New Day Rising

A cute little café just out of sight from milk wood. Very small inside, the site is obviously a subdivision, as the letter D appears after the address name. It has a really cute menu, with most items having humorous names. They’ve even hooked up an old record player in the corner, which is monitored and changed by hand. There’s the Icey boy coffee; iced coffee shaken over ice in a bottle, and commonly served with agave syrup. Bagels are good here, as are the specials of a black bean something dish. Good service, but fills up quickly. A cute and charming wee little café.

I love coming here. The veg centric menu is so great, especially the bagels.
It can be hard to get a seat on the weekend as it’s such a small place, but they manage well and it’s worth the wait.

The other day I saw a photo of a bagel on a food blog, and immediately thought, «I need to go back here.»
It was happenstance that I even tried it out — because of the Easter holiday, my planned brunch at CERES around the corner wasn’t to be. Luckily for my ravenous out-​of-​town friends, we remembered walking past and that it was open
How glad I am that we came. The bagels and baked eggs (my friend’s first!) we’re impeccable. Just the right size and amount of toppings — and I say that as an American. We know a good bagel.
But by far the neatest part was being in the room. You’re literally in the kitchen and can watch the busy cooks make your food. The café is so small you wonder if they can only sit down if you leave and vacate a chair.
It’s a great little space with good food. Definitely a worthy stop on your next trip to CERES.

If you’re a true Brunswick East hipster, this is your destination, not your plan B because Milkwood was full.
The Valoumi Bagel — do yourself a favour! It is so so good!
This is a hole in the wall café, limited seating and very modest kitchen. It makes you feel like you’re having lunch at nana’s house. Lot’s of little detail in the art and crockery around the place and a very old skool rockin record player with some good old fashioned music. Lovely warm vibe here.

Have you ever gone round to a friend”s or family’s single room granny flat for a meal and felt slightly awkward as you watch them prepare the food as they bump into all sorts of kitchen paraphernalia and you sit there helpless in the knowledge that you can’t help because the room is just too small? No? Well don’t worry, East Brunswick’s New Day Rising café has you covered. Except the food (and coffee) will be far tastier than any person close to you is likely to knock up and the music will probably be better too.
New Day Rising is set in a single room, with the feel of an artist’s bedsit. They have a small kitchen with a broiler so they can knock up delicious sarnies and bagels, and a lovely little record player in the corner, playing the Grateful Dead, Lou Reed or some other laid-​back tortured soul.
I absolutely love the intimate vibe of this place. At first I felt a little bit uncomfortable having the waiter prepare food right next to me, but it was in a good way, as if I was having a new experience. The food is obviously simple given the limited kitchen space, but delicious all the same. And the coffee ain’t that bad either.
Next time I go I am going to bring along my old New Kids on the Block record and ask if I can play it — just to see how hospitable this place really is.

Just out of the intersection between Nicholson and Blyth, past a new wave health place with all its tragic rainbow gradients stand a small one roomed café. Small enough to be easily missed, you’d be kicking yourself forever if you don’t spend at least one coffee or meal in this quaint space.
In a room that could barely fit a dozen people you did a small collection of tables and chairs. Found beneath one such arrangement is the record player, spinning tunes as random as Sonic Youth and James Brown. Te kitch is mounted along one wall, taking up a corner as a bit. This makes the room constantly smell of baking and cooking, and I’m the warms months can heat the place beyond comfortable.
The coffee is great, the one or two people on staff at any given time really know what they’re doing. There’s wicked breakfast delights of beans on toast and simple pieces with avocado and lime — if you’re after something big you won’t find it here, but small meals and coffees are absolute winners. Sometimes you can even be the one to select the record.

My exact words when it was suggested I breakfast at New Day Rising were, and I quote «I am NOT going in there. It looks like a squat.» I think I even stamped my hungrily petulant little feet. Long story short: New Day Rising is now one of my favourite Melbourne cafes.
Granted, from the outside it looks like the studio flat of a friend that desperately needs rescuing from almost definite penury, but one look at new kid on the Brunswick café block New Day Rising’s awesome food and I was sold.
OK, it’s the size of a proverbial postage stamp, sure, it doesn’t have so much as an opening window — which can lead to this place becoming steamier than an episode of True Blood — but all in all New Day Rising really is a great little café.
Alongside, serving pretty good coffee, New Day Rising also offers some great value grub such as its bagels with accompaniments like homemade relish, Persian feta, avocado and rocket, which are nothing short of exemplary.
Don’t let the squat like appearance put you off. New Day Rising is proof if proof were needed that good Melbourne things do often come in exceedingly scruffy packages.

I stop here for a soy flat white (Bonsoy used) on my way to CERES for vegies because I can’t handle all the hippy dippy on show at CERES beyond buying my vegetables there.
It’s a very small café and unless you’re sitting at the window or one of the very few seats outside, I’m not sure the space is conducive to lingering relaxation. It’s just a bit too cramped.
Having said that, when there’s nobody in there, it’s really nice to just sit — again, I’m vouching for the window seats — enjoy a really well-​made coffee and listen to whatever vinyl is being played (last time I was there it was the Bee Gees — an early one, not a trace of disco) and read the papers.
They only open for breakfast and lunch so stop your slouching and get a move on.

Yeah so there’s three cafes on this corner of Blyth and Nicholson now, and when I lived around the corner, like a year and a bit ago, there were none. That gives me the shits slightly.
New Day Rising must be named after that sick Husker Du album, which gives it cred. I also heard (unsubstantiated) rumours that a certain Melbourne festival booker/​total music dude owns the joint, which would, if true, give it further cred.
The shit thing here is the size and the location. Blyth is a busy street, you’re looking at cars going past. Plus the seating arrangement is far from comfortable for tall folk. They have all these boxes and shit lying around and you’re never sure what’s a table and what’s a chair.
That said, the coffee is awesome and they do killer lunch size meals. They also play decent tunes in there, so you can be distracted from the traffic. But it’s all a bit close somehow; a little bit too personal.