Vada Cafe

★★★
465 Nepean Highway, Frankston, 9783 6423
Unlicensed AE MC V eftpos
Daily, 8am-3pm
Breakfast $6.95-$18.95, lunch $8.95-$9.95, sweets $2-$5

It's a still, blue-sky autumn morning, but the Frankston waterfront is dead quiet and shockingly deficient in cafe latte. The buzz is one street back at Vada Cafe, where the view (six lanes of traffic and a row of real estate offices) doesn't compete, but the welcome and the coffee certainly does.

The non-profit cafe is owned and run by the Gateway Family Church at nearby Seaford. Its mission is to raise awareness and money for children's education and medical services in Papua New Guinea.

A casual punter wouldn't necessarily become aware of the raison d'etre simply by eating here. There's a television on the wall running looped explanatory footage and PNG basketry is on display, but there's no hard sell.

A strong customer-service ethos is obvious: one of the owners tells me they strive to ensure every customer leaves happier than when they arrived. Staff pledge not to judge the grumpy or rude because there might be compelling and sad reasons for the behaviour. This means many smiles, lots of ''The usual?'' and an unsneering attitude to half-strength skinny lattes and other diluted decoctions. Friendly and willing are the emphasis; expert trails a little behind.

Coffee is organic and fair trade from Goroka, a PNG town that's also a focus of the church's well-being programs. My latte is OK. Classic all-day breakfasts and light lunches pack a decent punch. The vegetarian breakfast is generous and tasty: zucchini and carrot fritters are served with dollops of pesto and hummus, fried mushrooms and tomato. The basic white toast is a disappointment, but overall the dish tastes as though the cook cares.

Lunches include frittatas, tarts, salads and pies, all made here. The range changes but I hope it will always include the lasagne pie. When the kitchen team came up with that stroke of pastry-encased genius, they probably felt similar to Isaac Newton with that apple and gravity stuff. Lasagne in a pie! Of course! The idea is somewhat outgunned by the execution - I want pasta and white sauce, not just the ragu - but great inventions often require refinement.

Sweets are good, especially the chocolate banana muffin, a lemon slice that contains only as much starch as is strictly necessary to keep the fat and sugar in suspension, and a coffee-macadamia slice that made a great afternoon pick-me-up. I'm not a believer, but I believe I'll have another.