Grafete

Opening its arty doors up in Northcote last week, Grafete is the latest café mixing food with street art (not literally, that wouldn’t taste nice).

Tucked away on quiet street of St Georges Rd, Grafete used to be a printing shop and house. In fact, the owner tells me the table I’m sitting at used to be the bedroom of a retired stripper who had a pole right where my chair now stands. Food for thought. Around the big ex-stripper’s space Grafete’s walls dutifully covered with graf, and gets bonus points for including a R2-D2 reference.

The menu doesn’t go boldly go where no menu has gone before, but it covers some tasty turf. Breakfast means classics like French Toast with caramelised banana and bacon ($13.5), eggs benny and an omelette you can fill with gooey goodness like mushrooms, hash browns, sausage and bacon.

The lunch menu doesn’t fuck around, it reads like the sort of place corrupt cops would do dodgy deals over. There’s baked camembert stuffed with cashews and nuts ($14), a 250g Porterhouse with potato fondant, roast carrots and red wine sauce ($18) and a parma to round things off. Sides are either hand cut chips or garden salad. And there’s milkshakes too. So there.

I was tempted to get the of hunk baked cheese, but was 10am and I chickened out, going for the slightly more sensible blueberry pancakes ($12). The pancakes came in a generous stack of three, drizzled in maple syrup and crowned with a dollop of creme fraise. The cakes are pretty thick without being gluggy, and while I would’ve like more berries the maple and creme kept things sufficiently decadent.

If you’re looking for a light meal Grafete might not be your kind of place. If you are, head on over. It’s art.

GRAFETE
126 Gladstone Ave, Northcote
Open Wed – Mon 7am to 3pm