Third Wave Cafe
Posted: February 9, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Blintzes, cheap eats, Coffee, Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Russian food Leave a comment »
Third Wave Cafe in Port Melbourne.
Third Wave Cafe, 189 Rouse St, Port Melbourne. Phone: 9676 2399
Third Wave Cafe is a rather chic and appealing establishment a few blocks from the bustle of Bay St.
A casual glance may convey the impression this is just another nondescript inner-city cafe catering to workers of various kinds before, during and after their various employments.
Look just a little closer, though, and its apparent there’s a level of care and passion going on here – it’s in the various signs and it’s in the menu.
They’re serious about their coffee, they have a seriously good-looking line-up of paninis and – best of all – they have an interesting array of Russian dishes on offer.
I’ve been aware of this joint’s existence for a while, but have been in no great hurry to check it out.
But it scored a mention when I asked this blog’s Facebook buddies for suggestions of places to go for non-traditional breakfasting that goes beyond eggs-with-the-lot.
Breakfast is already done for today, but as Third Wave Cafe lies midway between a stimulating visit to Booktalk Cafe in Richmond and home, lunch is definitely on.
After I place my order, I feel a pang of regret as a couple of plates of Russian salad go passing by.
With the usual ingredients plus chicken and served with “artisan bread”, this looks seriously good for $13.
But my deal is done – meat blintzes ($16.50) it is.
Meat blitzes at Third Wave Cafe.
These look a little on the small side for the price, but I have a hunch that impression is going to prove deceptive and they’re going to reveal themselves as filling, if not hearty.
A bit like the looks of roti with curry at so many Malaysian eateries can slyly look skimpy!
I’m correct.
This is a really lovely lunch.
The blintzes and their filling are quite refined but at the same time quite filling.
The beef/pork mince is studded with very finely chopped onion and carrot.
The occasional whiff from the dill garnish and restrained dabs of the accompanying sour cream help every mouthful be an utter joy.
When my waitress asks how my lunch was, I truthfully and without hesitation say: “It was packed with awesomeness!”
The Third Wave blintzes also come in caviar, mushroom and cheese flavours, while other Russian items on the menu include borscht ($13.50), pelmeni (dumplings), syrniki (savoury pancakes, $14.50) and marinated shashlik ($20).
A Russian Sampler Plate of Russian salad, two types of blintzes (excluding caviar), meat dumplings and potato and mushroom torte costs $26.
I want to try everything … by the end of the week.
My cafe latte is pricey at $3.80 but very good.
The Third Wave Cafe website, including full menu rundown, is here.
Sweet Grass Bonsai Nursery & Cafe
Posted: January 28, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Bonsai gardens, cheap eats, Coffee, Footscray, Melbourne, Mocktails, western suburbs 10 Comments »
Sweet Grass Bonsai Nursery & Cafe, 357 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 0488 688 808
What was once a nursery is still so – but with a difference.
The commercial nursery that long resided at this address on this under-utilised stretch of Barkly St has become a beautiful bonsai garden and cafe.
It’s a calming oasis.
Even on a hot day, the temperature seems to decrease in the garden and adjacent seating area.
Having already visited the Sri Lankan grocer around the corner on the Geelong road, I’d dropped in to check the place out only to find there’s no food available.
An unsatisfactory lunch is had nearby before I return to truly luxuriate in and enjoy the setting.
Bonsai, of course, is a Japanese tradition, but the management here is Vietnamese and Buddhist, as some of the statutory reveals.
One of them tells me her partner is a landscaper whose passion is bonsai.
It’s his private collection – some of them seem surprisingly large to bonsai ignoramus me – that makes up the serenely designed garden that adjoins the cool, calm undercover seating area.
There are smaller, younger plants for sale in the rear section.
I ponder the mocktail list.
This is a document Bennie will no doubt study with intensity when the time comes.
Maybe a Dutch Treat – milk, cocoa, cinnamon and honey – will be his go.
Or maybe a Black Widow of vanilla ice cream, lime juice and cola.
The boy does love a sundae, after all.
They seem very reasonably priced at $5, but it’s a bit hard to tell without laying eyes on one and seeing how big they are.
I play creature of habit and order a cafe latte.
It’s fine.
I’ve had it good lately with fantastic coffee from diverse and non-standard cafe settings – Cup & Bean and Tico’s Drive Thru, for instance.
You won’t get a feed at Sweet Grass but it’s nourishment for the soul anyway.
Read another story on Sweet Grass at Fill Up On Bread.
Tico’s Drive Thru
Posted: January 24, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Coffee, Doughnuts, Drive-thru food, Melbourne, western suburbs 2 Comments »
Tico's Drive Thru has a stylish appearance.
Tico’s Drive Thru, 549 Geelong Rd, Brooklyn.
Tico is really on to a winner here.
Actually, there is no Tico.
The owner and proprietor of Tico’s Drive Thru is a cheerful and energetic chap by the name of Hugo.
Tico, he explains to me, is vernacular for Costa Rican – in the same way as Aussie or Yank.
Hugo is Costa Rican, having moved to Australia about 27 years ago, and so is his Di Bella coffee.
He’d owned the triangular site on the corner of Geelong Rd, Francis St and Millers Rd for about eight years with not much idea what he was going to do with it until he dreamed up his bustling coffee enterprise.
Having driven past so many times, it’s a little surreal to be watching him and his staff as the endless streams of cars and trucks whiz by in both directions.
Hugo tells me they’re nearing the end of the morning rush hours, but they still seem plenty busy to me.
Tico's produces about 700 coffees a day.
Incredibly, they sell about 750 coffees every week day.
