La Latteria is Melbourne's first cheesier, selling cheese, milk and yoghurt – and only cheese, milk and yoghurt – out of a Carlton shop, where the cheese is made daily on the premises.

Mixing up creamy whites in big vats and hand stretching curd is all in a day’s work for chef turned cheese maker Kirsty Laird. After working in the kitchen for many years, most recently as head chef at Tutto Bene in Southgate, Laird teamed up with her cheese supplier, Giorgio Linguanti of That's Amore Cheese in Thomastown. "He taught me all he knows and now we have La Latteria together," she relays excitedly.

They are calling it a laboratory, and this is actually the feeling you get when you walk in. The place feels quite sterile, the interior is stark white, and the smell is a bit like walking into a milking shed. Large milk vats sit on shelves and big wheels of parmigiano and pecorino lie in the fridge next to the pots of yoghurt and glass bottles of farm-fresh milk, which you can return after use to have sterilised and refilled.

But it’s the mozzaralla that people flock here for, as they have been doing since the lab’s opening only two weeks ago. Specialising in southern Italian cheeses, La Latteria has a display fridge full of bocconcini, fior di latte, smoked cheese such as scamorza – a semi-soft tear-drop shaped cheese – and caciocavallo (literally 'cheese on horseback', referring to the traditional maturing technique of suspending the cheese over a pole). Bound with rope and coated in wax for a sharper, more matured flavour is their Provolone made from calf rennet; it sits next to cheese baskets full of ricotta, and buffalo mozzarella made with curd from water buffalo in northern Queensland.

"The idea is for people to come and buy milk and cheese every day. That is the way it is made to be eaten, on the day or the next."

La Latteria
104 Elgin Street Carlton
Ph 9347 9009

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-2pm

www.latteria.com.au

Finally, a good excuse to head down AC/DC Lane again! 24 Moons is a collaboration of experienced industry minds as much as it’s a cocktail bar.

After a climb up the stairs to the old Alley Bar site you’ll find a rich, dark interior thronging with those in the know and perfectly balanced tunes. The fit out is modern, in a time when modern isn’t necessarily in vogue; it’s tempered by great dark-wood floors, low lighting and nature elements (no, the forest sounds aren’t in your head) sprinkled through the space, which really takes the edge off. Great, comfy furniture to suit most group sizes is a winner too, allowing easy accommodation for two, or 20... depending on need.

What really sets it apart, however, is the bar. It’s staffed by some notorious yet well-respected cocktail folk who deliver drinks with aplomb and intent, without any of that unnecessary pedestal attitude – you know, the kind that at some bars leaves you feeling like maybe you should just stay home drinking goon out of a mug.

Great drinks, served well in a great space. Sounds tough, eh?

And why the moniker 24 Moons? Well they’re only open for 24 moon cycles which makes that... 21 left. Don’t wait too long to check it out!

Where: AC/DC Lane (off Flinders Lane), (03) 9650 0035

I just don’t understand how this works. How this can possibly be the case?

Last Sunday morning, six days after they opened, I stood in line for at least 20 minutes at Three Bags Full. The place was packed. Who are these people? Where do they come from? How can they already know about this cafe tucked away in the back streets of Abbotsford? It’s mad.

After selling Liar Liar to St Ali last year, Nathan Toleman has spent his time preparing this project. Not surprisingly, it’s very much in the spirit of Liar Liar, its a clean, comfortable fit-out dominated by a long communal table and a couple of large, round marble-topped tables. The warm, low-key atmosphere belies the very serious coffee they’re offering, however.

Three Bags Full joins the ranks of other top Melbourne cafes, such as Seven Seeds, St Ali,Proud Mary and Market Lane, with a selection that goes well beyond espresso, to include paper filter and Clover.

The coffee offering here is every bit as considered as a good wine list. Using Five Senses coffee they’ve custom-designed two espresso blends specifically for the cafe, and have a different single origin offer for espresso, pour over and Clover.

Three Bags Full is just the first step in Nathan’s cafe plans. Within the next few months he’ll be opening an even bigger cafe complete with a small roasting facility in North Carlton. No doubt we’ll all have trouble getting a seat there too.

Where: Cnr Nicholson Street and Mollison Street, Abbotsford - (03) 9421 2732