Two by Two

Northcote locals Ben Sanders and Jessica Fitzgerald thought their neighbourhood lacked an easygoing all-day restaurant, somewhere that the coffee was good, the wine was interesting, the service was upbeat, and the menu was a flexible beast. Luckily, Sanders and Fitzgerald are also hospitality lifers (ex-Press Club, most notably) with a long-held ambition to open a place of their own. Two by Two is the happy result, open from morning for house-made black pudding, fancy eggs and ace coffee, and trucking on to supper time with nicely executed dishes like fall-apart stout-braised beef cheek; sweet, tender octopus with confit potato; and a chicken medley with roasted jerusalem artichoke and pleasing almond puree. The cheese selection is a point of pride but desserts appeal, too. Things like baked quince with brown butter ice-cream and malt parfait with compressed apple make sweet sense and, like everything here, gel with the season.