And of those, Hugo says, about 600 are regulars.
He may not remember the routine orders of all those 600 or so, but he certainly knows those of the half-dozen or so cars that have pulled in as we are talking.
Most small/regular coffees are priced at $3.
My cafe latte is excellent.
There’s little or no room for a customer to linger, as this is a dedicated drive-by operation – the confined nature of the property allows nothing else.
But Hugo says future outlets will hopefully cater to sit-down customers, too.
The next is planned for Essendon.
This, the first Tico’s, sells a basic range of cookies, but a doughnut machine is in the process of being installed and should be in operation in about three weeks.
They give copies of the Herald Sun to customers, the wireless EFTPOS service takes no longer than a cash transaction and there’s an on-site ATM.
I feel fatigued just watching the Tico’s crew in action.
Cup & Bean – coffee nirvana in Yarraville
Posted: January 13, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Coffee, Melbourne, western suburbs, Yarraville Leave a comment »
Cup & Bean's Tim is a serious coffee dude.
20 Wembley Ave, Yarraville. Phone: 0459 075 207
Cup & Bean proprietor Tim doesn’t see himself as coffee zealot or crusader, but there’s no doubt he’s passionate about his coffee and his new venture in Wembley Ave, Yarraville.
Right next door to very good Indian establishment Mishra’s Kitchen, Cup & Bean pays homage to the premise’s previous incarnation as a greengrocer by stocking a limited but useful range of fresh produce.
For the time being, the food offerings are being kept simple – sandwiches, pastries and the like – with Tim keeping an open mind about it and welcoming customer feedback.
The in-house bean brews have a much more singular focus, though, with Tim ushering me behind the counter to show how he uses a “double group handle” – often used to make two coffees – to create superb efforts at $3.60 a pop.
Tim has a coffee pedigree that includes stints with the Jasper brand and what he refers to as “multiple site management”, which is why he’s having such a grand time being hands-on in his own enterprise.
He is sourcing his beans from Geelong outfit Cartel Coffee Roasters while his compostable takeaway cups and lids come from PLAnet Cup.
I have two coffees as we visit and talk – one an ordered and paid-for cafe latte and the other a gratis “demonstration” model of the same genre.
They are both excellent – just the right temperature, creamy and intense without being bitter or too strong.
Excellent? Actually, they’re perfect.
Cup & Bean is a lovely space.
At the front are comfy old armchairs, including a rocking nursing chair, and a growing collection toys.
In the centre of the room, a large communal wooden table is surrounded by similarly personality-laden chairs of a more upright variety.
The walls are adorned with lovely paintings.
Cup & Bean is open 7.30am-4.30pm Monday to Friday and Saturdays from 8am-1pm.
The Australian Coffee Festival & Cafe Biz 2011
Posted: May 22, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Coffee, Melbourne, western suburbs 2 Comments »
Melbourne Show Grounds, May 21 & 22
This here coffee bash seems to present the same unknowns as the recent National Vegetable Expo.
Will it offer enough to entertain and enlighten?
I love my java, but get by with bargain-priced vacuum-packed product at home and generally have two cafe lattes while out and about during the day – quite different from the six-plus cups of a decade ago.
Certainly I’m not a paid-up member of the coffee cult and have little interest in the likes of single-estate beans and so on.
Pondering these unknowns, I realise that one of the links I have for the exhibition lists Sunday as being “trade only”. A quick phone call to one of the organisers fixes that up – yes, I am quite welcome.
I figure it’s a good thing, too, that I am destined for a night shift starting at 4pm. Caffeinated is the way to go!
As with the vegetable show, many of the exhibitors are concerned with packaging and other paraphernalia.
The lovely crew from hookTURN are having a swell time talking up their gorgeous silicon and reusable coffee containers:
Several stallholders are spruiking far out custom-made coffee tampers:
Greg Pullman from Pullman Espresso Accessories tells me tampers are crucial, with the feel and weight of the tampers in the hand, and their fit, all important.
My first coffee is made for me by Danny Zamprogno of Boema coffee machines and accessories. He tells me the event is definitely good for business.
I also indulge in a Turkish coffee – very different from my usual intake – with a piece of Turkish delight on the side.
There are, of course, plenty of other sweet treats to be had:
The lads from Big Harvest are pitching their ready-made salads and other goodies, which they tell me are ideal for the ubiquitous hole-in-the-wall joints that lack the facilities for largescale food preparation.
The crew from Bonsoy admit, somewhat ruefully, that talking up their products in the midst of so many caffeine crazies is an uphill task … but they’re having a fine time giving it a crack.
Some exhibitors take a strictly scientific, molecular approach to coffee:
There’s even a stall for a job agency specifically focussed on the coffee industry:
As if folks aren’t wired up enough, the sound system is pumping out the likes of Eye Of The Tiger, Street Fighting Man and Whip It.
The coffee lover and sports fan in me combine as I become engrossed in a barista showdown between teams from South Australia and Western Australia.
It’s very intense.
Teams must produce 30 brews of widely varying kinds in 20 minutes.
The judges base their assessments on temperature, taste and latte art, using poker chips to denote their ratings.
My thanks to Victorian team captain Erin Sampson, who works for Veneziano Coffee, for explaining the competition to me. She is Australia’s most awarded female barista.
Thanks, too, for the ace “Vic State Of Origin Barista” T-shirt. I’ll wear it with pride.
End result after two hours? Some fine coffee and encounters with some very interesting and passionate people.
On departing, it seems weird and not a little wonderful to be strolling back to my car amid deserted territory that I am so used to traipsing amid show hordes.
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