Apartment Alkira – Boutique Melbourne Short Stay Accommodation

No one will believe you’ve been to Melbourne if you go home without caffeine stains on your teeth. Go on, ask anyone. The two things that symbolise Melbourne more effectively than the cheese sticks at the entrance to Tullamarine Freeway, are 1) laneways and 2) cafes.

If you’re not sure where to start your caffeine investigation, check out our suggestions to the left for some of the best brews in the city.  Of course coffee is very personal, so if you don’t agree with our findings, or you’ve stumbled upon somewhere you think should be on the list and isn’t, do drop us a line (or post to our facebook page).

And if you feel you’ve imbibed enough caffeine-laced fumes and watched as many coffee art kings as any visitor to this lovely city can manage, then you might consider upping the ante and learning how to do it yourself.

Tucked away in West Melbourne – not far from the CBD, and a short 10 minute tram ride from Apartment Alkira – is the Australian Barista Academy.  Sounds a bit serious doesn’t it?  Well they do take their drug of choice very seriously.  Apparently their instructors have collectively won over 15 Barista Competitions.  They run classes from the basics to specialty brewing with costs range from $150-$190.  Most classes are half day.

Check out their website for more information here *which is also where we stole this fabby pic from.

Brought to you by Apartment Alkira, one very stylish Serviced Apartment in Melbourne’s CBD. She has a penchant for lovely creamy lattes.

Hungry Melbourne mouths have always found sustenance in the Hardware Lane patch of the CBD. But it’s only relatively recently that the pasta hawkers at the top end have had their oversized menus and contrived Italian accents nudged to one side by the newer, cooler kids.  Brother Buba Budan  launched the assault, Hardware Societe made herself known in 2009 and last year Manchester Press threw its impressive roller door open to welcome bagel lovers and caffeine addicts to the other side of the tracks.

The re-worked former printing press has been ‘industrial-chic-ed’ to within an inch of its life, but it’s the sort of space that can carry such a work over.  We particularly loved the over-sized skittle looking perky in the corner.  The menu is pretty much bagel-land so if this isn’t your thing, try the coffee for the excitement of what animal, vegetable or mineral will turn up as coffee art in your cup, and then head to Hardware Societe for more sophisticated fare. Open for brekkie and lunch seven days.

8 Rankins Lane
Melbourne
(03) 9600 4054

 Brought to you by serviced apartment specialists and caffeine lovers, Apartment Alkira.  Where too much coffee is never enough.

Melbourne has her fair share of artisan bakeries.  You can barely venture down one of our famed ‘laneways’ without being smacked in the face by a luscious, yeasty, briny aroma. We’re not complaining, mind, just noting.

A few months ago ‘Phillippa’s’ nudged her flour-dappled nose into the CBD from her traditionally suburban shores and now Frank Cammora is going the other way.  South Yarra, you’re one lucky suburb.

For those unfamiliar with the famed foodie godfather, Frank Cammora, is the genius behind the outrageously successful Movida dynasty – Movida, Movida Next Door, Movida Aqui, Pacos Tacos (and, we understand, a Sydney venture in Surrey Hills around October this year).  So, some pretty solid credentials.  Something of a foodie ‘talent scout’, for this project, Cammora has backed Michael James who has been trotting out pastries and breads for Movida for some time now.

Highly recommended treats from Movida Bakery are the divine salted caramel donuts and the chocolate brownies, but the slow cooked lamb pies also get a gold star.  And of course don’t forget the 48 hour fermented sourdough. Yum.

The bakery is easy to get to from Melbourne’s CBD – jump on a 72 tram straight down Toorak Road.  A well rounded day out might combine lunch at Movida Bakery, with a shopaholic’s stopover tour of the boutiques of South Yarra.   You could finish off with a nosey about the quirky Chapel Street Bazaar (see our posting here) and a glass of something bubbly at Fog on the groovy Greville Street.

Movida Bakery
3 Tivoli Road, South Yarra

https://twitter.com/movidabakery

Phillippa’s City Store
15 Howey Place, Melbourne +61 3 9671 04030
Monday-Friday 7am-5:30pm
Saturday 8:30am-2:30pm

Check our previous post on Top Bakeries in Melbourne 2011.

Eating our way through Melbourne’s best and worst so you don’t have to.  Apartment Alkira offers tasty serviced apartment accommodation smack bang in the middle of the city. 

*pic pinched from https://twitter.com/movidabakery

There are still a few nights left if you’re curious about what Metropolis New Music is. Operating out of the Melbourne Recital Centre until May 5th, the festival’s publicity blurb says it will be “an exhilarating road-trip across the United States…”. And all that without having to have a brawl with US immigration.

Check out the Melbourne Recital Centre website here for further programming details.

