suburb

St Kilda Dispensary

St Kilda Dispensary

St Kilda Dispensary is a sweet cafe on Brighton Road – near the corner of St Kilda Road and Carlisle Street. The name is a reference to the original usage of the building, which was – surprise surprise – a dispensary. The cafe runs over two rooms, and while small it’s really cute inside, with a colour scheme of white and green, and decorated with lots of vintage pharmaceutical and medical items.

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Visit Wangaratta Part 1

Horse

Disclosure: Our visit was courtesy of the Rural City of Wangaratta.

Top reasons to visit Wangaratta:

It’s far enough from Melbourne to feel that you’re actually going somewhere and actually getting away from the city, but not so far you can’t visit in a weekend.
It’s located in North East Victoria, which is a gorgeous part of the state – think alpine valleys, mountains, rivers, wineries and gourmet food producers.
But the best reason – you can tell everyone you’re going to the Wang.

In May, I visited Wangaratta as part of a bloggers’ trip with DD, Taz, Shellie and Veda. Very early one Saturday morning we piled into two cars and left Melbourne for the three hour trip north.

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Ike’s Rack Shack

Hot sauce

Grab your bib friends, tonight’s post is all about ribs.

(Not whoop ass, like the photo might suggest.)

Ike’s Rack Shack is located in the back room of The Beaufort in Carlton and to really emphasise that shack theme, the floor is astro turf, there’s wooden picnic tables, and corrugated iron on the ceiling.

And racks? The menu focus is ribs – racks of ribs.

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The Westin: An Eclair Affair

Eclairs

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of The Westin & Q Strategies.

I have been to rather a lot of afternoon teas in the past couple of years, so it’s always nice when I go to one that’s a little bit different.

The Westin is serving An Eclair Affair in the Lobby Lounge every afternoon until 30 June – and the point of difference? Instead of the usual little cakes and sandwiches, the afternoon tea comes with savoury and sweet eclairs. There are still scones (it wouldn’t be afternoon tea without them, right?) with accompanying jam and cream, but the stars on the stand are the eclairs.

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Workshop Brothers

Latte

Here is something you must know if you’re doing an op shop crawl: proper sustenance before you begin is very important.

Because if you do a trip that spans five hours and 15+ shops, you need to make sure your energy levels are up and your treasure spotting senses are on top form.

The last time I did an op show crawl with my opping crew (DD, Shellie and Taz – PS my friends we are overdue for one!), we gathered for breakfast at Workshop Brothers, on DD’s suggestion.

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Mr Ed

Coffee

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course,
That is of course, unless the horse,
Is the famous Mister Ed.

Does anyone else remember this show? And did anyone else ever want to now why Mister Ed talked? Or why he only talked to Wilbur? Did Mister Ed *really* speak or was Wilbur crazy? So many questions!

Fortunately Mr Ed the cafe doesn’t throw up quite so many questions. It’s a newish cafe on Racecourse Road, and must have opened in the past couple of months because I noticed it the other week when we drove past.

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Smith and Daughters

Smith and Daughters

Disclosure: Alastair and I attended courtesy of Smith & Daughters.

Smith and Daughters is a new restaurant on Fitzroy Street, serving latin plant based food.

Plant based? Yes, it’s another way of saying that it’s a vegan restaurant, with no animal products used in any of the food or drinks.

The restaurant is near the Gertrude end of Fitzroy Street (the old Los Amates) and those who remember that restaurant will easily recognise the corner building. The interior has been brightened but the beautiful bluestone walls and the bar in the front corner have remained, with interesting artwork, neon signs, and knick knacks decorating the place.

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Bowery to Williamsburg

Coffee

I keep wanting to call this cafe Bowery to Williamstown instead of Bowery to Willamsburg.

The real name is a homage to New York’s Bowery subway station, but I personally feel that the owners missed an opportunity to work in a reference to Melbourne. I’m sure that Willamsburg, New York is 100000% cooler than Williamstown, Melbourne, but so what? 🙂

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Prahran Market: Harvest the Sea and the Vine – MFWF

Wine

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of Prahran Market.

It’s that time of year again – yes, it’s March and the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is back.

I don’t have much planned for this year’s festival for some reason. I had a bit going on when the program was released last year and just never got around to organising anything. And I must admit that the allure of staying home and doing absolutely nothing is having a very strong pull on me at the moment!

But last weekend, I left the house temporarily to go to Prahran Market to attend their Harvest the Sea and the Vine event.

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