Lygon Street
The foodies of Melbourne decry Lygon St. It's not fashionable to like it - "it's just for the tourists and there are those awful spruikers, and the food is not very good." But personally I love it. So why Lygon St.?
Well we have old friends from England visiting and last night we took them out to Lygon St. So in a way I guess we were indeed fulfilling the tourist thing. But we actually go there and eat every now and then anyway because if we do go to an arthouse cinema it's likely to be the Nova which is in Lygon St. and we generally have a meal afterwards in one of the dozens, maybe hundreds of cafés in the street.
Lyon St. is largely Italian, though there is now a sprinkling of other cuisines. They always seem a little out of place to me though. The pavements are wide and lined with tables, at which people sit all year and all day and night - for most of them have outdoor heaters which are very effective. The street is tree-lined and wide and the whole atmosphere is buzzy and friendly. Melbourne University and RMIT are just around the corner so there are heaps of students and young people who live in trendy Carlton there. The cafés and restaurants are not generally in the upper echelons of price and so it is within the reach of a whole range of people. Any time of day or night, any season - it is always busy, though obviously much busier in summer. Dotted amongst the cafés are gelato shops, clothes shops, specialist food shops and the wonderful Readings - Melbourne's best bookshop - which always seems to be open too. The food is Italian - which means that - a bit like cheap Australian wine - it's not brilliant but it's not bad either - indeed it is pretty good. Can you really do bad pasta? I suppose you can, but I have never tasted bad pasta here. Yes I have tasted better pasta but what you get here is at least as good as you cook at home.
Somehow or other the Italians who emigrated here after WW2 seem to have settled in Carlton. Quite why they chose this bit of Melbourne I have no idea. Some of the restaurants here have been here for decades. The Università which is our favourite has been here for 60 years, and has one of the earliest espresso machines on display.
I think there is an Italian festival at some point in the summer - and when Italy won the world cup soccer the whole street was in party mood. Even more than it generally is.
So last night we dined at the Università - pasta and pizza after a simple antipasto - which I guess was not superb, but was more than ordinary. And the staff are friendly and it's not that expensive. Mind you it was cold, so we sat inside. By the coffee machine.
And then we moved on to Brunetti's - another Lygon St. institution which is also decried by the foodies. It is admittedly over the top glitzy and the wall to wall cakes are somewhat overwhelming, but wow - it's a bit mind-blowing too and the coffee is really good. We did not indulge in a cake. And it being a weeknight and in between films at the Nova we could actually find somewhere to sit - sometimes this is pretty impossible.
So there you have it - lovely Lygon St. It's fun, it's family friendly, not too expensive and it somehow makes you feel alive. Well I do anyway. There was even one car cruising up and down with the music thumping away - usually a summer phenomenon.
