Reviews
The breakfast and lunch menus are not groundbreaking, but the execution is zinging.
Dani Valent, Reviewer
May 14, 2007
Traffic is horrible when you're part of it. When you're not, though, the whoosh of tyres on bitumen can be soothing. I grew up within earshot of Punt Road and I remember thinking, this is my ocean, these are my waves, as I settled to sleep. Surely part of the trick of living in a city is finding calm pockets in the palaver. Apte, an oasis cafe on a busy road, is such a place, impervious to the petrol-powered rant and rattle only metres away.
It's easy to miss as you're nudging 60 km/h. We did a couple of U-turns before we spotted the place, on the Yarraford Avenue corner, and drove around the back into the handy gravel car park. The cafe is bright, crisp and uncluttered, with every kind of seating option: stools at a bench, a communal table spread with reading matter, regulation tables and chairs, and a couple of retro swivel chairs near the window. Tables are well spaced: gossip with confidence. Outside, there's a courtyard with lovely cottage-garden beds and a sad lawn. Crates of toys and kids' books let parents think in terms of two coffees, rather than the usual espresso-slam-'n'-dash.
