But don't expect you can just get a cup of coffee! No, this is Italian coffee culture, with espresso and machiato and latte and cappucino... and something distinctively Australian (or Aussie/Kiwi). It's called a "flat white," and assembled as illustrated, though the proportion of coffee, at about a third, is a bit more than the picture suggests. It's unlike a latte, in having more coffee and not being served in a glass, and unlike a cappucino in being relatively free of froth or sprinkled cocoa -- flat topped. It can have the same beautiful leafy patterns as the cappucino at Joe's, the best coffee near The New School (north side of 13th St. between Fifth Avenue and University Place, but don't tell anyone).I enjoyed my first flat white this morning with K, my kind hostess (who suggested that initials might reasonably be used in a blog), at a place called The Wall. This place has the advantage of direct sunlight in the mornings (especially welcome after yesterday, which was cold, windy and even for spells rainy) and very good coffee indeed. It's called The Wall because, when it closes, it disappears. The benches and few tables outside are taken in, doorways are rolled shut, and you see only a brick wall, graffiti covered. Only if you know to look for it, and look very hard, can you make out big letters W A L L.
But then, all the best places in Melbourne play hide and seek -- but that's a topic for another post.
