Melbourne like a local: a coffee, lane and bookshop trail
Melbourne is the easiest big city in the world to spend a slow week in. Skip the obvious laneways for an hour — the better ones are two streets sideways.
Melbourne’s reputation is mostly correct: it’s the easiest big-city coffee culture in the world and the laneway thing is real. The reputation also means the obvious laneway (Degraves) is somebody’s queue every morning. The version of Melbourne the city actually moves through is one block off, and quieter, and better.
Coffee — Fitzroy, Collingwood, Carlton
Patricia Coffee Brewers (CBD) is the famous standing-room espresso bar and still the right answer; Market Lane around the corner is the back-up. In Fitzroy: Industry Beans for the brunch, Proud Mary’s sibling Aunty Peg’s for the roastery counter. Collingwood’s Everyday Coffee and Carlton’s Seven Seeds are the neighbourhood anchors.
Lunch and dinner — Fitzroy, Carlton, Windsor
Cumulus Inc. and Cutler & Co. still hold up; Embla in the CBD is the natural-wine room you’ll send people to. Up in Carlton: Tipo 00 for pasta, DOC Pizza for the cheap, perfect lunch. In Windsor: Lulie Tavern for the slow dinner.
Books, records, the slow Saturday
Readings (Carlton flagship) is the bookshop of record. The Paperback Bookshop (CBD) keeps the late night. For records, Northside Records (Fitzroy) and Greville Records (Prahran) cover the genres. For vintage: Smith Street, top half, take an afternoon.
Melbourne’s talent is to be excellent without making a fuss about it. Don’t over-plan — pick a tram line and ride to the end.
Take it with you
The full Pin Reef Melbourne volume is a Google My Maps file with every independent café, restaurant, gallery, record shop and bookshop already pinned by suburb. Drop it in and the city opens with Degraves already optional.