It doesn’t get much more Melbourne than Matcha Mylkbar in St Kilda.
You’ve no doubt heard of this infamous vegan cafe – since opening their doors on April 1st this year, they’ve introduced Australia (and the world) to a bevy of kooky culinary creations.
You may remember the name from when they went viral a few months back, with their aptly-named ‘Blue Smurf’ Algae Latte sending the internet into an absolute spin and launching many (frankly unnecessary) think pieces on Melbourne’s crumbling cafe culture.
But it’s not just activewear-loving bloggers eating Instagramming the shit out of the cafe’s fare; nope. Turns out the Hemsworth family are yuuuuuge fans of the joint.
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV, part-owner of Matcha Mylkbar, Nic Davidson, says that a visit from the Hemsworths and other big dogs was not all that unusual.
“Liam’s a vegan, so they’d been telling us they wanted to come down for a long time,” says Davidson. “They stayed for an hour and a half and tried everything. They just sat in here and no one even bothered them.”
“[Aussie model] Ash Hart comes in, Delta Goodrem comes in when she’s about town – it’s a really fun environment to be in. It’s quite a destination, and we get people from all over Australia flying in and coming straight to us.”
And although most of their wacky brews have been on the menu since the cafe opened (did we mention they’ve also got a Mushroom Latte on offer?), their Skull Smoothies have started to gain traction online, too, with the help of vids like this one:
While they’re not as controversial as a seaweed-smelling latte, the skull glasses are anything but conventional.
Davidson and the crew behind Matcha Mylkbar are well aware of the flak they’ve copped for their supposedly “fad-like” approach to food.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We know there are a lot of haters, it’s fun. Everything we do is quirky – the smoothies have got funny names, the vegetable smoothie for example is called the Lettuce Know. Everything in the cafe’s got a dad joke and a funny name. The haters are the same people who complained about that deconstructed coffee – they’re the people who love to use the internet to whinge.”
But, he assures us, at the end of the day, the team’s mission isn’t just being quirky for quirky’s sake – they’re most interested in serving food that’s sustainable.
“My partner, my business partner and I – none of us are vegan, but we do eat sustainably. Most of our clientele are not vegan either. The whole point of the cafe is sustainable food – not trying to convince anyone to be vegan or anything like that. We do get vegan coming in trying to find food they’ve missed though, like croissants, ‘chicken’ burgers and vegan eggs.”
“The only downside is that you might have to wait for a table,” says Nic. “That’s Melbourne though.”
Photo: Matcha Mylkbar.
