Given this is the third post I’ve written in under six months with the words ‘favourite breakfast spot’ in the title (first time, second time, for anyone remotely interested), I’ve realised that I change breakfast lovers as often as Jennifer Lawrence changes hairstyles. But it’s true, I’ve fallen head over peep toes in love with the corner coffeehouse that is Coin Laundry Cafe, which can be found conveniently across the road from Armadale Station.
I’ve been wanting to try out this ex-coin laundry-turned-café, hence the name, all my life (or perhaps less dramatically since I first sniffed the emanating coffee odour a few month’s back while catching the train and consequently since reading a book-load of good things about its brunch menu). But every time I remember this life mission and set out in conquest to Armadale, the small café is heaving with an army of other avo smash connoisseurs and my chances of locking down a table within 20 minutes have been slim-to-none.
The egg-eating world finally aligned
Recently returning from my London/Paris holiday, I was submitted to that form of torture where you’ve just spent 24 hours on a plane, hardly getting any sleep and after arriving in Melbourne at 7am have to try and stay awake all day so you can swiftly adjust your body clock and be skipping into work the next day feeling fresh as a cucumber salad. By 9am I felt like my eyes were being propped open with furry pipe cleaners so I suggested brunch being a good idea to my equally jet-lagged husband.
Given it was a Wednesday, a table was easy to come by in this café that screams urban surburbia with its concrete floors, wood panelling, brown paper-walled menu, copper pendant lights, and green and white accents. Although with huge windows, the blinding morning Australian sun made me do an Anna Wintour and sit inside with my Oakleys on.
When all you need is avo smash
Ordering was a little bit of an ordeal, given my exhausted brain couldn’t understand what the poor waitress was saying. For all I knew she could have been speaking French. I’m also pretty sure the café doesn’t normally spin.
With a dead piece of tuna for a tongue, all I could get out were three syllables: “avo smash”!
Fortunately, what arrived was a delicious iteration of my breakfast of choice. The ‘Coin Laundry Breakfast’ (pictured below, top left) is a mash up of all my favourite breakfast foods: freshly-baked sourdough toast, smashed avocado, roma tomatoes, bacon, beetroot relish, baby spinach and poached eggs.
Why is bacon on a skewer not a thing? While I may have been 50 shades of tired, the complete crispiness of the skewered bacon did not escape my senses. Neither did the freshness of the produce (free range and locally-sourced). And the coffee beans are from Allpress, although I probably would have drank coffee that tasted like dishwater at that point in time.
Other items on the menu that peaked my interest and confirmed my Coin Laundry Cafe crush were the dukkah toast with roasted vine tomatoes, marinated goat’s cheese and avocado; and the olive bread bruschetta with goat’s cheese, confit tomato and field mushrooms drizzled with pomegranate molasses.
I was a very content avo smash snob that morning and consequently my jet lag plan flew out of the window. Upon returning home, with a contented belly full of avocado, I climbed straight into my very welcoming bed. Jet lag you won and so did you Coin Laundry Cafe! It was love at first sight.
Coin Laundry Cafe | 61 Armadale Street, Armadale, Victoria
(03) 9500 1888
coinlaundrycafe.com.au
