114 Berkeley Street, Carlton (map)
9347 8664
Today was a non-working day for me, so this morning I met the charming A for breakfast at Seven Seeds (the latest venture of Mark "Brother Baba Budan" Dundon), which opened yesterday.
As with several of Melbourne's other coffee houses, Seven Seeds favours a light-industrial, distressed-brick, exposed-beams workshop aesthetic which I love - particularly the shiny shiny floor, wall-mounted bike racks and the teacosy-like coverings on the lamps.
The cafe part of the space abuts the central lab and atrium, which is filled with potted coffee plants.
Spotted a spectrometer (or is it a spectrograph? It's been ten years since I studied wine making) and other coffee geek gadgets in the lab. The actual roastery is in the back room.
I was a wimp and ordered a latte, but A had a clover coffee, using beans from Panama.
The menu is very simple at Seven Seeds: pastries, toast, muesli and hot pressed sandwiches. Love the way the kitchen is partitioned off from the rest of the space.
For breakfast, we decided to share something sweet and something savoury. A selected the French toasted brioche with pear, ricotta, roasted almonds and "honest" maple ($11). Nice and eggy, but there was so much soft ricotta, we couldn't finish it.
I chose the hot pressed sandwich with pecorino, dukkah, sage and lemon zest, with a side of shaved cucumber and carrot in vinaigrette ($9) - an admittedly bold choice for before 9am. Massively thick slices of multi-grain Dench bread meant that we couldn't finish this one either. Good flavours though.
Located only a stone's throw from Melbourne Law School, Seven Seeds will no doubt become the new favourite coffee house of law students and academics alike - especially if the muwireless signal reaches that far... :)
