The long awaited reopening of Carlton Espresso was revealed this week, finally (thank god).
Being the favourite cafe of my Doben and I for many years, it has been a LONG wait for perfectly made lattes, prosciutto and fontina foccacias and pancetta and egg paninis, which we always looked forward to on a day off together. We had replaced our coffee fix at Seven Seeds, and despite their passion for serving one of the best coffees in town, our hearts were still longing for Espresso's coffee and foccacias.
I must admit, I was quite scared of Tony Nicolini's decision to expand his what seemed, a perfect sized cafe prior to the renovations, but thankfully what seemed to be impossible to improve, just got better. Other than the increased noise levels in the busy lunch period, many pleasant improvements have been made. The renovations included the expansion of the whole next door shop, now including a small kitchen downstairs, a courtyard at the back and about double the amount of seating. There is a new to-order menu including many pasta dishes such as "bimbo lasange - bambino lasange", daily zuppa, antipasti and of course our favourite; foccacias.
Opening hours have been extended:
Before: 7am- 5pm 7days.
Now: 7am - 9-930pm 7days.
Another unbelievable discovery was the decrease in price of foccacias... Before all foccaccias were priced between $8.9 - 13.9, which I was more than willing to pay. As for now, ALL foccacias are only $8.90- 9.9. Hello delicious bargain!
(please excuse my new level of SH quality shots taken on my phone)
I got my usual (and greatly missed) San Daniele prosciutto with fontina & rocket focaccia and my Doben got a new addition Capocollo with provolone, green sicilian olives & rocket - delish!
So many delicious additions to the menu but not enough days off to go..
I am very impressed with the new renovations, Tony seems to be leading the way in a new Italian cafe experience. Unfortunately, I was too scared of looking like a total groupie and take shots of the new interior, I'll just have to suggest you go have a look for yourself (or wait until I have the courage to take a photo)!
Carlton Espresso
326 Lygon St, Carlton
Seven Seeds,
114 Berkeley St, Carlton
No comments:
Post a Comment