Clifton Hill's Mixed Business Cafe is as old-fashioned and locally oriented as the name suggests, but the restaurant's food is contemporary and the coffee a favourite in the area. Thanks to Melbourne's unfaltering love for brunch, this busy café's all day menu will not disappoint, serving an eclectic mix of modern Australian and European flavours. If you're after something sweet, the house-baked muffins and ice-cream sandwiches are perfect with a coffee for a great afternoon treat.
Before it served breakfast and lunch, Mixed Business Café was a furniture restorer's premises, and that accounts for the generous space. This may be a small cafe in terms of seats, but there's lots of room between the simple timber tables and wooden chairs. There's a nice old-fashioned feeling here, with exposed floors and white walls decorated with old advertising posters and blackboards that list the menu. The dining room is dominated by a big serving bar at which the barista stands behind, but there is a garden, too, with tables among the trees. The rest of the food comes from the big open kitchen whose facilities aren't much more impressive than those of a domestic kitchen.
Mixed Business exudes a homely atmosphere supported by the couples who wheel in their pram-bound kids. The food also carries this theme, but in the best possible way. In theory, you could make most of what is on offer in your own home but there's something nice about having somebody do it for you. Crunchy muesli and free-range scrambled eggs are simply delicious, but for lunch order sweet potato soup with chives, a freshly prepared sandwich with poached chicken, avocado and rocket or mushrooms cooked in white wine and thyme, served on sourdough or multi-grain bread. But Mixed Business defies anyone to make coffee at home that's half as good as this.
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