My little brother and his girlfriend were down from Brisbane over the weekend, and we had a great time. We checked out the Tim Burton exhibition (definitely worth a look!), drank a lot of alcohol, and ate lots of yummy food (a review of Enlightened Cuisine is coming soon).
The Berlin Bar - East Berlin section. LOVE!
On Friday afternoon, after a busy day spent record shopping in the city, we went to the Berlin Bar for a cocktail. I haven't heard much about this place, only that its a bar tucked away in a lane way, where there are 2 sections - West Berlin and East Berlin. We managed to get there right when it was opening, so we had our pick of seats. We decided to sit in the East Berlin section, and immediately fell in love with the place. Our little area consisted of a bunk bed, a bath tub with a glass table top over it, some red vinyl chairs and a exposed light bulb hanging down from the ceiling. The entrance way had barbed wire snaked along the door frame, there were silent movies playing on a projector on the wall, and propoganda everywhere. There is a cocktail menu (cocktails all priced at $20), along with a drinks menu, printed in a passport. The drinks aren't cheap by any means, but they are such creative cocktails, and we all loved our picks. An exciting highlight was having a bowl of gummi bears as dish to snack on. I definitely plan to return to this bar in the future and really make a night of it.
The West Berlin section
On Sunday morning we attempted to have breakfast at Las Chias on Carlisle St in Balaclava (their Pumpkin and Polenta Bread w/ Baked beans and Spinach is AMAZING), however the mass of people out the front waiting for a table meant that we decided to look elsewhere for food. We ended up going to Glicks Bakery for a simple breakfast of Bagels. I discovered Glicks about a year ago when I read an article by Matt Preston in Epicure, questionning where the best bagels could be found in Melbourne. Matt recommended Glicks, and until then I had never heard of it. Situated only a short walk from Balaclava Train Station (where I used to catch a train from), I realised it would be an easy enough place to check out. On my first visit, I purchased some delicious Cabbage rolls, along with a few "everything" bagels. These bagels are incredible - the bagel is sprinkled with, well, everything (or just about!) - onion, garlic, linseed, poppy and sesame seeds just to name a few. Since trying these, I've never looked back, and order them every time. On Sunday morning we sat in the cafe section of the bakery. Teagan had the Smoked Salmon, cream cheese and capers ($8), I had the "new yorker" (cream cheese - $4), and my bro had mashed avocado ($4). It was such a simple breakfast but we all loved it and it was a great and inexpensive way to start the day. If you just buy the bagels from the bakery to take away, with no fillings, they are only $1 each which is great value I think.
Aside from the Bagels (with flavours including Blueberry, Choc Chip, Garlic, Onion, Soy & Linseed), Glicks Bakery offers a large range of vegetarian pastas & pizzas, which I've yet to try. They also have a deli section with various types of Latkes, cabbage rolls, and assorted filo parcels. Well worth a visit if you're in the area and you don't feel like waiting for 30 mins to get into the 'trendy' cafes.
2 comments:
Berlin Bar looks so wonderful! I can't believe I haven't heard of it before, it seems like such a fun concept. And is that Charlie Chaplin's "The Dictator" I spy playing in the East Berlin photo? *film nerd alert*
Both these places look fantastic - I love the look of the berlin bar and I just don't have enough good bagels around my part of melbourne - need to find time to cross the river for some of Glicks (whom I have heard of but don't think I have ever visited)
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