Bennett Street Dairy

Sitting on a sun-drenched wooden bench, with a bowl of soft egg and peas and a froth-topped Harbourside draught coffee, nothing could feel more like summer. It’s hard to imagine Bennet Street Dairy in any other season.

The cafe is wooden and minimal, like a boat shed but with a glass façade and a coffee bar by the entrance. First-time cafe owner and designer James Meek is joined in the business by chef Cliff Baskin.

The menu includes a tower of crisp polenta cubes with mushrooms, roast tomato, a poached egg and smoked salmon; and a breakfast bowl with a mix of curly kale, peas, roast almonds, sprouts, a seed-dusted poached egg and quinoa.

Baskin boasts most about the schnitzel burger, named Hilda’s Crumbed Chicken after his grandma. It’s layered with smoked cheddar, roast tomato and a sweet house relish and put in a Lux brioche bun. It’s juicy enough to drip down your hands.

Meek and Baskin invested a lot in their coffee offering, a fact confirmed by their state-of-the-art Victoria Arduino Black Eagle espresso machine with sophisticated temperature, weight and pressure controls.