Little Big Sugar Salt – Dani Valent

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385 Victoria Street (corner Lithgow Street), Abbotsford, 9427 8818

My score: 3.5/5

There are so many cafes in Melbourne that I’m sure there is room – indeed, need – for Little Big Sugar Salt, a place that takes the traditional menu paradigm and transmogrifies it into a document that may make you feel confused, delighted and hungry all at once. Instead of a long list of possibilities, LBSS announces just eight dishes on a menu wheel according to whether they’re little, big, sweet (sugar) or savoury (salt). It’s a talking point, for sure, but the idea is also to remove the exhausting choices offered at many cafes. Instead, diners are encouraged to decipher whether they’re starving, merely peckish, craving sweets or feeling healthy, then put their trust in the chef. While waiting (and the wait can be rather leisurely) there are plenty more jokes and wordplays to pore over.

The first time I visited, I found it all rather perplexing, as though Melbourne had reached peak hipster and the rest of us had been sloughed off along the way. Then I had a coffee – a sweet, toasty, chocolatey New Zealand blend – and settled into the groove. Crumpets with blue cheese, peanut butter and caramelised banana helped too: the weird combination is rich and ravishing and I forgave the supermarket crumpets when I realised all the food emanates from a tiny nook with just one burner, a miniscule oven and a grill. Also springing from this galley are alluring daily sandwiches such as cheddar, leek and pickle, and a tasty, attractive breakfast board called ‘All the Things’ with terrine, smoked salmon, poached egg, beetroot with dukkah and a house-pickled onion that not only cleared my sinuses but also whooshed through my brain, ensuring I remembered to pick up my dry-cleaning later that day.

LBSS opened in April and is owned by five people, only one of whom has prior hospitality experience. The others (a copywriter, designer, builder and carpenter) are smart cookies who know what they like about cafes. The setting is a house-like corner building with three distinct rooms decked with wry art and a warm, bespoke fit-out featuring recycled timber and steel. LBSS can start off feeling like an in joke (and the  #selfiestation in the bathroom doesn’t help) but everyone is welcome to laugh along, even if they don’t have a fixie bike, an Instagram account or an irresistible fascination with bizarre crumpet toppings.

See their website.

More Abbotsford restaurants:

Rita’s Cafeteria, 239 Johnston Street, Abbotsford, 9419 8233
Rita rolls all the day long with easy breakfasts, ace pizzas and simple but stylish hot dishes like risotto with prawn, crab, pea and lemon mascarpone.

The Farm Cafe, 18 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, 9415 6581
Patting guinea pigs can make a person super hungry so it’s lucky there’s a wholesome indoor-outdoor cafe at Collingwood Children’s Farm with a great kids’ menu. It’s usually the beef sausage roll for me.

I Love Pho 264, 264 Victoria Street, Abbotsford, 9427 7749
A-pho-cionados all have their own favourites but I’m a sucker for this place with its clear, clean broths and massive bowls of soup that I never quite manage to finish.

First published in The Age, September 1, 2013

2017-09-18T16:30:13+10:00

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