Northern Cafe Adventures

It seems the café fairies are at it again and have been sprinkling their fairy dust to sprout more cafes in the ever so popular Brunswick East and Carlton area. Good for us, but come on café fairies, what about outer eastern suburbs! They need some family friendly café love too you know. Anyhow we’ve dropped into these two little gems just recently and found they had some special features for the wee ones.

North Carlton Canteen
1008 Lygon Street Carlton North
High Chair – Crayons and Colouring Books

Set on busy (busy!) Lygon St up past the cemetery is Carlton North Canteen. They’ve been in the area for a few months now and seem to have a good local following on the weekends already. They have a communal table, foot path seating and LOADS of staff! The girl asked us three times what coffee we’d like in the space of a few minutes, before we’d even put our bums on the seat. Having said that the service was good and they quickly bought crayons and paper out for the kids, and offered a high chair for Mr 2. I suggest if you have the wee ones go EARLY as this place fills up quick and there is not much room for a pram and kids. Great little menu for the big kids, my chai latte was smooth and zesty, which was the perfect accompaniment with my home baked Monte Carlo biscuit. Mr Bambini’s Egg and Bacon roll was HUGE, it was packed with fresh relish, salad and aioli, and gave it a thumbs up. In all it’s a fab place to visit but best to swing past during the week for a coffee, then that way you’d have the whole place to yourself.

Red Scooter Café
140 Barkly St Brunswick
High Chairs – Change Table

I’ve been driving past this gem for months wishing they’d hurry up and open. I went on my summer break, came home and guess what? They had finally swung open the doors. Red Scooter is a very spacious cafe and also has a vintage modern vibe. Mr 4 and I popped in during a weekday and we had the place to ourselves. Service was VERY friendly, the lady even brought out extra pens for Mr 4 to draw with while we waited for his milkshake, which came in a pretty cool glass. (See Picture!) My fruit toast was amazing, l got 2 enormous slabs of fruity bread for $6, which I thought was a pretty good deal. They have a middle eastern/greek influenced menu for breakfast and lunch while still featuring all of your café favourites like eggs and french toast. Red Scooter would be a perfect meeting place for new mums as there is ample room for the pram, they even have a change table in the toilets and of course the trusty Ikea high chairs. With outdoor seating and tasty ice coffees this place could easily become the new Bambini local.