Public Transport: Brilliant. 2 min walk from Yarraville Station.

I sit at a bright red laminex table rimmed with aluminium. It has 5 brothers and sisters, a larger green laminex table and a laminex bench with high chairs fronting Ballarat St. There are touches of corrugated iron, a clean concrete floor, soft yellow wall (replete with a birdie on a bush inscription) plus a good stack of papers and mags.

My long black is filled to the correct depth, good crema but a tad cool. Water is available. Music is soft, sometimes barely noticeable. This is more a lunch place than a cake and coffee nook so we find organic fruit toast, sourdough bread, satay burgers, spanikopita, lentil dahl and falafels as standard fare. Service is friendly.

A few outdoor tables on the pavement. A couple of slow fans hanging from the pine ceiling. An old Wega coffee machine, Genovese coffee, a chunky vase with big stalky yellow flowers, some still in bud. Artworks for sale grace a wall.