Cafe

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Touchwood – Richmond – Sunday 28 September 2014 – Breakfast

Avocado #2

Avocado #2

I don’t envy someone opening up their own restaurant. It is a huge risk. In Richmond, there is exceptional competition, especially for cafes.

Given Touchwood is down the road from where I live, it was with anticipation that we first ventured to Bridge Road for breakfast. I’ll put that experience to the side, because it was far less than perfect. First impressions are important, but need to be balanced with the early headaches of opening a restaurant. I gave it several months before going back for lunch and found an improved cafe with a bit more assuredness. This time it was make or break. There are too many other great places around for one more negative experience.

You are never sure how staff and diners alike are going to be the morning after the AFL Grand Final. Bright, sunny and windy outside, inside very pleasant with no signs of the celebrations from yesterday (for Hawks supporters at least). No wait was a nice surprise, and although it took quite a while for someone to come and take our order, it didn’t take too long to then bring out the coffee, and food thereafter.

Poached eggs and bacon

Poached eggs and bacon

Catherine chose the second of two avocado selections featuring feta, mint, house smoked salmon, and pickled onion. The house smoke is strong, giving good depth of flavour to the salmon. The multigrain bread is terrific and there is plenty of fresh avocado mingling with the feta. While experimentation is great, I went plain and simple with poached eggs and crispy bacon on sourdough. It is good quality, as this breakfast staple should be. A slight critique is not buttering the bread. While there are a lot of fitness fanatics here, it is Sunday breakfast!

The coffee here is one of the best on Bridge Road. Both long blacks were consistently well made. Oranges are particularly good at the moment, and the OJ lived up to the season. On the service side, the chaos has definitely settled, and Touchwood has some rhythm. The floorstaff were friendly and were keeping their heads above water, just. It is a big cafe, with plenty of space out the back which will be great for summer. I need to add that the burger for lunch is a winner too!

Every restaurant deserves a second chance. The issue for new places is that if you are going out of your way, and you have a negative experience, you might not do the same again. Judging by the crowds since day one, Touchwood is pleasing many more than it displeases. Now that things have settled, I have been converted.

Touchwood on Urbanspoon

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Duchess of Spotswood – Spotswood – Saturday 13 September 2014 – Breakfast

Duchess of Pork

Duchess of Pork

Traditionally, the British have been known to do a great breakfast – maybe the best. The full English is a celebration of fried meats, eggs, and other foods like beans, tomatoes and mushrooms that get to share the plate with the stars. While there is an excitement in having every breakfast food you can think of available to you on one plate, at times it is too much, and at times the quality of the separate ingredients may not be the best.

A British themed breakfast spot is unusual because aren’t all breakfast spots that serve the traditional classics basically British by definition? At the Duchess of Spotswood the theme is more than appropriate. There is a traditional approach to the great British breakfast, using high quality ingredients, merged with some more modern tastes.

There is the “Breakfast of Champignons” which is one of my favourite names for a great dish of delicious mushrooms on toast with Stilton thrown in for good measure. Today I’m eating the “Duchess of Pork”, which is an interesting dish to start the day. Pork jowl broken down and formed into a rectangle, with crispy pork scattered around the plate, shaved truffle, two fried eggs, Madeira sauce and some toast. Pork jowl is an amazing gamey meat – very strong and rich. It combines beautifully with the Madeira sauce (which could be a little more liberal) and the yolk of the eggs. It’s not for every day, but today it is heavenly.

As you would hope, the bacon at the Duchess is a staple, thick sliced and incredibly good, whether combined in a simple bacon and eggs, or the Full English. Gladly, the Full English includes black pudding, and will be my choice next time I’m here with an appetite. The coffee is excellent, the orange juice is sweet and freshly squeezed, and the Spring weather is coming along nicely.

The Duchess has really sparked this little village in Spotswood into life. There is a terrific bakery, called Candied, and I can vouch for the rye, and the brûlée from the last trip. There is a cafe, serving only coffee, including syphon, and few other places in a relatively small space. Travel wise it is relatively easy, being the first exit just over the West Gate.

The Duchess is one of the best cafes in Melbourne. If it was in Brunswick, Fitzroy or the Inner East it would be an impossible wait, but here in Spotswood it fits perfectly.

Duchess of Spotswood on Urbanspoon