Sunday brunch, Dench Bakers Cafe in North Fitzroy, Melbourne

Dench Cafe 109 Scotchmer St Fitzroy North, VIC 3068  (03) 9403 5333 I said to V, if we ever leave Melbourne, I’ll miss brunch the most. When I first moved to Melbourne, I was based in South Yarra and seeing all the hipsters out to brekkie on Greville Street always felt cool on Sunday mornings. Brunch is probably the reason why I am dedicated to V. I want someone to share brekkie with on a Sunday, forever. Okay so my little moment aside. Dench is one of those places that defines Sunday brekkie for me. We caught up with our hipster friends, W & E. Aside from the wait, all was purely glorious. Not Dench’s fault for being too good. No wonder they had to open up Bread & Jam for Frances in our little sweet neighbourhood of Hawthorn – who, by the way, were sooooooo awesome to us when we wanted to do a photoshoot for one of our clients. When is she going to get to the food part? It’s coming! I’m not in the mood to get straight to things today. What with Pinterest, Facebook and my Reader…. Anyhoo. I’m focused. Totes. V ordered the tofu scramble with beetroot. And I assure you, I’ve had many a tofu scramble, so I’m in my zone here. It was friggin awesome. It is hard to flavour tofu (deeply) – and a lot of cafes try it with the tumeric seasoning. But this was awesome. Brilliant. I think the beet on the sides was the perfect touch to mash it in with.     W ordered polenta with mushies and ragu. We spent quite a while discussing ragu and came to few conclusions. As usual, I suspect W was “stretching” his knowledge Jokes. I had food envy, but I like to pretend I’m totally cool and didn’t give into my temptation to tell W to swap his dish with mine. He usually goes for the creamy, heavy, pasta types and this dish was his match. (Just sayin…)     E went for the fritters. She said they were starchy – (I can’t get past the awesome fritters at Axil) – so I’m taking her word for it. If you’re wondering whats bacon doing on a Kish blog, its her not me, I swear. Though you may have noticed, I’m kinda into eggs lately. (I got into them since reading Sarah Wilson’s Sugar Free approach).     I’m a sucker for a decent French toast. This one had vanilla yoghurt (see this is the point where you switch off and drive / bike / hitch to North Fitzroy) and plums and pistachios. Divine.     But best of all – were the treats we were given. Because Dench was packed, we had had to wait 20 minutes for a seat. And we got these awesome custardy-crumpet treats (see header image at the top of this post). That is service with a damn awesome smile. Helps that their staff have quirky ties and awesome vintage styles. Just helps. Just a tad. I shall be back.     ++++++++++++