Mitte Café
You know how it happens: you light some candles, pour another glass of red wine and before you know it you're standing on the street watching the fire brigade hose down your rental property. That's what happened to the tenants of number 76 Michael Street in 2007. Happily, Mitte has risen phoenix-like from the ashes, bringing with it tasty breakfast and lunch treats.
Easy Cafe
The best thing about bubble cup tea is getting the black balls that are inside the tea and shooting them out with a massive plastic straw. Under Melbourne's comic book haven you'll find a techno-colored bubble tea wonderland that Alice herself doesn't even know exists.
The snacks aren't as good as the décor, but still when you have egg dipped in soy sauce you have to think to yourself, "Where the fuck am I?" There's stuff like bubble tea, ice tea, and hot ice blends, don't ask me how that works.
Sugardough Panificio and Patisserie
Sugardough looks and smells just like grandma's kitchen. Pretty Portmeirion and fine china tea cups hang on the walls along side ornate plates, adding a touch of home charm to this sweet-scented bakery café. Here is a place unafraid of teasing your greedy eyes and evidently proud of its produce.
Quarter Espresso at Collins Quarter
Even though Collins Quarter was destined to be a Friday-night-work-drinks haven, there are a few hours in the morning where it doesn't smell of dry cleaning. You shouldn't have to bust out your dowsing rods to find a secluded hovel to drink coffee and read the morning's news. So while we've covered Collins Quarter in the past, they've been working on their new concept to relieve your mornings of chaos.
Minlokal
Communal tables are fun in theory; banquets of towering cakes, stuffed pigs and candelabras have appeared in almost every given Shakespearean setting and the Hogwarts Dining Room sounds like the best place to eat Yorkshire pudding. But for most, group dining is a reminder of bitchy school camp trough-scoffing.
Mixed Business
Mixed Business is both a café and a convalescent home. You wander in feeling a bit fragile, even wary of spending a hungover Saturday morning in a fledgling café.
But fear not - you are soon taken under the care of a remarkable waitress who somehow combines Greek yiayia, old-school English nurse and hospitality hottie into one soothing package.
Bird Brain café
From the team behind St Jerome's and Sister Bella comes a new little chick hatching before our eyes, this time in the form of café-cum-bar Bird Brain. While it's early days here, this is the time to get on board and come help scuff up the polished concrete. The walls are still bare but the chalkboard promises tasty treats to come, in the form of chunky foccacias given kooky names such as 'Corny Cow' and 'Liver Cleanser'.
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