Melbourne Patron

Just gone two years old, The Stables of Como cafe is happily ensconced in its pretty setting. More like a lavishly decorated country barn, the cafe occupies the former stables building of the historic Como House (corner of Williams Rd and Lechlade Avenue, South Yarra), surrounded by the property's bounteous garden. It is an odd location, somewhere between the guts of South Yarra, Toorak Village and the river, and you walk up a random leaf-lined driveway to get there. But once you find it, this cafe becomes your secret: a venue for brunch that you won't really want to share, so relaxing and pretty it is - almost like an unexpected piece of the country within urban Melbourne. The theme here is farmhouse green and white (I get lots of Anne of Green Gables references, myself). The building itself is shackled in white corrugated iron, with a clear awning over the side strip of astro turf, lined with giant pot plants: an area where patrons can choose to eat 'outdoors...

As you may have gathered, I tend to stay northside in Melbourne. This is due to several factors: I'm very lazy. The coffee northside is waaay closer to my house, and I can't operate until I've been caffeinated. I don't have a car and who can be arsed PT-ing when you don't really have to?! There is a BUCKETLOAD of Awesome on the north side, and  I came to Melbourne from Sydney for a different vibe - why would I visit the side of Melbourne that is most like Sydney?! (On a side note, I find it quite hilarious how there's a north/southside divide in Melbourne, much like in Sydney... Waterways, eh? They could cause wars!)  HOWEVER, on the very odd occasion, I venture out of my comfort zone to other suburbs (hey, sometimes even other CITIES! I know, right) and whilst there, I try to milk said unknown area for its best coffee/food/venues available. Recently, I spent a night in St Kilda prior to a weekend day trip, which meant that early one Saturday morn, I w...

My former housemate, a chef, knows a few people in the hospitality industry. From what I can see, they all hang out together, drink together when they finish service at two in the morning, and give each other silly nicknames like 'Fluffy'. So as soon as one of them branches out to open their own venue, or changes to a different role, the news spreads like wildfire. That's how the buzz surrounding a new venue starts. A coupla press releases and launch events gets the ball rolling, foodie mags and publications do their initial reviews, food bloggers get onto it, the locals flood in, and hospitality legends are born. When it's a quality new venue in a suburban location, the buzz seems even bigger. Such was the case with West 48 (48 Essex Street, Footscray), a cafe based in a quiet suburban street in Melbourne's inner west. I heard about it through my housemate - who knew someone working there or opening it or something - after which I promptly forgot about it. T...