We like a bit of a meander with ‘new Music’ here at Apartment Alkira…this ‘What’s On’ update brought to you by our wee serviced apartment in Queen Street, Melbourne, CBD…merely a stone’s throw from the Melbourne Recital Centre

L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Week starts today. Take care out there. With flicky hair, pauty lips and platform shoes in such abundance, anything can happen.

See our earlier post here for more details.

If you’ve stayed at Apartment Alkira (and if not, why not? hmm?) you’ll know we have a penchant for the odd piece of quirky retro furniture.  We’ve often been asked where we source our treasures from (we usually whisper this part, so shuffle in close).  One of our favourite haunts is the fabulous Chapel St Bazaar in Prahran.

Aptly named, the ‘Bazaar’ will indeed furnish you with many amazing, never-to-be-seen again items.  Other pieces may leave you tilting your head to the side like a cocker spaniel, trying to figure out why on earth anyone would pay good money for….. (insert details here).

It’s that sort of place – unpredictable, intriguing, and capable of fuelling an entire afternoon of conversation about something your nana once owned, which you now wish you’d kept.

There are 70 separate stalls, it’s open from 10-6 every day, very easy to find (any tram from the CBD heading down Chapel Street, Prahran will get you there) and its flanked by zillions of cafes to keep you fuelled for the adventure. Resistance is futile.

17 Chapel Street
Prahran VIC, 3181
03 9529 1727
chapbaz@yahoo.com.au

Odd bits and pieces about Melbourne’s treasures, brought to you by Apartment Alkira, a quirky alternative to the last bland serviced apartment or hotel you stayed in.

If you’ve visited Melbourne during April you’ll know it’s important to have a few gloomier weather indoor options on standby.  You might not need them, but as Melbourne’s blue sky days turn on their heels and head north it’s important to have appealing Plan B activities.  Fortunately Melbourne throws on a myriad of festivals at this time of year to convince us all that it’s not quite as glum as it looks. And the end of April sees the Festival of German FIlm shack up at the Paris end of Collins Street.

Hosted at the quirky Kino cinema – a short 10 minute walk from the apartment – this year’s festival runs through to April 30th and has some charming  movies on the programme.  Screen times can change at the last minute so it’s best to check the Website for timings.  Festival Website.

Another wet weather option brought to you by the people who know Melbourne’s weather well, Apartment Alkira, Serviced Apartment in Queen Street, Melbourne, Victoria.

Does Andrew McConnell actually sleep?  This question has been keeping us up here at Apartment Alkira since Mr McC’s stable of fabulous and very Melbourne eateries began expanding a couple of years ago.  How does he do it?  And unlike other restauranteurs whose growth spurts have dinted quality, consistency, or both, Andrew McConnell seems to have the knack of making everything just hum.  It is for this reason that we feel he is an insomniac.  Or a robot.

Not that we’re complaining. We love every one of his offspring, from Cumulus Inc to Golden Fields to Cutler & Co. And while we haven’t sampled the fare at his re-verbed Builders Arms, (the dining room gets up and going in June), we feel a warm spot in our tummies starting to grow.  It’s bound to be fab. We hope Mr Mc can now get some shut eye.

Website here

Brought to you by your hosts with ever-rumbling tummies, at Melbourne’s stable of (one) award winning serviced apartment at Queen Street, Melbourne City, Victoria.

*pic pinched from one of our fave Melbourne resources, Broadsheet

If you like your comedy to come with a side order of jazz and your cleverly scripted repartee to come with an accompaniment of off-the-wall improv, then the The Horne Section will be the highlight of your 2012 Spiegeltent line up.

Cheeky and quirky in equal measures,  Alex and his five-piece band of merry men will have you giggling all night.   Afterwards, wandering around the prettily lit Arts precinct with the flush of endorphins in your system you’ll find yourself trying to recall exactly what they did that was so ‘hilarious’.  Chances are you won’t be able to.  And that’s the joy of the show.  Odd and mesmerising and completely ephemeral, it’s definitely a ‘you had to be there’ kinda show.  Enjoy.

Details here.

12-22 April
The Famous Spiegeltent at Arts Centre
100 St Kilda Road,
Melbourne, Victoria

Check back regularly for more tips and tricks for exploring Melbourne and finding out what’s on, where and when.
Brought to you by Apartment Alkira, a quirky little Serviced Apartment with a good sense of humour in Melbourne’s CBD.

The peeps at the Victoria’s ‘virtual’ tourist hub – Visit Victoria – have just released a nifty wee app aimed at giving you an ‘iphone window’ into the soul of our fair city.

Winding down the infamous laneways and weaving through hidden rooftop bars and quirky cafes, the app takes you on a whirlwind tour of the city.  Great for anyone doing a short stay in Melbourne, relocating to the capital of Victoria or even locals who want to rediscover her charm. This app is gloriously free and Marvellously Melbourne.

Check it out here.

More nifty Melbourne resources brought to you by one of the city’s quirkiest holiday apartments, Apartment Alkira, Queen Street, Melbourne City