Melbourne Series - Manchester Press

https://www.facebook.com/manchesterpress

It was our final morning in Melbourne and we only had time for one last meal before heading to the airport and our flight home.  I'd really been struggling to find a breakfast spot in the Melbourne CBD that would be a little different from the dime-a-dozen cafes in the more popular lane-ways.  I was really looking for somewhere quintessentially Melbourne to have our last breakfast and most of my efforts in sourcing places to eat had been on lunch and dinner spots.  

To make matters worse, it was a cold and drizzly morning and we had to get our umbrellas out to wander around and look for a breakfast spot.  We'd been wandering around the city's more popular streets and lane-ways, so we wanted something a little off the beaten track.  Looking on our trusty mobile devices (yep, iPhones) we found a little spot that looked like it could be pretty good, so we trundled off to Rankins Lane in search of Manchester Press.

We found Rankins Lane easily enough and noticed that it was a little different from many of the other popular lane-ways, it looked a little grungier and a little edgier.  We'd slept in a little bit on our final day but even so, by the time we arrived at Manchester Press, the little cafe was not quite open, so we stood around in the rain, with our brollies up thinking that we were definitely having a Melbourne moment.  

Melbourne Series - Cutler & Co

http://www.cutlerandco.com.au/

We were drawing to the end of our Melbourne food safari but we'd left one our most anticipated restaurants until last.  There are an astounding number of well regarded restaurants in Melbourne and while Sydney might currently hold the record for the most number of three hatted restaurants, Melbourne has its fair share as well. People often wonder why I'm so focussed on visiting hatted restaurants around the country and it's simply this....they represent the pinnacle, the absolute best in what food has to offer.  The chefs behind these three hatted restaurants dedicate their lives to be the best, often with an unwavering focus that can be a little maniacal.

I'm slowly crossing off all of the country's best restaurants off my 'must visit' list and on this trip I was able to visit two of the best.  Vue De Monde was now a 'notch on my belt' (see post here) and our last dinner of the trip would see Cutler & Co join the list of prestigious restaurants I've dined at.  Amazingly, Cutler & Co is currently the seventh best restaurant on the Gourmet Travellers top 100 list and sits above eight ranked Vue de Monde.  Chef and owner of Cutler & Co Andrew McConnell, was also named the Gourmet Traveller Chef of the Year for 2014, which is an outstanding recognition of excellence.

Cutler & Co is located in up-and-coming Fitzroy, we'd initially found the restaurant when we had taken a wander around Fitzroy and Collingwood after our trip to the James Bond exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. We'd heard from a friend of SC's that Gertrude Street in Fitzroy was a place to check out and still had that cross over feel that was not quite gentrified and not quite grunge.  We had an early 6pm booking for dinner and since we'd already checked out where Cutler & Co was, and it was quite a lovely evening, we chose to walk the 15 minutes from our hotel.

Melbourne Series - Mamasita

http://www.mamasita.com.au/

There has been a restaurant that I've tried to get to a couple of times during visits to Melbourne and in fact, I had already tried unsuccessfully to get into it during my Melbourne food safari (see post here).  I've always had a problem with queuing at restaurants and on the whole object of the concept, which is why I've had trouble getting to Mamasita.  When it comes to queuing at restaurants, Mamasita has a unique reputation in foodie circles - it's just accepted that you will get along and spend time watching the back of someone else's head while waiting to get in (or if you are more industrious, make new friends).

After our failed attempt on Valentine's Day to queue and get in, we decided that we would try again the following day and get in for a Saturday lunch.  Mamasita opens from 12:30pm on a Saturday and to avoid queuing for a long time, we thought we would get there around 12pm and hopefully get towards the front of the queue.  No such luck, there were already about thirty people ahead of us in the queue and some of those were single people propping up the queue waiting for their friends to join.  Thinking that it would be 'now or never', we set in for a wait with the hope that we would score a table (like we did at Momofuku Noodle bar in NYC - see post here).

While we waited in the queue, we did strike up a conversation with some people in front of us, just to see if they had been before and what they thought about the wait - clearly not too impressed either.  I could hear lots of comment from people in the queue - in particular a hope and desire that the food at Mamasita would be worth the wait, thoughts echoing through my own mind.  12:30 came and the queue slowly moved forward and up the stairs that led to the dining area.  As we slowly shuffled forward, we wondered how big the restaurant was and if it would fit us all in before we were told that there would be another wait.  Inexorably the queue move forward and all of a sudden we were standing at the top of the stairs and we could see that we would definitely be getting a seat.  Things were looking up.

Melbourne Series - Cumulus Inc

http://cumulusinc.com.au/

It had been an awesome first couple of days in Melbourne for our food safari, with some excellent food and great adventures already under our belt.  A lot of food had been consumed but there was a lot more to go, and with a huge day planned we needed to start the day off right.  When you look at the lists of top breakfast spots in Melbourne, not a lot of them are right in the CBD, which is a bit strange given all of the amazing laneways that proliferate through the city.  One very popular breakfast spot that I've heard is a 'must-do' in Melbourne was The Hardware Societe, which was pretty much the most popular dining spot of any type in Melbourne.  Unfortunately, The Hardware Societe was closed forever, so I'd missed that boat.

After looking around on the internet and Urbanspoon, we finally got a case of analysis paralysis and couldn't make up our mind so thought that we would just go local and hit up Cumulus Inc, just around the corner in Flinders Lane.  I had heard amazing things about Cumulus Inc over the years and in particular how great the dinners were, but I had picked up that the breakfast offering was not too bad and after a quick check on their web site to see if there was stuff I'd eat for breakfast, we set out.  We hadn't made a reservation as the restaurant only takes reservations for more than seven people, so we hoped we would be early enough to score a seat.

It was a lovely morning in Melbourne, with the sun out and birds singing (well, I made that last bit up) and we were just happy to be walking around and exploring a different city.  As luck would have it, we arrived at Cumulus Inc just as the morning rush was starting, but we did manage to score a table inside the main dining area.  In fact, we were really really lucky and scored a table that could sit four and were able to spread out - a fact that seemed to annoy a group of four that came in after us and had to sit at the bar!