 it should have been less than that, but I believe it was just an unfortunate case
Place: 4.5 I like it, they way it is organised, with all the adds on the left wall and newspapers around

193 Gertrude St
Fitzroy

Pics and video to add

Captains of Industry, coffee and much more

This is still a secret in Melbourne, and I was just so lucky that a friend of mine took me there after lunch. Really hard to find it, no clear direction, no signals of coffee or shop, well there is, but anybody guess to understand where are you getting into. The shop/café is in Somerset Place, close to Brother Baba Budan and Brood Box Café, not an easy location, with high competition, so you really need to be a magician to start something that long term is profitable. I believe they got it. The keyword here is vintage. As soon as you walk in, at the first floor, you have bicycles as old as my grandmother (100 in few days), shoes, ladders, all very vintage. Even the guys that are running the shop are vintage, in dressing and style. I keep calling shop because it is not only a café, that would limit Captains of Industry, it is a tailor, a shoe maker and hair dresser (I wonder if the style will be only '70s).It reminded me more of a factory, an idea factory, where people gather to discuss about art and politic, though I have never seen Australians speaking about politic. It is just a great place. Everything else is not as great I must say. They do not have food, so don't come here for breakfast, and the service is interesting, but quite slow at the moment, but that's ok here. Coffee quality is average. So why coming here? For the experience, and I am sure you will love it.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 3 good
Food: 0 none
Service: 2.5 slow, but I'm sure it will get better
Place: 5 and this is the highest score I have ever used, and this is why you come here

Captains of Industry
Lvl 1, 2 Somerset Pl
CBD - Melbourne

The Vegie Bar

Well, I know this is not the typical breakfast café. First thing first it is called bar and not café, and, as the name says, it is vegetarian, therefore no bacon or sausages. Add they only have lunch and dinner during the week, so brekkie is only on Saturday and Sunday morning, from 9am. But, and this is why I believe it should be in this blog, the place is really nice and grunge; it is a place you can't miss when you walk in Fitzroy Street. I wonder if they studied the interior design or just happened to be like that, it's hard to say. They have a central area with a bar and the kitchen on the back, a coffee machine and lots of waiters working here, that makes service one of the fastest in the city I guess. Many tables distributed in the main room, upstairs, in the side room, in the backyard and on the street, is it enough? But still it may happen that you have to wait for a table. Why? Because it is so cool that it is always full, and this is a good sign. Another good point is that The Veggie Bar is cheap, with most of dishes below 15$ and breaky at 10-11$; but don't think that saving on money means also saving on quality, this is not the case here. It's just that you will not have bacon or sausages or chicken, but only eggs and any sort of veggie, mostly on season, which is great for the customers, money and quality wise, and for the owner as well. Should you come here for the coffee itself, maybe not, there are other better places around. You should come here for the lot, for the mix of place, people, food, and an average latte. There are people a bit grunge, with tattoos that cover most of the bodies, and theatre ads everywhere on the wall. Close your eyes, open them and you could be in some cities in the East Europe, maybe Budapest, the only difference is that the house around Fitzroy cost between 1 and 2 million dollars, in Budapest you should be fine with 1 or 200,000 dollars, and lots of coffee and breakfast and lunch and dinners to cover the difference.
Back to business, let's go the final rating(5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 2.5 Average, nothing to scream about
Food: 3.5 well done, fresh and cheap
Service: 3.5 quick
Place: 4 grunge, young, interesting, sort of Uni bar, but not only for students, a bit bohemian but in a very rich area.

The Vegie Bar
378 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy (tram 112)
vegiebar.com.au

The Turtle

It was really a nice and warm day and the beach was just the perfect place to be. A nice sun bath, something I really miss from Italy or Greece, where you do not have to spend half of the time thinking about cancer and related problems. I used a normal sun protection cream and not a 30+, and I get brownish. But it can't be all perfect in Australia :-). Why this introduction? Just to say I moved a bit along the coast and on the way back I stopped in Elwood for breaky. It was already 3:30pm, and calling it breakfast is a bit too much, not even brunch, possibly lu-ner or di-nch. Well, anyway, I wanted my eggs and a latte, so I opted for the Turtle, which is a nice bar on a round about shared with other cafes and a 7/11. This round space gives a bit of European environment, sort of square, and The Turtle is located in a beautiful two storey art deco shop, I really like it. It is close to Elwood Patisserie and Bakery, run by a Greek family (this is the best Patisserie in Elwood, well Melbourne, possibly Victoria and maybe Australia) and opposite to Café de Cuba. So, if you are lost here around, well you will not have problems looking for food and coffees. The Turtle has a nice area outside, with few tables on the pavement, and you can smell vacation here, even if, unfortunately, the day after is a working day. The atmosphere is very relaxed, you can still smell the sea and it even seems warmer here. It's just a nice place to have a breaky, which they serve till 4pm. I was just in time to order my latte ($3.50) and my baked eggs with Italian sausages ($16.50) and I was really starving. The coffee arrived straight away and the food soon after, a good start I though. The eggs covered almost completely the little terrine, just perfectly cooked. Inside the sausages in a tomato sauce. I attacked the dish, which was at 89 degrees Celsius, not a good idea, but I could not wait. I than let the dish to relax a bit, getting cooler, and than again my fork was full of sausages and eggs, there was bread on the side to help me to amalgamate the mix. Well, I originally thought that $16.5 for a breaky is a bit too much, though we are in the upper class Elwood, but the quality of the meat was just so high that I was astonished. The sausage just melted in my mouth, the texture was divine and the combination with eggs and a little ciabatta was just perfect. Was I maybe to hungry and therefore everything would have been perfect? Possibly but I do not think so. The coffee was good/average and the service was responsive and smiley, which I really appreciated, understanding that being friendly even at the end of a tiring and busy day is not a common thing, good score on this.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 3 Average, and not Fair Trade
Food: 4 well done, excellent quality, they could have scored better if the price would have been below $15
Service: 3.5 responsive and smiley
Place: 4.5 fantastic and relaxing

34 Glenhuntly Rd
Elwood (take bus 246 or have a nice bike ride)
www.theturtle.com.au (but nothing on it