• Brother Baba Budan

359 Little Bourke St
Melbourne, 3000
http://www.brotherbababudan.com.au/

Melbourne is a city of coffee addicts.  When asked what surprised her about Melbourne, my Argentinean teacher commented that it was the coffee culture.

“Everyone hurries to work with coffee cups,” she commented, “it is like Mate in Argentina.”

I saw this in action when driving to the airport in peak hour the other morning.  I wondered why the traffic was so bad in the left lane of Kings Way, only to find that it was a drive through coffee house holding up all the traffic.  Ingenious.

In a city full of addicts, one would expect that quality coffee houses would be just a plentiful.  Moving to an office near the QV, I sadly found myself overcome with bitter coffee that had been over-run or coffee tasting like cigarettes.  Disappointed, I gave up coffee for several weeks.

Trying to restore my faith in Melbourne’s cafes, my colleague took me to Brother Baba Budan.  I had been here before but in my depressed state, had wiped it off my radar.

Imagine a hideaway in the centre of the city.  Here not everyone is in a suit, people sit at a shared table and the staff dress creatively.  Rather than dealing to corporate addicts as a mass produced commercial enterprise, Brother Baba Budan draws in the artistic and cultured and gives them coffee as an art.

The coffee blend depends on the day and I am yet to find one that I have not liked.  The details of the coffee are written on a little blackboard hung to the left of the window.

There is a selection of cakes too.  I recently had the meringue with cranberries.  Sweet and crispy, this was a nice side for a well made flat white.

Brother Baba Budan is always busy, mainly with take-away orders.

There are not enough places like this, but this is how Melbourne’s café culture should be typified.





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