Late last year I noticed that a new restaurant had opened on the North Carlton side of Nicholson St in the cafe strip north of Pigdon / Scotchmer streets. It’s mostly a daytime scene, with A Treat of France and Natural Tucker bakeries and Figs and Birdie Num Nums cafes all being popular.
Night time is different. Bar Fred can be packed and draws a younger crowd for beer and excellent pizza, but the strip is not known for good food.…
Political art by Klara on Nicholson St North Carlton.
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Bistro Flor on Nicholson St North Carlton has been on my list of dinner destinations for months, and when I finally went for the first time last week I was very impressed. My dinner companion had eaten there before and provided a sound recommendation that I am glad to pass on. It used to be a wine bar called Flor but expanded to become a cosy local bistro about 2008.
We began with ordering one of my favourite Victorian wines from the impressive list: the Point Leo Road lagrein (from the Mornington Peninsula) which, at $50, was well priced.…
Years ago I used to enjoy eating at the Great Northern hotel on Rathdowne St with friends who used to live nearby in North Fitzroy and North Carlton. I’ve not been there in several years – perhaps before the smoking ban in pubs came into effect – because the large rear beer garden was new to me when I was there last Wednesday night. The food is as I remember it – generous serves of familiar pub food and lots of good beers on tap.…
Newish cafe A Treat of France, on the busy North Carlton side of Nicholson St, has a stark minimalist interior but a stunning front window full of amazing looking treats. On passing recently I could not resist trying a chicken and mushroom quiche for lunch. The pastry is short and the filling delicate and silky, more like the egg custard in desserts than in most quiches. The flavour was impressive and the coffee is reasonable too.…
Cafe Pinocchio on Rathdowne St in North Carlton introduced a new offer on their site recently that drew me from campus for lunch. The $20 Hungarian set lunch (March only) of a main, dessert and coffee sounded good and I love the food of central Europe. I enjoyed a stuffed capsicum so soft and full of minced meat and rice that it had mostly collapsed, a kugel cake (not sure of my spelling, delicious with a texture like pannetone or brioche) and a good strong macchiato.…
I find it ridiculous in the age of radical transparency being brought forth by the ubiquity of online information that data paid for and owned by citizens is kept from citizens by out of touch governments. I believe that taxpayer funded data must be freely available to the public. A good example is the information gathered by local governments during their food hygiene inspections of restaurants.
We the ratepayers pay for this work to be undertaken to ensure food business prepare and serve food safely and hygienically.…
I regularly read the City of Yarra website to find information about local services and to discover new local events. The more I read it, the more frustrated I get with how out of date it is. I’m in the mood for a whinging rant but I’ll also give them some free advice about how to create a modern site that meets the needs of the community.
Problem: the site is designed to be viewed only in Microsoft Internet Explorer.…
I’ve been thinking about whether to post this for some time. I believe in free speech, but whether I should be seen to promote (and thus be accused of implicitly approving of) speech I strongly disagree with is another matter. In general, I think that sharing information about the local community allows the community to better understand itself.
So, despite my misgivings about drawing attention to a group whose politics I find deeply suspect, residents of the City of Yarra should know that a national-anarchist group has established itself in the area, at least according to its own media.…