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Carolina

Kylie Northover

Sweet Carolina: the cafe occupies a former cobblers.
Sweet Carolina: the cafe occupies a former cobblers.Chris Hopkins

Cafe$$

Carolina has been something of a well-kept local secret for almost three years, tucked away in a former shoemaker's shop near the corner of Holden Street. When owners Dave Henderson and his partner Melanie Hayes took over the place, they decided to keep the old gold-leaf lettering advertising handmade Italian shoes on the window, so in true Melbourne style, there's no actual signage.

"We still get a lot of people wandering in and asking if we're a cafe or are we still doing shoes - we do confuse people but they find us," Dave says.

"We're definitely a locals' place, especially during the week with people who live and work in the area; I know a lot of the regulars' names now."

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House-made baked beans with marinated feta.
House-made baked beans with marinated feta.Chris Hopkins

But at the weekends, Carolina is pumping, with a mix of locals rectifying their hangovers with Seven Seeds coffee and generously proportioned meals, and families; the cool front part of the cafe is fitted out with retro-style booths and the odd nod to the space's cobbler history, while the back sunny courtyard comes complete with a sandpit and play area.

Dave and Melanie both have a background working in Melbourne's organic grocery stores and as "cafe fiends" decided to open their own, with an emphasis on organic produce.

"That was our key - we try to use as much organic food as we can and bread ... all the meat is free-range and mostly organic, as much as we can incorporate," Dave says. "Then we got our chef, Iain Isdale in, and we left a lot of it in his hands - the meals are really his babies. He came to us from Von Haus and his European-inspired food suited our low-key vibe. He loves his German food, and real comfort food."

The 'Wurst breakfast'.
The 'Wurst breakfast'.Chris Hopkins
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The breakfast/brunch menu, served until 3pm, includes standards - the avocado on toast with macerated herbs, lemon and olive oil ($11) is amped up with the option of house-pickled beetroot, goat cheese and spiced walnut (an extra $4) or slow-roasted roma tomatoes ($4), and the house organic wholegrain rice porridge is infused with bayleaf and cloves and served with poached fruit, crumble and cinnamon honey labne ($14).

The house-made baked beans are a sweet-savoury revelation - prepared with cinnamon, toasted fennel and smoked paprika, the portion is enormous, served with rosemary, lemon and black pepper marinated feta ($13) and the option of a poached egg (add $4) or properly thick thick-cut bacon ($5). 

The fritters, which change seasonally, are a Carolina perennial, as is the ocean trout gravlax (with poached free-range eggs, house-made hash cakes, celeriac roulade and wilted greens, $18.50) but by far the most popular brekkie is the Wurst Breakfast - a pan-fried German weisswurst sausage (made from minced veal and pork back bacon) with poached egg, rotkohl, cornichons, black pudding, house-made hash cake and spicy mustard mayonnaise on sourdough ($21). It's wintry (although so popular it remains on the summer menu) and filling, yet the sausage is surprisingly light, and the house-pickled rotkohl cuts through any richness. This is the dish that keeps the locals coming back. "It's got a bit of a cult following," Dave says. "That's our big breakfast for people with hangovers." No matter what your state of mind though, Carolina's best breakfast is definitely the Wurst.

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