Coffee Hit

For surprising this foxymoron 

Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, Fountain Gate

I returned to my old stamping ground, Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, with some trepidation. This is where I used to prowl as a pre-teen mall-rat. This is where, from 15 to 18, I worked my first job, a check-out chick at Harry Heath's Rainbow supermarket. For four long years I scanned groceries and stacked shelves every Saturday, wearing the unattractive green sack that was Rainbow's uniform. On breaks I would duck into the food court to suck down a couple of cigarettes, butting them out in one of those disposable ashtrays made of aluminium foil. For lunch maybe I'd grab a bucket of chips, greasy fried rice, a cinnamon donut or something else equally appealing appalling. Those were the days.

Scrumptious food in the display cabinet.

And so, returning to Kath & Kim land nearly two decades later to meet a potential new giver of work, I have to admit to being shocked. I'd driven out here as a no-longer-from-around-these-parts snob; I was not expecting the place to look this, well, classy. And when I spotted Coffee Hit, where we'd arranged to meet, I found myself thinking: ooh ahh, it's nice, different... unusual!

Latte art

Coffee Hit is Melbourne street cool in a shopping centre environment. A pod in the main shopping thoroughfare, its industrial design with slashes of red incorporates loads of wood and striking crescent-shaped banquet seating, which semi-encircles the tables and chairs gathered around the coffee station. A large communal table at one end sports very cool stools.

Gorgeous retro-look La Marzocco coffee machine

A beautiful pearlescent white La Marzocco coffee machine takes pride of place, giving the place street cred (and me hope of getting a decent cuppa). Lynley, working the machine, turned hope into full-blown expectation when she started explaining their different blends: Caffiend (their strong blend) and the Ultimate Hit (silky smooth). I went with an Ultimate latte ... and a big slice of humble pie. Seriously, check out the latte art – we are a world away from soggy chips in a haze of cigarette smoke, people.


I do hope my new client likes my work – I am now one enlightened foxymoron, looking forward to my next hit.

Miss Frank

For the service, frankly

200 Through Rd, Surrey Hills (Camberwell)

I don't know if it was Miss Frank herself, but someone friendly, welcoming and knowledgable about the cafe's offerings clocked my open laptop and came over to check that I was logged on to the wi-fi – when I replied in the negative, she promptly gave up the password and assured me it should work automatically from then on should I return another day. My kind of place!

The cafe itself is surprisingly roomy and accessible: a lift helps wheelchair users reach the higher of the room's split levels. The large communal table has groovy cut-outs that hold tubs of cutlery and menus.

Having eaten lunch elsewhere, and trying to 'eat like the French' (that is, to not deny oneself, but to 'indulge bijou'), I plumped for a miniature lemon tart to go with my afternoon coffee.  The long black was just the pick-me-up I needed – not bitter but with a decent caffeine kick – and the teeny tart was creamy and tangy and just large enough to linger over. Two thumbs up for Miss Frank.

Bread & Jam for Frances

For a damn fine toastie

1/701 Glenferrie Rd*, Hawthorn

*Note about the address: B&JFF is actually located off Glenferrie Rd on Linda Cr (as I discovered after traipsing up and down Glenferrie Rd trying to find the place).

Books visible from Readings add to the charm

This is the sister cafe of Dench Bakers, both cafes sourcing their fresh-baked bread from the owner's Abbottsford bakery.

Although the address is misleading, it's a lovely location – off the busy main road, nestled behind Readings bookstore. As well as the main entrance via Linda Cr, you can enter through the back of Readings, and the books visible through the partition wall lend the place an erudite charm. A woman sharing the communal table with me had just bought a novel and was settling in for a cosy read with a coffee and bite to eat – a semi-regular pastime, she said. An ideal way to spend an afternoon, in my book.

