Bowery to Williamsburg

16 Oliver Lane, Melbourne 3000
Date visited: 19th December 2013

Finally!  Two weeks of annual leave over Christmas and New Year - what could be more perfect?  

Bowery to Williamsburg is a not-so-new (now) joint opened by the crew from Hardware Societe.  After ages of wanting to visit here, MerlinFan and I finally made a trip down here on a stinkin' hot Thursday morning.  

Finding the actual cafe was confusing.  We entered a glass door through which we could see a sign reading Bowery to Williamsburg on Level 1, but where was it?  @_@  After wandering around bewildered, we went back outside and realised Bowery was actually behind this entrance WTF.  Anyway, look out for the brightly coloured umbrellas, they are the giveaway.

Entrance

Apparently now they're open for weekends too according to the signage.

We were greeted by a waitress with a huge smile and offered seats.  It was just after 9am so we had the breakfast menu.  It came in about the size of a postcard and may seem like a small range of options but I took a while deciding between the many tempting sounding goodies on offer. 

I had all intentions of trying the peanut butter hot chocolate and the Challah French toast, but ironically, I ordered neither of these.  It was just so ridiculously hot that I wanted a cold drink.  I got an Iced Coffee.

Iced coffee

I didn't particularly like the coffee at Hardware Societe, but the iced coffee here was excellent.  It was strong and creamy, didn't even need ice cream to make it awesome.  Gotta love the polka dot straw too.

I was torn between a sweet or savoury brekkie - in the end the image of Broken Fried Eggs Bagel became too overwhelming.

Broken Fried Egg Bagel with Bacon $10

The bagel looked a little forlorn sitting on the tray all on its lonesome - it looked small but was pretty filling (I'm speaking only for myself of course).  There were a few choices of bagels - I got the beetroot and rye.  It was lightly toasted and just slightly chewy.  I loved sight of the broken fried egg with glorious oozing yolk.  The bacon was salty and crisp, the monterey jack cheese nicely melted and the prune relish gave it sweet, herby punch.  Nice.

MerlinFan, forever the sweet tooth, couldn't be normal and had to have a Banofee pie for breakfast.

Banofee

MerlinFan enjoyed the pie, which was made from bananas, toffee and topped off with chocolate and a smear of cream on the side.  The toffee wasn't quite thick and chewy, more like a layer holding the bananas together.

Bowery to Williamsburg has too many things on its menu that are any sweet tooth's fantasy.  I still have yet to try the sour cherry bagel with schmear, Challah French toast and buttermilk waffles with banana, nutella and maple cream and the peanut butter hot chocolate.  And I haven't even gotten started on lunch.  Heck, I would come back just for the iced coffee, even.

Who am I kidding, this place definitely warrants another trip back in the near future.  

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