Cindy had scheduled a mid-morning ear-piercing in Prahran and, to fill the time beforehand, we decided to find ourselves some breakfast somewhere around Chapel Street. The Cheap Eats guide was full of places that sounded interesting, and in the end we just chose the one closest to the piercing shop: Ice Cafe Bar. We arrived at 10ish to find the spillover from Chapel Street's night club scene winding down with champagne and eggs. Luckily, there was room for those of us who felt that sleep was a good precursor to breakfast and we slotted in to one of the windowside tables.
The whole place felt a little like an after-party: quiet but insistent beats on the sound system, ridiculously friendly waitstaff who looked ready to throw their hands in the air at the slightest provocation and lots of people more fashionable than us. The only thing out of place were the few family groups with little kids. Still, the kids were pretty snappily dressed.
Anyway, moving on from the very un-northside atmosphere. The menu was reasonably large, but not particularly full of vegetarian choices. Cindy decided to take things into her own hands and order the corn fritters minus the customary bacon. The staff were kind enough to offer up some mushrooms and fetta in exchange, which is better than you can say for some places. It was all pretty delicious (the avo looked particularly good from where I was sitting), but was maybe a little on the salty side.
I returned to an old favourite that I'd been neglecting for a while: eggs florentine. (It really has been ages - I just looked over our old posts and found my last eggs florentine on June 1!). This was a pretty decent attempt: well-poached eggs, a creamy (if slightly bland) hollandaise and generous piles of spinach. Nothing outstanding, but a welcome return to the buttery goodness of a hollandaise-based breakfast. The coffees were great (and came out very quickly indeed) and the service was really outstanding - no struggling to flag someone down for my 2nd coffee or surly cooler-than-thou attitude. Sure, these guys were undoubtedly cooler than Cindy and I, but they didn't rub it in. I appreciated it.
Address: 30 Cato Street, Prahran
Ph: 9510 8788
Licensed
Price: vego breakfasts - $6-$14
Website: http://www.icecafebar.com/ (check it out - it's hard to imagine a more minimalist web presence.)
The whole place felt a little like an after-party: quiet but insistent beats on the sound system, ridiculously friendly waitstaff who looked ready to throw their hands in the air at the slightest provocation and lots of people more fashionable than us. The only thing out of place were the few family groups with little kids. Still, the kids were pretty snappily dressed.
Anyway, moving on from the very un-northside atmosphere. The menu was reasonably large, but not particularly full of vegetarian choices. Cindy decided to take things into her own hands and order the corn fritters minus the customary bacon. The staff were kind enough to offer up some mushrooms and fetta in exchange, which is better than you can say for some places. It was all pretty delicious (the avo looked particularly good from where I was sitting), but was maybe a little on the salty side.
I returned to an old favourite that I'd been neglecting for a while: eggs florentine. (It really has been ages - I just looked over our old posts and found my last eggs florentine on June 1!). This was a pretty decent attempt: well-poached eggs, a creamy (if slightly bland) hollandaise and generous piles of spinach. Nothing outstanding, but a welcome return to the buttery goodness of a hollandaise-based breakfast. The coffees were great (and came out very quickly indeed) and the service was really outstanding - no struggling to flag someone down for my 2nd coffee or surly cooler-than-thou attitude. Sure, these guys were undoubtedly cooler than Cindy and I, but they didn't rub it in. I appreciated it.Address: 30 Cato Street, Prahran
Ph: 9510 8788
Licensed
Price: vego breakfasts - $6-$14
Website: http://www.icecafebar.com/ (check it out - it's hard to imagine a more minimalist web presence.)
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