You won’t find bog-standard smashed avo at these three new cafes, and they are all the better for it

Cafes that colour outside the lines aren’t in short supply in Melbourne, with many of the city’s most popular daytime-dining options stretching well beyond smashed avo.

These three welcome new additions – from the CBD to Northcote – are no exception, weaving in flavours from their owners’ backgrounds to pull away from the pack.

Todo Good Coffee

Bogota-born couple Santiago Villamizar and Carolina Talero have long been injecting their Colombian heritage into Melbourne’s cafe scene: they opened Fitzroy’s South American-style Sonido in 2010 and followed it up with Preston’s Arepa Days in 2018.

Since 2019, they’ve been roasting their own Colombian coffee for both venues under the label Todo Good (“todo means all, so ‘all good’,” says Villamizar). And recently they opened a cafe of the same name – their third – in a cute corner spot in Northcote.

Doing the fit-out themselves, all burgundy tiles and pops of green, Villamizar and Talero started building a community of locals even before opening, and now the cafe heaves.

“Instead of bread, we have arepas,” says Villamizar. The palm-sized cornbread pockets from Arepa Days come with fillings such as fried eggs, Istra bacon and barbecue sauce; and ropa vieja (pulled beef), guac and salsas.

There are also rice bowls with similar toppings, as well as Colombian classics like empanadas, pandebono (cheese bread) and ajiaco, which Villamizar describes as “a traditional mountain soup of potatoes and corn”.

Todo Good roasts about 120 kilos of coffee beans a week and serves only three single-origins at a time, for espresso, filter and decaf. You can buy beans for home in 250g bags, or fill your own bag at the self-serve station, then pay by weight.

Open Mon-Fri 7am-3.30pm; Sat-Sun 8am-4pm

1A Timmins Street, Northcote, todogood.com.au

Cafe Jabelle

Carlton North’s tree-lined Rathdowne Village has a new address for Middle Eastern dining: the family-run, Lebanese-inspired Cafe Jabelle, which opened early last month.

While owner Fadi Hamka has previously run Italian restaurants across Melbourne, “I thought it was about time I show off my [Lebanese] heritage,” he tells Good Food. “And show people that you can eat this beautiful Middle Eastern food at any time of day.”

Traditional home-style Lebanese dishes – such as cumin-spiced fava bean and chickpea stew – stand out on the all-day breakfast menu. They’re joined by more typical cafe dishes souped up with Middle Eastern flourishes. There’s grilled sujuk (spicy sausage) in the brekkie roll, and halva and rosewater syrup atop the pancake stack.

Thursday to Saturday, Jabelle is also open for dinner (and, when its liquor licence is approved, drinks), serving both Lebanese small plates and big mixed-grill platters.

Open Tue-Wed 7am-3pm; Thu-Sat 7am-9pm; Sun 7am-3pm

645 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, instagram.com/cafejabelle

Hareruya Pantry

Kantaro Okada opened Japanese convenience store Hareruya Pantry in Carlton two years ago. “But being in a laneway in the Melbourne CBD has always been a dream of mine,” he says.

Now, he has realised that dream with the opening of a second Hareruya Pantry, in Somerset Place (off Little Bourke Street near bustling Elizabeth Street), where he’s bringing his cut-above grab-and-go offering to the office crowd.

Kantaro Okada, who also founded sake bar Leonie Upstairs, sandwich specialist Le Bajo Milkbar and onigiri cafe 279, is bringing all of the Carlton favourites to the city. That includes seasonal bento boxes packed with a kaleidoscopic selection of osouzai (Japanese side dishes), and nikuman – warm, fluffy steamed buns filled with pork and glass noodles.

As in Carlton, gelato is a drawcard. And there’s a bigger selection here, including a collab with Comme des Garcons that resulted in a black-sesame hokey pokey flavour.

Open daily 10.30am-10.30pm

27 Somerset Place, Melbourne, hareruya.com.au