Major Major

Down the bleak south end of Fitzroy's Smith Street, the streetscape is slowly changing, just keeping pace with the rest of the booming suburb. Hospitality stalwarts Niall Sandison (former restaurant manager at Spice Temple, Rockpool and Pope Joan) and business partner Simon Hall (who co-owns Easy Tiger) figured it was coming, and got in early with Major Major, which opened late last year.

"We thought it needed something nicer down this end," says Sandison, "to make it feel like a little strip you would visit."

It's certainly worth visiting now. Major Major (the name is a character in Joseph Hellier's Catch 22) successfully straddles the increasingly popular restaurant-cafe divide, with quality ingredients and innovative dishes in a casual  - and casually priced - setting.

Chef Federico Congiu (former head chef at Gorski and Jones) is Sardinian but also spent time in Tokyo.  The eclectic menu draws on his Asian influences, but with a light touch -  the bacon and scrambled eggs, for example, come with bean shoots, nam jin and flatbread ($15).

"We wanted to celebrate Federico's background and play to his strengths, what he knows and understands," says Sandison. "We don't want to try and pigeonhole ourselves into one style of food, either. I hate saying 'modern Australian' because I don't think that really means anything."

The stand-out brekkie - and their most popular dish so far - is the crab omelette, delicate and fluffy, with discernible chunks of tender crab, served with house-made kimchi and a slab of house-made focaccia ($18).

The tori katsu, a crunchy chicken wrap with yoghurt slaw and oyster sauce ($15) is another top-seller.

"We've also got the Kaiser bacon steak (served with fried egg, confit potato, sauteed kale, $17) as well and for all the guys at the weekend I think that's the popular manly breakfast," Sandison says.

The all-day menu means you can also opt for a more substantial offering, like the calamari gnocchi with asparagus, pangrattato and lemon thyme ($21), the house-made spaghetti aglio olio with crab meat, chilli and lemon zest on bagna cauda ($22) or even the 200 gram blade steak with crushed potato, rocket and parmesan ($22) to break your fast. 

There are great takeaway options here too, like the house-made salads ($8 for a choice of two; $12 for three) and fresh rolls and sandwiches, with inventive fillings like kingfish with fennel and wasabi mayonnaise.

Coffee is from Dukes, there's a range of Larsen and Thompson teas, and the cafe is licensed as well.  But beverage-wise, the most extraordinary thing at Major Major is the complimentary sparkling water. Fans of fizz, used to finding themselves having to drink a 750ml bottle of sparkling that's been opened for them even when they've ordered a glass (and then hit with the bill), rejoice. You can refill your glass with Purezza sparkling water as many times as you like.

Sandison isn't sure if they're the only Melbourne cafe doing this, but judging by the feedback he's had, they probably are.

"I did wonder if people would like it. But every single day we get people commenting about it, and I see in reviews online and people talking about the cafe, it's the first thing they mention," he says.

"Paying for sparkling water always struck me as a rip-off. I think it makes the overall experience nicer. Plus it's a little gesture of generosity; we're not out to try and rip people off or make a buck out of everything. It has to be about the experience."