Melbourne Cafe Reviews

Trieste Caffe
601 Vallejo St
North Beach
San Francisco
USA

Round tables with mosaic tops. Cool intellectual/music type crowd. One or two laptops. No music. Very quiet, laid-back. Has an old 1950′s feel – the SF equivalent to Pellegrinis. Soft lighting. Welcoming. No attitude. As soon as you enter you feel welcome. People come and go regularly. You could hang but 30 minutes would seem fine. Tables and chairs outdoors on the pavement.

A long black is called an Americano as I believe they’re called in Italy. Single shot, little crema, but good flavour. Right temperature.

We had a marzipan croissant. Only cakes are available after 3 pm. Food is clearly fresh each day.

You queue then request you order. You wait and pay at the counter. Americano $2.50, Cappuccino $2.50. Croissant $3.00. (US $)

Coffee to the People
1206 Masonic Ave
Haight Ashbury
San Fransico CA 94117
USA

Very cool, laidback, spacious. Small circular wooden tables painted pink. Comfy lounges in alcove. Orange and pink walls. Olive ceiling. Light floods in during the summer afternoon. People sit at laptops – one guy writes in a notebook. A sign is set in our table, “Not in our name. No war on Iraq. No war on the world.” Other signs on walls – “Children should be seen and heard and believed,” “Little by little one walks far,” “It is only to the individual a soul is given.”

I had a short black, $1.50. All coffees come in “small” (12 oz) “medium” (16 oz) or “large” (20 oz) and priced accordingly. Only fair trade coffee is used. My s.b. was strong in flavour, good crema, good temperature.

Only had a choc chip cookie for $1.50. This was large, soft, fresh and good val. Snacks were also available, but we only came for a coffee.

You order and pay at the counter. You collect your own food and beverage. Costs as above. Excellent value.

Turtle Cafe
34 Glenhuntly Rd (on the corner of Ormond and Glenhuntly Rds)
Elwood VIC 3184
(03) 9525 6952

Public Transport:

Tram No 67, Stop 42 – from here walk down Glenhuntly Rd to Turtle or catch the Bus down;
(or, get off at stop 39 and walk through the leafy streets to Turtle)
Train Sandringham Line, get off Elsternwick Station, catch the bus down.
Bus No 246 goes down Glenhuntly Rd.

If Ray Cafe is my benchmark for coffee, then Turtle is my benchmark for atmosphere – and the coffee’s good too. It’s more your classic kind of cafe, unlike the new and cool hole-in-wall ones. Turtle occupies a loverly rounded corner in Elwood. There’s plenty of seating outside, although some shade has gone since the council lobbed a large gum. Inside there’s turtle-back looking tables, in what I’d call the main area, and bar stools with copper topped benches all around the windows. The glass frontage curves right around the corner so you can choose to sit in your preferred position: more sun, less sun, a view to other cafes across the road. And around to the right of the counter/service area, the a second area which you can hang in with a similar layout to the main area, but a bit smaller.

There’s plenty on offer food wise. Soups are good, there’s good veggie options and a great breakfast menu offering one of my favourites, Turtle Eggs (just the name, not actually the creature’s eggs). I’ve never had mushrooms as tasty as these, and the bread they give you is a really nice sour dough (bread quality is a bit of a test I reckon.) Head up to the counter for a look at their cakes. There’s normally two or three on offer, and I’ve never been let down. Cakes come with cream or ice-cream… or both.

I like the tall ceiling and the way spaces are broken up. I find it has a relaxed, spacious feel. You can kick back here for two hours and read. The beach is only 500 meters or so down the road, and this could add to that feeling too.

Coffee is generally very good. A long black comes with a solid crema, good heat and strength. Only occassionally I’ve a had a one a bit lacking on crema and strength.

The people here vary in type. Plenty of 30s people who’d live in the area. Often 40s, 50s, 60s. Mainly couples and the odd group or family. Some come on their own, read books, study notes or write.