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)