Keyword results: Cafe
CIBI
It doesn't matter that CIBI is at the sneaker-warehouse end of Smith Street, or that it's hidden in a backstreet between overgrown houses and factories. This spacious café/design-nerd paradise could be poking out from any industrial suburb and it'd still be poking out with pride.
CIBI is a big space, split into two areas.
A Minor Place
A friend of mine just invented a new social manoeuvre. Check it: bumping into Said Friend he talks-up a great new-but-old dining venue. He's meeting two mutual friends and I'm welcome to join them. Peachy. So I call and tell them I'm dead keen. I don't hear anything more from Said Friend but assume he's definitely in.
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'.
Julio
Benevolent, daggy yet inherently cool, Julio, like Paul Simon, is indifferent to judging eyes. Fresh jam and custard doughnuts are Julio's trademark product. Gobble one while you tap into the free wireless internet and slurp your Supreme coffee.
Should you feel like something more, the menu offers a delightful mix of items startlingly different from Melbourne's quotidian cafe chow, a ‘Turkish breakfast plate' with tomato, cucumber, fetta and olives sets the tonefor a Moorish themed menu, dominated by salads and fresh produce rather than bread (although the sardine, lemon and harissa toasted sandwich is a ripper).
Fandango Café
In this fast-paced, profit hungry world, it's nice to know there's still a place you can go where everyone knows your name. That place is Fandango. Since late November 2006, this now famous North Melbourne eatery, housed in a shopfront on bustling Errol Street, has been central to the social lives of many local residents and their friends (who, rumour has it, travel from as far away as Richmond to sample the wares).
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