Brunetti's Cakes Runner up: Best Establishment under $15
Runner up: Favourite Coffee Place

Mietta's Eating & Drinking in Melbourne 2000

Page 139

Really good coffee here and a favourite meeting place for Carltonians and folks from all round Melbourne. The cakes are the mecca here and they are displayed abundantly. Not so good for our tea spy. Confronted by the "litany of available coffee styles, I asked for a tea machiato. The coffee maestro looked bemused. "What's that?" he said. "Precisely", I replied. I bypassed his ironic bypass and ordered a pot of tea and a selection of the many mini cakes and biscuits on display, all under $1 each. Tea was as forgettable as expected. It manifested as a tea bag in a steel pot, not hot enough, together with a too small jug of milk.

Loved the cakes, lemon and strawberry tarts. Along the walls are squeaky clean glass fronted refrigerators filled with special occasion cakes to take home. In the adjoining room, 20 or so gelato flavours available in cone or cup. Behind the counter, a large chocolate model of the restaurant (three frontages) to intrigue and delight children of all ages. The place buzzes like a hive of bees as local businessmen and women, academics, teachers, local residents, shoppers, old friends, interviewers and interviewees, playwrights and actors, in fact anyone surf the great fun of Lygon Street. A young woman enters and chooses a shiny, chocolate covered cake in the shape of a crown as her 20th birthday cake . . ." a crown to say goodby to the teen queen!" All create and sustain the buzzy celebratory atmosphere they have sought.

198-202 Faraday Street
Carlton
Melways reference 2B:G7
Phone: 9347 2801
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 7am-10pm, Sun 8am-9pm
Licensed & BYO
Accepts credit cards
Seats Inside: 50
Features: restricted smoking, kids encouraged
Favourites: Lobster tail $2.50, Fruit Tart $3.50, Sacher slice $3.50

*An updated review of Brunetti