Hawthorn Common

If the zombie apocalypse comes, head to Hawthorn Common. It is virtually a self-sufficient biosphere, where we can start a new society, and they have coffee and a bar.

The vast space, formerly Chester White and Canvas, has been bought by Danny and Sian Colls, who opened Cafe Racer in St Kilda and Silo by Joost, and George Sykotis (Press Club, Jimmy Grants) and transformed into a near perfect model of sustainability.

They have a coffee roaster in-house (they serve three house blends), a flourmill for stone-milling fresh whole grain every day for baking their own bread, and a rooftop herb garden.

They make their own yoghurt and even hand-roll their own oats. All the produce here is sourced directly, ''milled, rolled, fermented, baked, preserved, dried and roasted, organic waste composted and returned to grow again'', says the menu, ''a closed loop''.

They even hold Saturday-morning yoga classes on their stylish, planter-lined deck, onto which the huge first-floor interior spills, but it is not all kale and almond milk smoothies ($7).

The food here is all single-sourced, with everything made from scratch, but the wholefood approach has not come at the expense of creativity or meat. Quinoa salad sits comfortably with the hangover-soothing bread, cheese and bacon balls ($12).

Chef Stefano Rosi is ex Vue de Monde and Cafe Vue, and even the simplest dishes are elegantly artful.

The breakfast menu starts with sourdough toast with spreads ($6), oats with yoghurt, fruit and seeds ($12) and, via eggs with mushrooms, silverbeet and bacon crumble ($16), gets increasingly hearty, with black pudding on toast served with roast fennel and apple ($18) and the house-made baked beans with spicy lamb sausage, poached eggs and tomato ($20).

The brunch-lunch menu starts at 11.30am, with snacks, such as pulled-pork roll with pickled cabbage, carrots and barbecue sauce ($14) and salads (quinoa, $12, or a summer garden salad, $14) and tasting plates - cured trout with wasabi mousse, beetroot and brioche ($18) and the succinctly named carrots.

Essentially, this is a plate of carrots, but they're pickled, pureed with shaved ginger and tempura with fried carrot tops ($14), and a high-concept and high nutrient count at once.

Then there are huge meals - ''plates'' - such as the ox pie with pickles ($18) and chargrilled chicken breast with parsnips, cucumber and smoked yoghurt ($26).

The sweets are given equal love and include bitter coffee brulee with salted caramel and chocolate soil (made from cocoa, almond meal and butter) and a changing line-up of house-made cakes, doughnuts and pastries.

The interior, decked out with huge black-and-white photos of family, friends and customers, also serves as a bar on Friday nights, providing a nice counterpoint to the following morning's yoga-on-the-deck classes.

It is the kind of balance Hawthorn Common has achieved in the venture, its ''closed loop'' philosophy lacking the smug earnestness so often evoked by the wholefood movement.