Travelling through Scandinavia on their honeymoon, Zume Pham and Amy Vo were so inspired by the terrain, the designs they found, and the abundance of healthy, simply prepared food that when they returned to Melbourne, the only way they knew how to adequately express their newly found hygge was to open a restaurant.
Located in an alley across the road from Windsor Station and a short stroll to the retail offerings at Chapel Street and the graffiti collection of Aerosol Alley, the bijou eatery is the work of Brandworks – the Melbourne-based branding and interior studio cannily recreating the earthy warm mood of a Scandinavian home with unfussy oak furniture, terrazzo table tops, and timber panels.
It’s a simple, yet calm backdrop to an equally measured menu for which Pham channels stints in the kitchens at Circa and Pillar of Salt to create open sandwiches ladened with herb labneh, parsley emulsion, pan roasted chicken and smoked almonds, alongside lashings of soba noodle salad and cauliflower steaks.
The morning set, meanwhile, can’t seem to get enough of the Nordic spelt granola, and the carrot and chia pudding stirred through with coriander coconut cream, with a side order of java, made with beans from local roastery Disciple, to go. §
