Le Comptoir

Le Comptoir’s offering is impressive at any time of day. Follow your morning beach swim with its fluffy house-made brioche, sweet French tarts, or the crowd-favourite oeufs en cocotte (baked eggs) alongside hot cups of Supreme Coffee. At lunch, stop in for French-inspired salads, gooey croque monsieurs or baguettes lined with sliced deli meats and cheese (or order some cured meats and French cheese from the deli fridge). And into the evenings, there’s French wine to pair with meals that might include beef carpaccio, boeuf bourguignon or cassoulet – depending on the season.

Life and business partners Samuel Roig-Scalfer and Asher Healey (who also run The Lighthouse Tea Rooms) are behind the all-day eatery and deli. For Roig-Sclafer, who grew up in Brive-la-Gaillarde in France, Le Comptoir is his way of sharing his country’s epicurean culture with the place he now calls home.

The wine list makes that clear, flaunting a bounty of French wines to pair with your food. You might choose between Loire Valley whites, Bordeaux reds and southern French multi-varietal blends such as Les Creisses – a wine from the vineyard Roig-Scalfer used to cycle past when he’d visit his grandmother in summer. There’s also a small selection of Australian beers and non-alcoholic sodas from Yumbo.

Any of it will pair nicely with something from the three-metre-long charcuterie cabinet, which holds 30 kinds of (mostly French) cheese, cured meats from nearby Barongarook Pork, La Bastide’s award-winning cured sausage and house-made rillettes.

The small indoor and outdoor areas are claimed on a walk-in basis. If you need to wait for your food, a walk to the beach and back comes recommended.