From every city I visit, I bring back memories of one favorite spot. A place that has specially anchored itself in my heart. Most of the time, it is the one I have visited the most, and it always has something unique about it – a very special atmosphere. When I travel further or back to Hamburg, I know: If I will come back this would be the first spot where you see me again!
Today I would like to introduce you to the café which is my favorite place in Melbourne. It is called Plug Nickel and is located near the hip district Fitzroy – in Collingwood. The interior of the café consists of a small room with a few seating possibilities. Thanks to two large windows it is mostly flooded with light. Also in front of the café there are some places to sit. If you just want something to take away your orders are delivered practical directly through a window to the street.
Alone sitting and staying here a moment is worthwhile in my opinion. You can still observe the small details much better – like the small rainbow on the counter which appears when the light falls through the windows at a certain angle. You can also enjoy the top-notch coffee here. It is from the roastery Ona Coffee from Canberra. In the summer months, at plug-nickel particularly often cold coffee specialties are handed over the counter. In addition to the normal cold brew (cold-poured coffee) they serve carbonated cascara tea (a tea made from the coffee cherry) from inside the taps on the wall of the café and a sparkling version of the cold brew.
Maybe the nice encounter I had at Plug Nickel is not entirely innocent of my enthusiasm for this café: When I photographed the counter during my first visit, someone knocked wildly at the window pane. It took me a moment to understand that I was meant. A young guy pointed to my T-shirt and asked “Do you work there?”. I wore a souvenir of my last Lisbon trip that day – a shirt from the Fabrica Coffee Roasters. Laughing, I explained to the kindly grinning man what it had to do with it. Gaston, so his name was, told me that he had just visited the Portuguese roastery last summer and so we started a conversation.
To my delight, the newly foreign guy was a creative equaly-minded: a Melbourne-based lettering artist with an enthusiasm for good coffee. Frequently, Gaston embellishes the chalkboards of the restaurants of his city, produces designs for beer bottles, or paints whole windowpanes and walls with lively letters. His favorite color (you can see quickly when you follow him on Instagram or visit his website) is yellow.
When I began to ask him for more coffee tips, he helped me willingly but quickly added that I had already landed in the best café. The Plug Nickel is his absolute favorite. “I love to enjoy my coffee here, when the light falls so beautifully through the trees,” I still hear him say today.
Hours later I knew exactly what he meant. Meanwhile, the artist had drawn two “Fräulein Anker” -Letterings inside my notebook, we had a second coffee together and I took some pictures and videos (more about it quite soon) from the café.
On another visit to the Plug Nickel, I met Gaston again and left him with the promise to open my eyes for a few chalkboards or other projects. So that we meet each other once again in Europe for a coffee. But also I would like to see the beautiful café again. It would be at the top of my list, when I should travel to Melbourne again.
Plug Nickel
7 Peel St
Collingwood VIC 3066
