Lunch in Second Home
My lovely daughter-in-law took me out for lunch today - it was a belated birthday present and the venue was one I have been wanting to go to for some time. Moreover it's local. It's called Second Home, and is in a most unlikely spot, even forgetting that Eltham is on the outskirts of Melbourne and therefore not a hipster spot. Eltham has a light industry quarter just off the road to Greensborough, filled with panel beaters, house-building supply shops, Bunnings and fast food outlets. But on the edge of this - next door to said panel beaters, etc. is an old Alastair Knox designed factory that has been renovated to house a trendy modern Melbourne café, that epitomises just about everything that is in a modern Australian café. Including the art it displays on the walls. It obviously realises this, though as it is a bit tongue-in-cheek with its menu - 'the obligatory smashed avocado' for example. In spite of this acknowledgement I do have to say that it epitomises everything about modern brunch eating.
The room is lovely. Very high ceilings with high windows, spacious, comfortable tables that have actual tablecloths on them, a couch or two and a fire. It was a miserable day today but even so it felt light and spacious. I took two photographs to show various inevitable, mockable things. I say mockable, because it is easy to make fun, but really aren't we lucky - or aren't most of us lucky enough - to be able to eat out at places like this? To have places like this to eat out at?
On the left you have groups of yummy mummies with their babies and you can just see the tree in a massive tub that is in the centre of the restaurant. On the right you can see the central couch near the fire, and the young singles eating alone, but glued to their laptops and their phones simultaneously. The men are casual with baseball caps, the women immaculately dressed. It is absolutely a picture of modern, prosperous, young things. There were a few older people like myself here and there, but on the whole the customers were young. I imagine the singles were on a lunch break from work somewhere. Or maybe they are developing the next big tech thing and this is their workspace.
And the food? Very health centred. Gluten free, vegan, vegetarian ... My daughter-in-law had a breakfast super salad filled with things like kale, quinoa, beetroot hummus, and the inevitable avocado - not to mention the 'hickory smoked and flaked salmon' and the poached egg. Me I went for 'our benedict' because it's a long time since I had a poached egg and I do like them. I was tempted by the chicken pot pie though.
The apple cider hollandaise that drapes my poached eggs makes it look a little weird, almost plastic, but it did taste good. The shredded ham hock was slightly salty I guess, but it was pretty nice. As was the glass of French rosé that I had as an indulgent accompanying drink.
We declined the cakes - fortunately they were not listed and I would have had to get up and go and look, but I resisted. Maybe this is a mistake on the café's part, because if I had known what there was I might have been tempted. But here are our oh so trendy drinks. My decorative cappuccino and daughter-in-law's chai latte with honey.
As I say - very easy to make fun. But I guess these things are so popular because they are so good. We only make fun of things that are fashionable and trendy and ubiquitous don't we? But we should remember that there is a reason why they are so popular.
I would recommend it. Parking is a bit tricky - we had to park at the nearby Leisure Centre - and at the weekend you can't book which might mean you queue because it's busy. Today was a Wednesday and it was just about full. If you had turned up with a group you would have been unlucky. You can book through the week though and we retired folks and the yummy mummies obviously can take advantage of this.
There really must be a limit to how many cafés you can have as I heard that one - Volumes, one of Eltham's oldest, is to close. But then I also heard that there are 33 cafés/restaurants in Eltham so maybe they just haven't kept up with the competitition.
And back at our first home, waiting at the gate to greet us were these kangaroos. They did hop away, but they have just come back and are happily munching away on our grass in the garden. Nothing to do with lunch out I know, but had to capture them on film anyway.
Aren't we lucky to have phones that can do this?
