There's a few places in the village that I'll eventually get around to - the very busy and unexciting name of Cornershop, the smoothies and veg fare of Healthy Self Co, and even a trip to distant Yarraville to Butcher 128.
For the sake of convenient location, rating and first impressions, Cobb Lane was my first neighbourhood entry. Although the heart of winter, it was a sunny and semi-warm day (although there was a 1min spatter of rain in true Melbourne style).
The soy chai was quite nice, with a decent amount of spice and not too much sweetness or cinnamon. It was a tough call between the British Breakfast (a nod to a previous life, my lust of black pudding, the lack of it around Australian cafes) and the Pork Jowl.
- British Breakfast $19.5 - a rounded scotch egg with some nice mince, an excellent house-made black pudding that was flavoursome and very creamy in texture without too much fat cubes, thick cut bacon that was really thick sliced fried pork belly, Welsh rarebit with a strong (vintage?) cheese and some HP sauce for a bit of tangy balance. The best "British" breakfast I've had, including in the UK;
- Duck Hash (duck leg hash brown, fried duck egg, aioli & rhubarb, cress & celery salad) $20 - a nice dish on paper although I didn't enjoy the final product as much as expected. The hash brown seemed like a duck potato salad and could have used more char and seasoning I felt.
I was very impressed with the British Breakfast and the soy chai and would easily come back for those. There is a bread trolley of which I purchased an $8 seeded 100% rye loaf (vollkornbrot) with a slightly tangy dense texture for my home cooked breakfasts. There is also a nice looking selection of cakes that I'm sure will lift your spirits (and your blood sugar levels).