"The Age" August/1999
It takes a special kind of vision to see potential. Take Balaclava, for instance. It plays the plain Jane to St Kilda's Kidman. Not the place you'd expect to find this year's Age Good Food Guide Best Cafe. But there tucked down a side road behind number 280 Carlisile Street,is Wall Two 80.
It's a small place, with no real signage, no kitchen, and no Melbourne cafe cliches-in other words, the decor's not retro, it doesn't have tealight lamps, and you won't find any pastas or stir-fries on the menu. It's unlike any other place in this cafe-crazy town. For owners Keith Shreeve and Dave Sharry, Carlisle Street seemed the obvious location to open their business. The pair had noticed the number of young people moving into the area who had nowhere to go for their caffeine fix. "We knew about the shift out of St Kilda, and that Balaclava was grossly under-serviced (with cafes)," says Sharry.
Wall Two 80, a kosher butchery before Sharry and Shreeve movied in, has an utterly distinctive personality that's neither St Kilda nor Carlton/Fitzroy. It's no accidenbt that the cafe is tucked down a side street. "We like people having trouble finding us," says Sharry. And the people who come like that too. It makes it seem like a new discovery and everyone who knows the place like to think of it as their own private hole-in-the-wall.
Both Sharry and Shreeve have hospitatlity qualifications, buts it's what they have done since that inspired them to create Wall Two 80 - cafe without a kitchen.
Shreeve started as a bell boy at a Hobart hotel. Sharry moved from pot-scrubber in a hospital kitchen to bar work the day he turned 18. Sharry met Shreeve at Globe, which the latter part-owned, then worked as manager for him at Candy Bar, where they found they shared a vision for a small, simple, yet well-run cafe - without a kitchen.
So if you're peckish at Wall there are pastries (from Phillippa's), soup, and excellent toasted pide with Vegemite or fillings such as smoked chicken with Dijon mustard and rocket. Then there is the most underrated aspect of too many cafes - the coffee.
"We focus on the things that work and on doing those things well," says Sharry. All the staff who pull espressos at Wall Two 80 are masters of the machine, and each time you go you'll get a coffee just as good as the last. And that's almost all you could ask.
It's a small place, with no real signage, no kitchen, and no Melbourne cafe cliches-in other words, the decor's not retro, it doesn't have tealight lamps, and you won't find any pastas or stir-fries on the menu. It's unlike any other place in this cafe-crazy town. For owners Keith Shreeve and Dave Sharry, Carlisle Street seemed the obvious location to open their business. The pair had noticed the number of young people moving into the area who had nowhere to go for their caffeine fix. "We knew about the shift out of St Kilda, and that Balaclava was grossly under-serviced (with cafes)," says Sharry.
Wall Two 80, a kosher butchery before Sharry and Shreeve movied in, has an utterly distinctive personality that's neither St Kilda nor Carlton/Fitzroy. It's no accidenbt that the cafe is tucked down a side street. "We like people having trouble finding us," says Sharry. And the people who come like that too. It makes it seem like a new discovery and everyone who knows the place like to think of it as their own private hole-in-the-wall.
Both Sharry and Shreeve have hospitatlity qualifications, buts it's what they have done since that inspired them to create Wall Two 80 - cafe without a kitchen.
Shreeve started as a bell boy at a Hobart hotel. Sharry moved from pot-scrubber in a hospital kitchen to bar work the day he turned 18. Sharry met Shreeve at Globe, which the latter part-owned, then worked as manager for him at Candy Bar, where they found they shared a vision for a small, simple, yet well-run cafe - without a kitchen.
So if you're peckish at Wall there are pastries (from Phillippa's), soup, and excellent toasted pide with Vegemite or fillings such as smoked chicken with Dijon mustard and rocket. Then there is the most underrated aspect of too many cafes - the coffee.
"We focus on the things that work and on doing those things well," says Sharry. All the staff who pull espressos at Wall Two 80 are masters of the machine, and each time you go you'll get a coffee just as good as the last. And that's almost all you could ask.
Wall Two 80
