A recent business trip gave me the opportunity to visit Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne has a serious reputation as Australia’s coffee capital, and with good reason too. A search on the internet and you’ll be snowed under an avalanche of suggestions and recommendations by serious caffeine experts, bloggers and magazine editors. So narrowing it down was not easy, but I chose The Kettle Black for my first. And it certainly did not disappoint.
Set in a gorgeous, lacy white heritage building, it serves gourmet café fare. Folks here take their coffee and their ‘brekkie’ seriously and mostly at the communal table. The hot cakes with ricotta, blueberries, maple syrup, double cream, seeds and nuts were a worthy companion to the excellent coffee.
I was on foot and in the CBD area of the city, keen on my food and coffee. So Higher ground was a natural calling. With its urban, industrial look, it had me at the entrance. The spacious, high ceiling-ed café is a warehouse converted structure. Verdant plants spill out from the first floor and add color to the monochromatic aesthetics. It boasts of a great location as well, heart of the CBD. i had a Berkshire bacon sandwich gribiche, brown sauce.
Dinner was ramen at the casual Little Raman bar. The place boasts of quick service, fuss free dining, excellent food.
Melbourne, known for its wildly popular art scene is a riot of dizzying colours in any available space in a wide variety of mediums: graffiti, paste-up posters, murals, stencils and installations. A wander along the many laneways will show you how the art form has permeated the city as it becomes a part of the identity. Touted for its unique, urban art, Hosier lane boasts of all this and more with its famous bluestone laneway setting. The street art, some psychedelic, some political, and some graphic, are in a league of their own and not to be missed.
This seriously caffeinated city is spirited, feisty and leaves you wanting for more of its artsy lanes, breezy cafés and communal vibes. With coffee holes scattered in every laneway and with a smattering of food joints serving creative and tasty food, Melbourne feels like it takes its food culture very seriously and offers it to everybody willing to partake, locals and tourists alike.
My Capture of Time 