Pecks Road

Filipino-inspired cafe Pecks Road marries your local hip brunch spot with your lola’s (grandma’s) house. Co-owners and brothers AJ, Albin and Arbi Lawang wanted the space to feel like their own lola’s living room. That’s where they spent most afternoons as kids, eating her lutong bahay (which translates loosely to “home-cooked food”). The venue’s name also references their childhood: it’s the street they grew up on in north-west Melbourne.

Whether you have a sweet tooth or a savoury craving, the menu here offers a range of house-made treats. The OG glazed doughnuts, which are made fresh on-site daily, are the best place to start. Other flavours have included ube (purple yam), and strawberry and matcha. Other sweet staples include apple fritters and strawberry crullers.

For lunch there’s a handful of sangas and toasties. Albin recommends the signature Reuben with juicy thick-cut pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, house-made habanero and Pecks Road’s secret south-west sauce. The spam-and-egg bagel dials up the crunch with crisp chicharrón (pork crackling). It calls to mind two Filipino classics: lechon (spit-roasted pig) and spamsilog (spam and eggs).

You’ll find coffee, as well as ube lattes served hot or iced. Plus, shakes in flavours like milo dinosaur, Nutella and Biscoff.