5 Lire Cafe, North Melbourne

I’m not a fan of bucket lists. I hate the idea of a list existing that may never get completed. I mean, do you ever stop adding to your bucket list? 

Then I realised that I carry around a similarly unachievable list. It is rather innocuously titled ‘places to eat’ and lives in my phone. I add to it a couple of times a week. It is a pretty astounding first world problem that I live in a city where there are so many new cafes and restaurants opening all the time that I may never get to try all those I want to.

5 Lire Cafe has been kicking around the list for a while so when I needed to find somewhere for an early Saturday morning breakfast, it was the first place I thought of.

Plus this was a special occasion. Megan from The Girl Has Sparke was in Melbourne and after almost two years of a blogland friendship we were meeting for real.

5 Lire Cafe (pronounced Cinque Lire) is described on the menu as an ‘Italian eating house’. Opened by Laura Notarfrancesco late last year it was inspired by time spent with her father’s family in Southern Italy. There are traditional Italian dishes such as lasagna, alongside contemporary cafe fare enhanced with a little Italian flair.

This is one of those places where there are so many delicious choices on the menu that the decision making is just far too hard. We were seated right next to the cabinet overflowing with freshly made rolls, salads and an enormous plate of figs. Definitely coming back for lunch.

But first coffee- I like coffee on the hot side (which is criminal, I know!) and this wasn’t quite as hot as I like but it had good intensity and was lovely and smooth.

Megan went for the Breakfast board ($16)

House made coconut granola, poached egg on quinoa and soy toast and smashed avocado served with an orange juice. A lovely option if you can’t decide on sweet or savoury. Having just met Megan I thought it rude to steal her food but the reports back were good.

I dived into one of the specials, Dr Marty’s Crumpets topped with grilled peaches, maple bacon and whipped ricotta ($16)

The clincher of this decision was the crumpets. Dr Marty’s crumpets are on the menu of most of Melbourne’s best cafes and I was yet to try them.

They are fabulous- all that crumpetty airy quality on top without the tough bottom you get with mass-produced crumpets (no one likes a tough bottom 😉 ). The crumpets were topped with a lightly grilled juicy, plump peach, perfect crispy caramelised bacon and a huge dollop of slightly sweet ricotta. It technically fell into the ‘sweet’ category but wasn’t overly sweet. The serving was huge, I kept eating well past the full stage and enjoyed every mouthful.

Service was lovely and efficient and they were happy to let us linger as we chatted. It is an odd but wonderful thing to meet someone you ‘know’ so well for the first time but also a particularly lovely thing when the conversation flows so easily and the time races by.

Located across the road from the iconic Auction Rooms, this little cafe is a perfect option if you want quality food in a quieter, more relaxed setting. We arrived early on a Saturday and easily got a table but word has it that it can get pretty full mid-morning.

Any tips or where else I should add to my ‘places to eat’ list?

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