The Fair Foodstore

With a long background working front-of-house in Melbourne cafes and restaurants and helping several mates set up their own cafes, Sarah Masny finally opened her own venture in 2012.

"It was the next logical step to want to do my own thing," Masny says of the Fair Foodstore, something of an oasis in a strangely bleak strip of Richmond's Church Street between Highett and Victoria streets.

"I live in the neighbourhood myself and even though there's so much development going up, and so much movement around there, there's just nothing there! We call it the Bermuda Triangle."

When she saw the old building on the corner of Somerset Street come up for lease, Masny, who most recently worked at MoVida, was thrilled.

"It was just calling out to be a cafe," she says. And the neighbourhood itself was screaming out for a decent food joint. "We get predominantly locals - it's almost like a family in here. I call it the local corner store."

The Foodstore's ethos is built around locally sourced produce. "As much as we can," says Masny, "... quality over popularity or profit margins".

Free-range eggs come from a small supplier in the Grampians; bacon is from father-and-son butcher-and-chef team David Freeman snr and David Freeman jnr from the Melbourne Pantry. The majority of the food is made in-house, right down to the strawberry and watermelon sodas.

The compact seasonal menu ranges from pot-set yoghurt with fruit and granola ($9), brown sugar porridge with roast quince ($13) and other brekkie classics such as brioche French toast ($16) and croque monsieur with free-range ham, gruyere and mornay sauce ($14.50/$17 with egg) to more intriguing combinations such as the popular house cold-smoked trout on rye with apple and devilled eggs. It's a mustardy take on the classic from from your mum's 1960s dinner party cookbook - garnished with pickled cucumbers and celery ($17) and boiled eggs with soldiers and added bacon bits and celery salt ($12).

The current favourite breakfast dish is a more straightforward option – although refreshingly avocado-free – the super-fresh and light feta with broad beans, pea smash and egg served on pumpkin toast ($16).

"It's simple but addictive, and definitely a best-seller," Masny says. 

Coffee is from Brunswick roaster Wide Open Road and cakes and pastries are supplied by Little Bertha, although the house-made chocolatey-caramel "Fugly Slice" is well worth a try.

Last month former MoVida chef Dan Sawansak joined the Foodstore and his summer menu kicks in soon with new dishes such as the fennel scotch egg with peas, grilled baby leek and tarragon vinaigrette and changing specials such as dressed spanner crab with sorrel benedict on Dr Marty's crumpets.

"I've been very lucky, I've always had great chefs, which comes from my years of contacts," Masny says. "Being passionate about food and giving the chefs free rein – that always makes for a happy kitchen!"