Tom Dick & Harry

When the owners of a dark and narrow cafe skipped out on their Toorak Road lease, Salvatore Venneri saw an opportunity to open his own local.

Tom Dick & Harry is divided into three concepts: a window for takeaway coffee, an ever-changing salad bar and a service area for made-to-order dishes. On weekends, when local workers retreat to the suburbs, the cafe slows down to focus on the latter with all-day, build-your-own style breakfast and lunch dishes.

The salads, created by head chef Anna Letho, cater to health-conscious eaters without compromising on flavour, such as the quinoa salad with parsley, mint, corn, peas, zucchini, beans, asparagus, feta and cauliflower. The popular soba noodle salad with heirloom tomatoes, Asian herbs, avocado, snow peas, spring onion and broad beans is available everyday for takeaway, or is made-to-order on weekends. Each of the six to eight daily salads are made vegetarian, gluten-free and undressed with the option for customers to add protein (miso salmon or poached chicken) and dressing. Each is available in three sizes, with the option to mix and match flavours.

In keeping with Venneri’s Italian heritage, coffee is by Illy and every takeaway order is served with a piece of his mother’s homemade biscotti.

And if salads aren’t really your thing, try the Nutella muffins available on weekends.