Saturday, December 17, 2005

Hot Poppy, North Melbourne

For an inner city suburb, a critical mass of good cafes has been a long time coming to North Melbourne. Of course, I'm not counting the hidden Italian gambling dens where anyone game enough has been able to get excellent coffee for years. But judging by today's crowd at The Hot Poppy, 9 Errol Street, Tel +61 3 9326 9299, the tipping point isn't far away. North Melbourne, the new Fitzroy? Hmmm...



Apart from mooshy muffins, I was very happy with my order of "Eggs Cadillac". A mutation of the traditional Benedict, the poached eggs were served on a tasty grilled pancetta, and topped with orange hollandaise and fresh asparagas. It really was an excellent combination.

Like a true breakfast champion, Hot Poppy serves the best meal of the day, all day, till 6pm (on the weekend, at least). Options include BLT on bagel with house-made mayo (or BLAT with bonus avocado); free range eggs with the lot (meat-eater or vegetarian versions); and a potato pancake stack with smoked salmon, creme fraiche and salmon roe. Or go simple and have a croissant with Jam Lady jams, and a very good cappucino.

The venue is quaint, and just a little bit grotty, in keeping with Errol Street traditions. And although the service was a bit patchy, it was friendly enough.

14/20 "orange hollandaise"

score

9 comments:

  1. Hello fellow Breakfast Crusader! I was going through my stats and saw a technorati link from a search for eggs.. I was quite delighted to find your blog there! And twice as delighted to come back to my blog and see that you left a comment!

    Cheers! I have just linked to you.

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  2. Anonymous9/7/07 18:24

    I went here last week and the standard has dropped. Whipped cream on the menu turned out to be the smallest dish of pouring cream and the french toast was burnt. The chunks of fruit on the museli were not bit size and the yoghurt supplied wasn't adequate.

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  3. Anonymous2/11/08 22:55

    just went to hotpoppy, thought it was a great brekky. the specials were awsome. The staff were very entertaining. They do great fresh juices and it has a good local feel about it.

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  4. Wonderful post. If only I'd of come across something as wise and straightforward when I was starting out! See you at the reading!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautifully expressed article, i really enjoyed my stay on this plus wonderful website

    ReplyDelete