Lenny
It’s harder than ever to stand out in Melbourne’s competitive breakfast market. And yet, it’s taken just two years for childhood friends Christina Higgins and Stephen Svensen to make their mark – first with Moby in Armadale and again earlier this year, with Lenny in Albert Park.

Higgins once worked in London as catering manager for lauded chef Yotam Ottolenghi. Svensen was previously head chef at landmark cafes Barry and Pillar of Salt. At Lenny, their combined experience ensures classics such as smashed avo and Bircher muesli are on point, and more original dishes – savoury duck waffles with juniper-infused maple, for example – often have a cosmopolitan slant.

These strengths aren’t particularly obvious from outside. Like many cafes, Lenny’s interior is a blinding white and the furniture is predominantly made of blonde wood. But what we like about the calming fit-out from interior designer Golden is the small details. The brief – “Something beachy, but not literal” – was fulfilled with comfy wicker chairs and coral accents, including a piece of actual coral for the front door handle. This tranquil feel continues onto the footpath, where big umbrellas and picket fences are set out for dog owners. Pooches are most welcome – Lenny, after all, is named in honour of Svensen’s vizsla.

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One for the Crow
Stephanie and Taze Brodel’s original plan was a farm-to-table cafe, but after driving past this empty shopfront in Maidstone over and over, a new concept began to crystallise.

Stephanie is a horticulturalist and her husband is a vegan. Together they’ve created a nursery-cafe hybrid, where you can pick up a potted maidenhair fern for home after a breakfast of sweet potato, zucchini and corn fritters, or banana waffles with soy ice-cream. Cow’s milk is the only animal product on the menu, although alternative milks are available for dedicated vegans. The resident plants – such as begonia flowers – also appear in dishes from time to time.

Other things you’ll find in the nursery include vintage and re-purposed pots and planters, a variety of cacti, vines and other hanging plants. Stephanie is on hand to answer any questions, such as how to keep your purchases alive. We like how the Brodels took their two personal passions and combined them in such a convincing way. This concept would stand out anywhere in Melbourne, but it’s particularly distinctive in Maidstone, which previously only had one notable cafe in Jack B Nimble.

Parco
In any big city, competition for space is always intense. And often, some of the most interesting cafes, bars and restaurants are those that dare to move into an awkward, unintuitive or downright difficult space. That much is certainly true with Parco, which lives in a former power substation, in the middle of a traffic island on Argyle Place. Co-owner Jarrod Balme was able to secure the site from Yarra council with his “pit bull tenacity”, reports business partner Adrian Pagano. The duo also runs Juan Fiddy, a fancy hot dog cart that often appears outside the ‘G.

At a time when every cafe seems to be reaching for the stars by roasting its own coffee and baking its own bread, it’s refreshing to visit a place with more modest, though no less refined ambitions. With its alfresco tables (blankets are provided in winter) Parco is little more than a kiosk. And yet, it’s a kiosk that gets its meat from Meatsmith, its pastries from Dench and its espresso blend from Coffee Supreme. Breakfast could be a banh mi with maple-glazed bacon, fried egg, pickled carrot, coriander and miso mayo in a brioche bun. Or a thick slab of brioche smeared with ricotta and jam. Parco is proof breakfast doesn’t always have to be a big event.

This story originally appeared in Melbourne print issue 23.