Last year, the Guardian hailed the UK-style caff one of Britain’s national treasures. Distinct from an Aussie cafe, a caff is known for its no-fuss, all-day meals served in an unpretentious setting.

That’s exactly what Kirbie Tate aims to channel at her eponymous new South Melbourne eatery, previously home to her Korean-Japanese-inspired wine bar, James.

“When people say cafe in Melbourne, it's poached eggs, bacon and coffee,” she tells Broadsheet. “But when I think of caff in that sort of Euro way, I think of these beautiful, warm spaces to just hang out in all day. I think we struggle to do that well in Australia, so I’m setting out to do it.”

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Tate comes from a cafe background (she previously operated Wynyard and Giddiup) and spent five years in London, where she worked at Coffee Plant on Portobello Road and, ironically, helped open Melbourne-style cafe Lantana, Fitzrovia.

James’s formal nature was definitely a change of pace, and while Tate still holds a fondness for it, Kirbie offers something closer to the kinds of venues she really knows and loves.

Tate, a South Melbourne local, wanted to create a place people could visit multiple times a week like they would their favourite cafe.

She recruited “a couple of local killer home cooks” to help develop the menu with daily chalkboard special sandwiches and soups that have included avgolemono, a brothy Greek lemon and chicken soup.

“Soup and bread used to be on every menu but it's kind of hard to find now,” Tate says. “It was really important for me to make sure there's a soup on at all times.”

The caff has lunch and dinner service with bistro-style mains. Find chicken cotoletta, strip steak with “Kirbie butter” (a spin on the nori butter popularised at James), or tortellini in brodo (broth) with a beef filling recipe passed on from a friend’s nonna.

Desserts may include chocolate tarts, olive oil-drizzled lemon sorbet and galaktoboureko, a filo-wrapped Greek custard.

“When I started to talk to people about what their favourite desserts are, that particular dish kept coming up over and over again,” says Tate. “[Kirbie has] been a real coming together of people who just really know food.”

There are by-the-glass wines featuring Tate’s picks of the day, inspired by the nightly wine rotation at Gerald’s Bar. Diners can BYO or pull from an extended bottle list that mostly champions French and Italian varietals.

The space, which Tate fitted out with her stepfather, retains much of the structure from its days as James. However, the blonde wood has been swapped for rich maple and the windows are now filled with colourful stained glass.

Kirbie
323 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne
(03) 9690 9285

Hours:
Mon to Sat 11am–late

kirbie.com.au