The more you learn about Assemble, the property developers who built the apartment building that wraps around Cassette, the more it makes sense this cafe feels different – in a good way.

The operationally carbon-neutral seven-storey building has 73 apartments offered on a rent-to-buy basis, a pathway to more affordable home ownership. There's green power, a composter for food waste, a dog-washing station and mini library: it feels nice here.

Every apartment block cafe wants to feel like a community living room. Cassette nails it. It was even named by the residents. A mix of loungy, laptoppy and sprawly zones is bathed in natural light streaming through factory windows. Materials are tactile and welcoming: spotted gum, terrazzo, raw metal.

The open kitchen is framed by jars of pickles and ferments, a signal to Cassette's first principle of keeping all food out of the bin. Over two decades of professional cooking, chef Laura Boulton became exasperated by waste. Here, it doesn't happen.

Leftover milk is transformed into yoghurt. Peelings, scraps and even spring onion roots are dehydrated to make a vegetable seasoning. The coffee shots that warm up the machine each morning are turned into a flavour bath for bacon. Orange pith is steeped in vinegar that's used as a cleaning spray. These projects are creative, energising and meaningful: a showcase of doing better.

In five years as head chef of the Code Black cafe group, Boulton was one of the pioneers who elevated Melbourne brunch from an eggy snoozefest into the creative culinary playground it is today.

The food at Cassette continues that exercise with extra oomph from a local, seasonal sourcing policy and an effort to be inclusive for all dietary persuasions. If you're gluten-free or vego, for example, you'll find lots to choose from.

Charred broccoli is tossed with sorghum, a grain often used as animal feed but should also be appreciated by humans for its bolstering nuttiness. This meal-sized salad is built out with candied walnuts, pickled shallots, tofu cream and gorgeous fresh leaves.

Pumpkin and brown rice fritters are served over herby pea puree; there's extra spark from charred onions soaked in beetroot pickle juice, saved from the beetroots used in sandwiches.

If that's all starting to sound a bit healthy, there are some great blow-out dishes. Housemade pork sausage is layered over a jalapeno muffin with onion jam, salsa, cheese and fried eggs. It's super tasty.

Perfect potato rosti fingers are topped with poached eggs and sit over sauteed greens and goat's cheese in a well-judged array of crisp, rich, soft and vibrant.

Overall, there's a feeling of knitting together, of connections woven stronger each day.

One tiny anecdote says it all: a student living upstairs did a project on food waste and chef Laura Boulton gave him a few tips. "He got a high distinction," she says.