Cheese toastie with style

   

My coffee was good and expertly poured, as it had been at Dench (like the bread, the coffee also comes from Abbottsford, via Veneziano Coffee Roasters). Food-wise, I clocked the specials board only after I'd ordered and immediately wished I'd gone for a '1/2 + 1/2' – half soup, half cheese & tomato toastie; fab idea for the coming winter. Menu regrets were short-lived, though, as my seeded bread toastie arrived, filled with Gruyère cheese and fig and plum chutney, served with a salad of rocket, walnut and pear. Nom nom! I can't begin to tell you how delicious that toastie was. (Full disclosure: I was ravenous, having walked up an appetite looking for the place, but gee it was good.) The molten Gruyère and sweet chutney combo was comfort-tastic; the toasted, seeded bread thick and substantial; and the fresh, invigorating salad made it a complete and satisfying lunch.

Frances can have her bread and jam. Bread & Gruyère for Ernie!

Toastie was so good I've renamed the place

Old Fire Station Cafe Gallery

For ... not much

378 High St Preston

I tried to like this place, I really did. It's local, the space is cavernous and the location fantastic, but (sigh) ... It could be soooo much better! 

Food: average

Coffee: god-awful

Service: consistently rude

I kept giving my business to the Fire Station when I was perpetually pushing a pram around Preston (say that 5 times fast); the couches and room for said pram and even the sad box of toys in the corner kept me hoping time and again that the food and bev wouldn't be too bad. I stopped ordering coffee and took to splitting a hot chocolate with the Boy instead; I occasionally ordered food, but after a couple of disappointments, including nearly breaking my teeth on unpitted olives in a pasta dish, I kept it to can't-cock-up snacks only – a bowl of chips, perhaps. 

In the end it was the lack of friendly service that did me in.

Incident 1: Boy removes sugar sticks from sugar bowl to line them up on our table (a favoured pastime; sticks are always back in the bowl when we leave, no harm, no foul). Staff member: 'Does he really need to do that? We have a box of toys.'

Incident 2: Just passing through, Boy wants a cookie, which sits in a jar on the counter. I open the jar and grab a cookie, only to see (same) staff member glare, not quite at me but at the air above the cookie jar where my hand was just now. Oops, I think to myself, I shouldn't have done that (I used to work in hospitality – I really should have known better, but I swear I only touched our cookie!). My turn to be served and she says, 'I don't mean to be rude, but ...' Suffice to say the lecture I received went on, and it was rude. 

Oh, Fire Station, what a waste of a great space.  

    

Nitty Gritty Super City

For Mr Barista

Scienceworks, 2 Booker St, Spotswood 

After a tough day on the piste, nothing beats a plastic cup of coffee, lovingly made by my favourite barista at the Nitty Gritty Super City cafe at Scienceworks. Oh, go on then, bring me another...  and another... and another... 

Dench Bakers

For more than just bread

109 Scotchmer St, Fitzroy North

Sugar sugar

Often, it's the simple things done well that make for good brunching, be it soft-poached eggs that ooze lovingly over freshly baked bread, or a deceptively filling bowl of bircher muesli with raspberry compote (mine! delicious!). Dench Bakers cafe mostly gets the little touches just right, down to the miniature wooden spoons in the sugar bowls. The service is friendly, the coffee well made and the prices reasonable (though $4 per additional breakfast item means holding the bacon is good for both wallet and waistline). The decor is hip but not pretentious, with a good mix of different-sized tables and bench seating. My baby-wielding companion noted no highchairs but ample space for the pram; whether that's the case at the weekend, well, I'd have to go back to find out. Would I? Most definitely.

Poached eggs with glossy green spinach

Bircher muesli

Boundary Espresso

For being in d'Preston

107 Plenty Road Preston 

 

Baked eggs and chorizo

This! This is what I've been waiting for – a decent, friendly cafe north of the Junction (only just but nonetheless). I've been here twice now, once for Sunday brunch and once for a mid-week bite. I relished my baked eggs with chorizo, avocado and rocket so much the first time that I had it again the second (on reflection, a silly thing to do as a budding food blogger). Still, the fervent lip-smacking and murmurs of approval from my fellow brunchers about the Green Eggs and Ham (baked eggs, basil pesto and THICK slice of ham) and halloumi and artichoke omelette instills confidence that this place is more than a one-hit wonder. I also rate the coffee, though my long blacks were more consistent on the Sunday – perhaps the barista's day off is Tuesday? I shall investigate further ...