Thursday, 30 September 2010

Breakfast in America (in Melbourne, at Trunk Diner)

Trunk Diner
275 Exhibition Street, Melbourne (map)
9663 7994
Breakfast and lunch, Monday to Friday


After a brief hiatus from blogging due to an unfortunate masters essay that just wouldn't write itself, I'm back! There's a backlog of places I'm itching to write about, starting right here right now with this one.

Trunk Diner

The Diner at Trunk is the American diner style cafe adjacent to the main Trunk restaurant and bar. It's been open since July from Mondays to Fridays - just for breakfast and lunch at this stage, though there are apparently plans afoot to stay open in the evenings too.

Trunk Diner

Nifty fitout, eh? It was very pleasant sitting there with the early morning sunshine streaming in, as our group imbibed coffee after coffee made by the charming Tom (who used to be my barista when he worked down in the legal district).

Trunk Diner

Love that big beautiful Trunk courtyard. The main Trunk building was originally a synagogue, built in 1859. I know this because I read it on the Trunk website, which I suggest you DON'T visit as it is a website that automatically plays music THAT YOU CANNOT TURN OFF. I'm sorry, but that is a restaurant website design FAIL of the first order. If whoever is in charge of the Trunk website reads this, please please please get rid of the music!

Trunk Diner

But back to the Diner. It was a Thursday morning and a group of us were enjoying our fortnightly CBD Bourgeois Breakfast tradition. Because it was the lovely Miss C's birthday, we also ordered a bottle of bubbly to share. Champagne and habanero sauce: it was going to be one of THOSE Thursday mornings...

Champagne and salsa picante

As I said at the top, the venue is styled as an American diner, and has a menu to match. I ordered the free range Mexican scrambled eggs ($12), which came with bacon, cheddar, jalapenos, coriander, tomato, red pepper and spring onion, wrapped and served on a little meal tray. Very tasty - even tastier with a bit of old El Yucateco.

Mexican scrambled eggsMexican scrambled eggs

The Diner also has a small selection of breakfast quesadillas - Miss A went for the vegetarian one with portabello mushrooms, roast corn, fetta and fontina cheese ($9).

Quesadilla

Other friends went with the porridge made from rolled oats, banana and brown sugar ($8) and the house granola with vanilla poached fruit ($7). All gave favourable breakfast reports.

PorridgeHouse granola

I would like to try those winter wiggidy waffles, to see just how wiggidy wiggidy wack they really are (they come with roasted bananas, hazelnuts, ice cream and maple syrup). I'm also keen to head back for lunch next time I'm up that end of the city - not only do they have a wagyu burger that Mellie from Tummy Rumbles speaks highly of and a Cuban baguette that sounds amazing (pulled pork, gypsy ham, gruyere, zucchini pickles and chipotle mayo), their dessert menu reads as follows: apple pie, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, brownie, caramel popcorn.

Just like Mom used to make!

Winter Wiggidy Waffles

9 comments:

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

new brekkie spot!

glad that you are back after finishing ur essay.

Thermomixer said...

Chilli for brekkie ? Hard core.

Welcome back to blogging.

Good luck (probably not needed with all the work) with your MAsters.

greenbeenfood said...

Fit out does look great! something different too to order.

Anonymous said...

ooo i love breakfast places =).
just always wake up so late on weekends... its no longer breakfast time.
gee you can stomach chilli early in the morning? =P

Libby said...

I love Fiddler On The Roof but I agree with you, I hate having to visit the Trunk website because the music gives me the irrits.

I'm keen to try the burger @ Trunk Diner. Shame it's not open for dinner :(

My Restaurants Melbourne said...

I haven't seen this place before, great find. hopefully they will be able to open in evenings too.

claire said...

Thanks Joe and Jeff!

Hi GBF, yes the menu makes a nice change.

Hi almostalwaysravenous - as a rule I generally don'thave chilli for breatfast, but in this case we felt we could make an exception. I only put a TINY amount of the red one on, not the hotter green one!

Glad I'm not alone in finding the music wildly irritating Libby! If I hear it's open for dinner I'll update the blog. :)

Fingers crossed, MRM!

smithandmiller said...

Aah!

I am in love with the Tusk outdoors, I don't work in the city so had no idea they'd converted the outdoor bit. Totally jealous. Maybe I need to get into town early one morning for brekkie before work!

Good to see you're back. We owe each other a drink @ Cherry Tree!

Ally said...

PORRIDGE! Yay for oats. That food looks simple but insanely good.