One can easily imagine an over-zealous real estate agent describing North Melbourne’s Melrose Street shopping strip as a “renovator’s dream!” Despite its close proximity to the city, the enclave that connects the adjacent housing commission flats to the street only features a small smattering of shops. It’s there that Pocket Cafe slots perfectly into a 20-square-metre space that lay vacant for four years before being discovered by owner Jacob Stammers.

While the cafe has just five bench seats, plus three larger outside tables, customers feel welcome to sit and enjoy a coffee and a cracking yarn with the staff at their own leisurely pace.

Aside from bread and bagels, which are provided by the experts at Woodfrog Bakery and Glicks respectively, all items are made in-house and will leave you with change from a tenner. That means muffins with rotating flavours, a banana and coconut loaf, breakfast tarts with homemade relish, grab-and-go ciabattas and salads, plus specials on weekends. The menu’s pièce de résistance? The Allpress iced coffee, already famous among local residents, that comes served with a sphere of ice bang in the middle of the glass.