Places in Mellbourne to get a good cup of tea.

Tin Pot Cafe, on the corner of Saint Georges Road and Holden Street, North Fitzroy. $3.20. English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Earl Grey {& I am sure, many other Herbal concoctions}
Alphabet City. High Street Northcote, opposite the Westgarth Cinema, & very near Merri Station {on the Epping Line}. The usual teas: the ubiquitous English Breakfast & Earl Grey, plus Irish Breakfast, Darjeeling, Really Russian Caravan & Some Strange Vanilla. $3.00 {but don't get the Darjeeling; weak}. The place is usually full of young mothers and their spawn at afternoon tea time, but I have usually contrived to sit in an empty {& rather dark and forlorn} back room. Sometimes they remember to serve me.

Trotters in Lygon Street Carlton has a wide selection of tea and an extra pot of hot water, but it costs $3.50. The only problem with Trotters is Carlton people; Cinema Ova patrons {the type that talk through the film}, university students, people with their jumpers tied round their necks.

The Galleon in Carlisle Street Saint Kilda is the sort of cafe I should naturally be drawn to. Yet I always feel uncomfortable there. It has proper {if battered} pots for the tea, mismatched heritage cups and saucers, bedraggled 50's chairs and scuffed formica tables & art by local artists on the walls ... and yet ...and yet ... it still isn't right. Maybe it's the Very Interesting St. Kilda people.

A Minor Place on Albion Street Brunswick is also a place to get a decent cup of tea in a convivial atmosphere. It is in the middle of nowhere rather than on a main shopping strip, but it maintains its charm for all that.

Degraves, in Degraves arcade near the CAE in the City is a good cup of tea with an OK range and pot of extra hot water. There are also attractive and leisurely waitresses, old theatre seats and a wide enough clientelle that even a person of no obvious coolness will not feel out of place.