Figjam Cafe

Carnegie is a suburb on the rise with rocketing real estate and pavements full of prams. Its diverse main shopping strip bundles together an Indian grocery, a great Russian deli, Korean restaurants, unpretentious butchers and the requisite hot chicken shops. It doesn't have many nice places for coffee or a lazy breakfast, which made Figjam an instant drawcard as soon as it opened in March. But a paucity of alternatives will never keep a cafe busy. After all, we're only 10 minutes from Brighton or Chaddy. Figjam is doing things right, beyond location, location, location.

The front room is welcoming with a long, comfy L-shaped banquette scattered with cushions. Wood panelling and oversized hoop-shaped orange light shades add warmth. Small veneer tables line one wall, facing the cake counter, the coffee machine and a drinks cabinet. A large timber table at the back of the room caters for families. Otherwise, there's a spill-over room at the rear, beyond the small kitchen.

It feels pleasant but a bit isolated, possibly a good thing if you're toting feral children. A fleet of keen young staff work under owner Helen Zervides, who oozes sincere hospitality. As a child, she helped her parents at their Prahran fish and chip shop and she had always wanted to come back to hospitality. After living in Carnegie for eight years, she and her husband took the plunge. The cafe's name has triple provenance: there was a wild fig tree in the backyard, Helen's mother Joanna makes great fig jam and FIGJAM is also a cheeky self-aggrandising acronym. I'll let you figure it out.

Breakfast offerings are standard: muesli, pancakes, eggs, extras. The eggs are free-range, the tasty bacon neatly straddles the span between flaccid and biscuit-crisp. On the down side, rather solid hollandaise sauce is served in a sauce boat and the hash browns are as square as a TV dinner and about as exciting. French toast is drowned in maple syrup and a blizzard of cinnamon, but it's pretty good once you uncover it. Sourdough bread comes from AG, a good commercial bakery. It's the same stuff we often have in the cupboard at home, so I'll admit I thought, ''I could have done this myself and not worried about the two-year-old smashing her babycino on the tiles''. Still, the coffee put me back in my box. I can't replicate smooth, creamy caffe latte with dense milk foam. Now I understand the cluster of Sunday morning strollers waiting for their takeaway coffees by the counter. Also a cut above average is the homemade jam - Joanna's peach, marmalade, pear and grape conserves are offered with toast and pancakes.

Breakfast is served until 5pm on Fridays and weekends, and until 3pm during the week. But if you want to move on, lunch offerings include Boscastle pies, filled pides and home-made burgers with caramelised onions. Soups go down well, and there's always a meat and a vegie lasagne. At the moment, you're going to be chasing them with soft drinks, but a liquor licence is coming.

You wouldn't cross town to eat your eggs here. But if you live in the area, Figjam offers plenty of good reasons to take the stroll from your house.