Sunday, March 4, 2018

Madame Brussels and Dear Abbey


It has been a busy weekend for me, with lots of people to catch up with.  I thought it would be fun to take you with me to a couple of those catchups.

The first catchup was on Friday night with some girl friends at Madame Brussels in Bourke St, Melbourne.  I have been to Madame Brussels before with the Melbourne Cake Club and thought it would be a great place to catch up as they serve awesome cocktails.

One of my friends and I started with a glass of sparkling rose served in Marie Antoinette glasses (pictured at the tope of this post) ($12).  This wine was tasty and a fitting accompaniment to the girly atmosphere.

My friend asked to meet Pearl, the owner, to express her delight at the premises, so here she is in a blurry action shot (the background is perfectly clear):



While waiting for our other friend, we ordered the Charcuterie plate ($30), with pastrami, ham, pork terrine, rillets, mustard, pickles, baguette and crackers:



This was all absolutely delicious.

When our other friend arrived, I ordered a 50 Shades of Pink Cocktail ($20), with rhubarb, berries and elderflower:



The disappointing part about this cocktail was the amount of ice cubes in it - I would have preferred fewer icecubes and more drink.

On Saturday, a friend and I went to lunch at Dear Abbey in Moonee Ponds:



It gets its name from the fact that it is built in a converted church.

The coffees that we ordered on arrival were terrific.  

For lunch, I ordered the Aromatic Garden Cakes (sweet potato, baby spinach, peas and broadbeans) with sumac hummus and caramelised pineapple frisee salad ($18.90):



This tasted as amazing as it looks.

The sweets are ordered in and I have been to another cafĂ© that has the same sweets.  This time, I ordered the Black Widow - dark chocolate brownie, espresso caramel, chocolate ($5.90):



This was simply devine.  It was worth the walk there and back to taste this beauty. (Update - Butter Mafia in Northcote makes these sweets, which are all gluten free.)

I would go back to both places - both were fun and the food and drinks were good.

59 Bourke St
Melbourne VIC 3000

23A Gladstone St
Moonee Ponds VIC 3039Ph: (03) 9372 0093

3 comments:

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Both look like really fun places to eat! :D

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

You've found some lovely spots to dine!

Johanna GGG said...

sounds like you have been having fun - I am pleased to hear you enjoyed Dear Abbey as I have driven past and thought it is somewhere to try some time