North Cafeteria
| Where | 717 Rathdowne St, North Carlton, 3054—View map |
Contact | 03 9348 1276 |
Website | — |
Open | Breakfast Monday to Friday 8.00am to 4.00pm |
Payment | Cash |
Diet | Vegan, Soy, Gluten free |
Seating | Inside and outside |
Kids | Welcome |
Pets | Welcome |
North Carlton's Northern Star
Ellie Parker 20 April 2008
The first item on North's menu is a Champions Breakfast of boiled eggs with toast soldiers and relish. Call me a child, but this is as good as it gets in breakfast world. This lovely little North Carlton café is pitched directly to people who sometimes just feel like an egg and a coffee. Excellent but simple food made with fresh, quality ingredients and a touch of inspiration.
Nestled on the Northern edge of Rathdowne Village, North is a modest-looking little café. The inside is snug with tables and chairs, and bench seating facing out towards the leafy village. The décor is clever in its simplicity with a mural of black and white hand-drawn cartoon portraits creating a feature wall. Bowls of lemons and a stack of this season's pumpkins bring colour and winter warmth to the room.
There are a couple of instant attractions café-wise. First, there is a regular handful of staff, which means that they operate a swift, efficient business. You get the sense that they feel like they are at home and they are happy for you to be on their couch. Second, the staff will almost always take your coffee order before you have even landed in your seat. For anybody who is usually a little strung-out on a Saturday or Sunday morning, this has major appeal.
There are other little reminders that North pays attention to detail, such as the regular replenishment of dog bowls for thirsty pooches. Gingerbread bears and Junior toasties cater for little tots (or kidults as the case may be). Latte Soy Dandies are available to those with an aversion to a coffee. Takeaway coffee cups are individually stamped with the North signature bird.
Most importantly, North's menu will have you staring at the blackboard for too long. The choice is agonising and often involves corralling friends into ordering one of the two dishes that you have in mind.
Porridge with dates, apple, walnuts and cinnamon is brilliant for warming up the cockles. North beans with silverbeet on rye toast, comes with a seriously hearty pile of cannellini beans, fragrantly cooked with rosemary, alongside freshly sautéed silverbeet dressed with lemon juice.
The French toast is one of those dishes that makes you kick yourself when you see it appear from the kitchen and land in front of somebody else. With poached pear, walnut, lemon honey and labne it has a sweet, lemony tang that mingles deliciously with the labne.
The heuvos rancheros is god's gift to hangovers. Two eggs are perfectly fried and sit on a bed of fresh tortillas, spicy black beans, salsa and avocado. Melted cheese oozes from the volcano of beans, which just tops the whole dish off.
North is probably best known for its Reuben sandwich. The menu describes the Reuben as ‘openly grilled corned beef, Swiss cheese, dill mayo and sauerkraut'. For many, the Reuben makes everything else fall by the wayside. It is one of those dishes that, once bitten, forever smitten.
So a word of warning, if you want to travel through North's menu, leave the Reuben till last.