Category Archives: Cafes

One good turn, deserves another and a shameless plug

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT managed a 75km ride on a glorious winter morning. It was so good to be outside in the sun. Clearly, every cyclist in Melbourne thought the same thing, as there were literally thousands of cyclists of all shapes and sizes on Beach Road. The general mood at Tour de Cafe, Mordialloc, this morning was quite festive. MMT enjoyed a warm strong latte, while discretely ogling 2 Litespeed Ti framed bikes.

Opps! That was shamless plug no.1 and here’s a photo of that cafe 🙂 MMT doesn’t need to promote this cafe too much, its pretty much an institution in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Yesterday with 20+ cyclists standing around on sunny but cold morning, it was a small slice of heaven.

This is one of the few photos MMT has seen of this cafe without cyclists milling around outside waiting for coffee 😉

That brings MMT to shameless plug no.2 for Get to the Greek in Port Melbourne. MMT has been collecting pick-up lamb gryos and souvlaki as a Friday night treat for Team MMT. It is quite inexpensive and very tasty. There’s a decent picture of the place, acquired care of Google.

yep, another photo liberated from the WWW, without any credit given to the photographer…opps!! 🙂

Last Friday night, MMT rolled up to pay and collect, when the resturant manager offered MMT a free beer. Since the COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne started, MMT couldn’t rememer the last time he had a beer. So it was gratefully accepted. The order arrived seconds later, and manager provided the free beer in a takeaway cup. How good was that??

Until next time, ride safe and stay safe

MMT

Agile work practices are killing my blog…sob

<whinge mode>

Dear Rouleurs,

It’s been a while, since my last blog. Unfortunately the day to day drama of working in an agile workforce has become a sinkhole of wasted time. Oh well they pay me I turn up. C’est la vie…

Unfortunately, this has meant much less time to work on this blog. It’s also not helping that my adorable half pint daughter is not sleeping through the night…. Sigh. So this means much less available time and energy to do blogs and generally reflect on MMT’s experience of cycling. Happily, MMT’s weekly kilometres ridden has stayed fairly consistent since Christmas.

With the exception of a couple of minor colds and a deeply peculiar skin virus, MMT’s health has been very good. A quick glance at MMT’s Strava account reveals a steady average of 170 Kilometres a week. Hooray, MMT supposes, that for a near 50 year old man this should be cause for celebration.

</Whinge Mode>

Anyhow, enough wingeing and onto the subject of this blog. MMT spied this awesome piece of…. Street art or philosophy on the Gill’s Diner sign last week and thought it was worth putting pen to paper to publicize it.

MMT doesn’t know who chalked this memorable quote but they clearly have a strong grasp of theology. Hopefully MMT will be feeling more chipper and write a less self indulgent blog next time.

Until next time ride safe

MARV

Post-holiday angry rant part 1 – dump trump

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT has been back 10 days in Melbourne and already the heady days of #Iloveholidays are over.  In his jet-lagged state of foreboding, MMT has taken solace in the ready availability of world-class coffee.  The Spanish seem to relish the taste of UHT long life milk.  MMT wonders if its exclusively used in cafes in that country.  In MMT’s opinion, using that kind of milk makes coffee undrinkable. Yup, MMT is a coffee snob and bike snob 😉

So on his way to a near by coffee shop, MMT spied this horrible sight.  MMT had to look twice to sense-check his reality.  After all, who in their right mind, in Australia, would have a bumper sticker supporting the current American President. I’ve left the licence plate in the photo as a form of ‘name and shame’.

MMT very nearly keyed this car out of spite and protest.  The only thing holding back that act of protest/vandalism was the thought that just may be this was some weird, deeply ironic joke.  Either way, MMT was very, very conflicted at the sight of something so idiotic. Its not like Australia has a shortage of political idiots.  One only has to look at the most recent coup d’etat against the previous PM Malcolm Turnbull, to see how many of them are present in the Australian Liberal Party.

MMT digresses, the coffee was good and MMT was able to re-direct his rage to this blog.

Until next time ride safe.

MMT

When in London: Look Ma No Hands Cafe

 

Dear Roulers,

Here’s my first blog entry for 2016.  Back in October 2015, the Missus and I had a 4 week European Holiday that included a few days in London.  I spent more than a few hours visiting a list of bike shops and scooping up bargains were I could find them.  One of the best shops was a café that I used to frequent when I lived in London.  In fact, I can remember when it opened in 2010.  Tired of really crappy coffee offered by Starbucks, Costa and Café Nero, I was becoming quite desperate for a decent Australian style latte or flat white.

Fortunately, ‘Look Ma No Hands’ opened up and offered much better coffee crafted by staff that had a much better understanding of their expresso machine.  The shop had free wifi, a sunny aspect and a fledgling bicycle workshop.  Also, it showed old 70’s & 80’s TV coverage of the grand tours and monuments.  It was mainly frequented by students and bicycle couriers with the occasional suited trespasser like me.

20160107-LMNH-Map

So when I dragged my footsore wife from Old Street Tube Station to the there in late October 2015, it was with fond memories and quiet hope that it hadn’t changed much over.  I checked out the Café’s website and it seemed very promising.  Happily, reality for once matched the glamour and gloss of website.  The café was full of people viewing a crowd sourcing pitch for short film about how cycling was helping a young man  get the better of his clinical depression.

 20160107-LMNH-Cafe  20160107-LMNH-Wshop

The coffee was much better than I remembered it and we spent a lazy 45 minutes soaking up the vibe and trying on shop branded merchandise.  I purchased a short sleeve jersey and cap.  Both have been given a few test rides and have passed the ‘marv’ test with flying colours.  Its kind of cool to own a jersey that no one in Melbourne has or at least I haven’t seen on the back of another rouleur around my locale.

 20160107-LMNH-Jersey  20160107-LMNH-Cap

So to quote ‘Molly’ Meldrum and that irritating TV ad that’s on high rotation at the moment, when you are next in London ‘Do your self a favour’ and visit one of the great cycling cafes in the UK, Look Ma No Hands.

Until next time,

Marv