#56 – Take overexposed food photos of your breakfast at St Ali Coffee Roasters and immerse with Melbourne’s most colourful people – Saturday, May 25, 2013
Since the 111 things to do in and around Melbourne (or The List) is an epic list by definition, it is intimidating just starting that list. What is the best first of 111 steps to get to know Melbourne? Why wander around in the distance, when good things lie nearby? i.e. why not start in the neighborhood? We opted for getting some breakfast at St Ali’s (I’m still not sure whether it is written with a capital or lower case ‘L’).
From the outside you would not recognise it as a coffee place. In fact, you wouldn’t recognise it as any place. It just blends in with the other houses and relies on its good reputation. Inside you enter a fairly spacious room with high ceilings, that looks like it was formerly a workshop. Everything looks quite hip, but fortunately not threatening. The food was excellent and the service very attentive. I appreciate it when my food selection is commented encouragingly: “That’s a good choice, one of my favourites” and “Yummy!”. Harriet had the Rhubarb Pancakes and I indulged in the Korean Scramble – the opposite ends of the sweet-to-salty scale. I took my overexposed pictures and tried as good as possible to blend in with the colourful people as commanded by The List. But this morning I had two realisations that made me believe in The List beyond its items:
- The List provides me with a very convenient platform to get out of my way and get to know people. In kind of a nerdy way I asked one of the waitresses whether I could have my picture taken with her. Not only was she fine with her photo being taken, but she asked me about the background and I told her about my list. That led her to sharing her list with me. Apparently, I’m not the only one who makes lists to make sure that I don’t oversee any of Melbourne’s goodness. In the end I was quite astonished by her friendliness and openness. Great start to the day.
- We took the opportunity and took a walk around the area. We’ve been there before, but never to just explore. By chance we got to know the Port Philip Library, the Australian National Academy of Music and The Old Paper Shop, a nice little cafe where we got treats for Kaffee und Kuchen.
A truly good start. And only 110 more things to do in the coming 365 days.
