"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

You know you’re doing something right when you get a write up on the Melbourne Coffee Review website in your first week of opening. That’s exactly what happened for Melbourne’s new kid on the block, Miss Marmalade, which opened recently in Brunswick.

The write up may have come as a shock to owners Tony and Robyn Enlund, but it was no surprise to us. With Tony’s extensive experience as a professional chef for close to thirty years and their meticulous planning in the lead up to opening, the two bean rating on MCR seemed inevitable.

Tony describes the time before opening as ‘epic craziness’. He and Robyn trawled through daily real estate emails for six months before finding the perfect site on Union Street. They worked 90 plus hours a week to convert the former formal restaurant setup into something that worked better. They’ve taken advantage of its Victorian charm — exposed red brick walls, solid timber doors, concrete floors and brass façade. The result is a bright, relaxed space with stacks of character. Despite their crazy hours they still had to rope in a team of friends to get them over the line before opening! Tony jokes that he walked so much doing on the ground promotion that he’s lost 13 kilos.

Tony’s philosophy is simple. “We want them to come in, enjoy their food, and come back,” he says. The menu takes care of that — it’s nearly impossible to choose between the dishes! The toasted banana and mango bread with berries, toasted almonds and labne has been an enormous hit — tasty, tasty stuff! There are heaps of vegetarian options, such as poached eggs with vine ripened tomatoes, crumbled fetta, pesto and aged balsamic syrup, ricotta hotcakes with lemon cream and raspberry compote or Moroccan vegetarian spiced beans with labne.

The lunch menu is also inspirational. The Tunisian lamb meatball soup with chick peas, tomato, eggplant and pide is unbelievable value at $8.50, as is the Miss Marmalade burger with spicy red pepper relish, Emmenthal and roast pumpkin for $10.50. Tony can’t wait to unleash some of his favourite, more adventurous dishes in the near future.

It’s Tony’s belief that fabulous food should be paired with outstanding coffee, and Miss Marmalade certainly delivers. The 3-group Synesso Sabre runs hot on weekends, with queues out the door at times. It’s a little more chilled on weekdays, giving everyone a chance to catch their breath before the next weekend onslaught.

And the name? Well, it was inspired by the love of Tony and Robyn’s life — nine month old daughter, Phoebe, whose hair is different shades of red, ginger and blonde, just like a jar of marmalade!

Miss Marmalade
126 Union Street
Brunswick Vic 3056

Ph: 03 9388 8202

Opening hours
Monday to Friday: 7.00am – 4.00pm
Saturday / Sunday: 8.00am – 4.00pm