HOT: Liaison Cafe, Monaco House, 22 Ridgway Place, Melbourne

I must be the only food blogger, nay the only Melburnian, who doesn’t drink coffee.
Sometimes it can really hinder the completeness of my reviews, especially when I go to a place that specialises in coffee, like Liasion. Liasion is the sixth cafe run by Danny Colls of Cafe Racer fame, and from what I could [...]

HOT: The Bell Jar, 656 Smith St, Collingwood

Occasionally I have readers tipping me off about places to go and I recently received an email suggesting that I try  The Bell Jar.
So one cold, blustery afternoon I decided to trek up the nether-regions of Smith St (I rarely go past Johnston Street) to have a look. The cafe is quite hard to miss [...]

HOT: The Hardware Societe, 120 Hardware St, Melbourne

OK, so I’m not a trendsetter. But sign me up to the long list of food bloggers who are in love with Hardware Societe.
I should’ve known that I would love it before I even stepped in the door when my friend D told me that the owners used to run Beetroot. Oh Beetroot, with the [...]

HOT Chat: Alister Smith of Short + Sweet Dance Festival

For dance fans in Melbourne, June once again brings the Short + Sweet DANCE festival to Chapel off Chapel. You may be familiar with the Short + Sweet organisation through the 10 minute plays that they started putting on around the country around 8 years ago. The  not-for-profit entity is committed to proving performance opportunities [...]

HOT: Ici, 359 Napier St, Fitzroy

Not being much of a drinker, when I say my ‘local’ I’m generally referring to the nearest café to my house rather than the nearest pub.
While Ici is not strictly my local, it is the sort of café which I wish was my local. The quiet and unassuming bluestone building is tucked away in the [...]

HOT: Amsterdam Street, 1 Amsterdam St, Richmond

Despite its bright red frontage, Amsterdam Street is not the kind of cafe you will tend to stumble across because it’s tucked off Church Street. But as a result it’s the perfect place hide by yourself to relax with the weekend papers.
They have an extensive all day breakfast menu and for lunch they also offer [...]

HOT: The European, 161 Spring Street, Melbourne

So, a pesky volcano in Iceland means that you can’t make it to Europe anytime soon.
The solution? Get your dose of la dolce vita at The European.
The European is a restaurant that embodies my most romantic dreams of the Continent. The glass doors, dark wood interior and black and white chequered floor transport me to [...]

HOT: Coffee Darling, 2 Darling Street, South Yarra

Coffee Darling is the perfect cafe for its location. Firstly, it serves coffee (and other nice things) in a sparkling little spot on Darling Street, South Yarra. Secondly, South Yarra is the kind of suburb where two-syllable words like ‘darling’ get drawled out into four syllables ‘daaaarrrling’, usually accompanied by a couple of mwah mwah [...]

NOT: Breadwell, 135 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Breadwell? BreadNOT.
This small café is popular with the lawyer/banker crowd down towards the Paris end of Collins St, and I’m not sure why because the food that L and I had for lunch was pretty poor.

To whit – Breadwell’s ‘famous’ spicy meatballs with pasta ($20) and green lentil dahl with yoghurt and crispy (huh?) chapatti [...]

HOT: Von Haus, 1 Crossley St, Melbourne

Von Haus. I’m imagining a private club for beardy little men with a penchant for tweed knickerbockers.
The reality is much more cool. Von Haus is a café/bar with an almost invisible doorway on achingly stylish Crossley Street. Step inside and it’s like being in your best friend’s cosy, rustic dining room with perfectly distressed walls.

The [...]