Stanley in Mt Waverley recasts a classic suburban milk bar as a cool inner city cafe

THE team behind Stanley in Mt Waverley has turned a one time milk bar into a cool Fitzroy-style cafe whose lively food and superior coffee can carry you through the day.

Simon Plant

2 min read

July 6, 2018 - 3:00PM

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HANDS up if you were a Milky Bar Kid. Yeah, thought so. There are a lot of us out there who grew up with milk bars.

The old-school ones that had Peters ice cream signs out front and lolly-filled cabinets within. Redskins and Fags, musk sticks and Scanlens chewing gum … the mere mention summons up memories of hot summer days in the suburbs.

Fast forward to 2018 and Melbourne’s once ubiquitous milk bars — now an endangered species due to around-the-clock convenience stores — are being busily made over as cool corner cafes.

REINVENTING MILK BAR CLASSICS

NEW CAFES IN THE EAST

Think Jerry’s in Elwood, Fordham’s in Camberwell, Good Times in Bentleigh.

Stanley is the newest kid on the block. Occupying a corner site in deepest Mt Waverley, this upbeat daytime diner manages to strike a nostalgic chord — how could it not with cream brick veneers all around? — while making sure the food, fit-out and service are bang on trend.

Cakes on display at Stanley in Mt Waverley. Picture: Ian Currie

FOOD

There are no lollies in Stanley’s front cabinet. Think raspberry muffins and protein balls instead and the odd croissant, bulging with ham and cheese. But don’t worry, there’s a lot of fun happening on the stylish plates here.

The hot cakes ($18.50) look like something from a Tim Burton movie. A carnivalesque blur of raspberry curd, chocolate meringue, strawberries and vanilla mascarpone is heaped on “blossom” hot cakes. Over the top for brekky? Probably, but the playfulness is endearing.

Blossom hotcakes with meringue and strawberries at Stanley in Mt Waverley. Picture: Ian Currie

Chef Mahesh Adhikari errs on the sensible side with acai smoothie bowls ($16.50) heaped with granola, coconut flakes and bee pollen. Heirloom carrots ($18), crowned with a poached egg, lie down on sourdough toast smeared with beetroot hummus. And maple crunch porridge ($16.50) is a vegan dream of roasted plum, cherry labneh and puffed brown rice.

For a savoury sensation, try the Beef Brisket Benny ($19). The team dishes up a cornbread cheddar waffle, loads it up with lightly smoked brisket and slathers the lot with baby watercress and jalapeño hollandaise. Short-cut bacon on the side? Sure. Go the whole hog.

Beef brisket on cornbread cheddar waffle at Stanley in Mt Waverley. Picture: Ian Currie

DRINK

Inglewood Coffee Roasters supplies Stanley’s superior coffee — the ‘Roosevelt’ with milk ($4) is so expertly drawn you’ll want another — but don’t overlook the malted milkshakes ($8). Some are ’70s throwbacks (strawberry, vanilla), others of the moment (salted caramel, soy).

SERVICE

The folks behind Stanley manage a stack of newish Melbourne cafes (Fitzroy’s Bentwood and Elsternwick’s Penta, among others) and they clearly have a good eye for switched-on staff. On a busy weekday morning, our floor team was bright-eyed and well informed.

X FACTOR

Blonde wood furniture. Check. Brushed concrete bar. Check. It’s as if some of Fitzroy’s cafe culture has been dropped straight into Mt Waverley. But the design crew has not obliterated its candy-wrapped past. The menu, printed in a ’60s font, invites customers to “remember the young days where little legs sprinted to milk bars”.

Stanley in Mt Waverley. Picture: Ian Currie

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

Breakfast is competitively priced while lunch dishes come in just over the $20 mark.

VERDICT

Stanley is the daytime diner this part of suburbia has been waiting for. Appealing, unpretentious and affordable with just enough nostalgia to give Baby Boomers a Tarax twinge.

simon.plant@news.com.au