What to do on a wet day? Have lunch at a local café, that’s what. Hubby drove around and around till we finally found a parking spot. (It’s a busy spot, in an industrial area with lots of workers needing to park). The café is in a large, airy building (an old motor mechanic’s perhaps?), with high ceilings, exposed girders and the biggest ceiling fan I’ve ever seen. Hubby says it’s called a Big Arse/Ass fan; yep that’s the real name.
Service is the usual ‘order at the counter’ job, but staff were friendly and welcoming, and prompt in bringing out our meals. We both went for the fresh juice – watermelon, pineapple and mint. This was very refreshing, and went down a treat. Iced water was brought out without asking, and the helpful chap behind the counter came to our table to ask hubby if he wanted his sambo toasted? Yes please, was the answer. He chose the pumpkin pesto job, in a toasted panini. He liked the bread, the mashed pumpkin and the pesto, so all of it, in fact. I had crispy vegetable fritters which were full of veg – corn, zucchini I think, and maybe sweet potato, well-flavoured and very filling. They came with a generous amount of avocado, beautifully done bacon (not too hard, not too soft), a gorgeous runny-inside egg, and a tasty relish. Hubby helped me polish off my plate, as it was a generous serve.
There’s lots of street art inside, and the dishes are named after street artists, or Melbourne streets like Hosier Lane, which are well-known for their artfully decorated walls. The only annoying things for these two old fogies were the music (a bit brash for us), and the chairs which are a bit low for the height of the table –I felt like Alice in Wonderland (Surprising how many cafes suffer from this – don’t they try sitting on them first?). All up, a delicious lunch in an interesting venue. As hubby said, ‘I didn’t know what to expect, but this was great’.