ometimes the cafe scene in Melbourne feels like an exercise in thievery – you’d understand the feeling if you’ve ever spent over $4 on a coffee that turned out to be nothing more than watery froth. But at new Fitzroy cafe The Breakfast Thieves, the only larceny occurring is how much time you’ll end up stealing in order to try as much of the menu as possible.

From the ‘Morning Feed’ section, there are sweets in the form of the Brioche Pain Perdu (French toast with maple syrup and cinnamon-poached apples, vanilla mascarpone and crushed pistachios). Or perhaps the smashed avocado dish, fittingly called ‘The Leprechaun’ is more your style? If you can’t choose between sweet and savoury, have both with ‘The Breakfast Chain’, a mixed board that includes granola, honey vanilla yoghurt, a hard-boiled egg, mini apple crumble and a cheese toastie.

The ‘Lunch Out’ menu is available from 11.30am and each dish is named to invoke a gallery of rouges. The Sicilian-style spaghetti Bolognese is of course called the ‘Don Corleone’, while the pork belly with corn bread and crispy salad is named after notorious Malaysian gangster Botak Chin. The real winner here is our own ‘Ned Kelly’, a dish of seasonal mushrooms with herbed polenta wedges, tomato fondue and a poached egg.

The focus here is on freshness and local ingredients. The coffee is Social Roasting Company, the milk Jonesy’s and Bonsoy, the bread Le Madre, and there are gluten-free options available too.

So pull up a stool at The Breakfast Thieves and scheme yourself a shady breakfast deal. Crime may not pay, but in this case it sure is delicious.

The Breakfast Thieves
Shop 1/420 Gore Street, Fitzroy
(03) 9416 4884

Hours
Daily 7.30am–5pm

facebook.com/BreakfastThieves