Fatbee only gets one in five weekends off. The rest of the time I find myself often staying in (and home cooking) on weekends while he sleeps off a long graveyard shift. But if you call me a housewife, Imma gonna slap ya!
Anyway, we jumped at one of those rare weekends of dual freedom and spent it having a little day trip into Daylesford.
I keep forgetting how short a drive it is getting to this little town, clocking in at less than one and a half hours. And in true Fatbee fashion, he’d already picked a place to brunch at. So we strolled around and browsed the shops along the short shopping stretch in Daylesford before stepping into this cafe at what’s purportedly the ‘Paris End of Town’.
Breakfast & Beer
Cuisine:Â Breakfast/Brunch, Modern Australian, Vegetarian
Address: 117 Vincent St, Daylesford
PH: 5348 1778
It was an absolutely freezing winter’s day in regional Victoria when we visited, with a max of 11ºC paired with pretty strong winds… the sun only peeked out briefly. So the moment we were seated in this quaint little woody cafe, we eagerly asked for mugs of hot drinks to warm our hands with.
It was a perfect choice for that blustery day, and the mugs retained heat and warmed our hands so well!
Food-wise, we became accidental vegetarians that afternoon, with me being unable to go past the dish that contained Jerusalem artichoke in it. Such a lovely winter vegetable… and it was crunchy, nice and sweet in this dish. The horseradish leaves and the Portobello mushroom were very enjoyable too.
Fatbee went for something a little more Spartan with an organic hash. Overall he found it on the bland side, but the goat’s curd helped a bit.
I definitely won out over Fatbee with my brunch dish choice this time round, and my hot chocolate was very satisfying too. I also noticed they have a hot Belgian chocolate chai on the menu… perhaps worth noting for a future visit on another cold, Wintery day? I breezed out of this cafe happily.
After exploring the rest of the town centre for a little longer (read: 30 mins), we realised we were done with it and decided to take a ‘scenic drive’ atop Wombat Hill very nearby. There, we climbed the skinny Pioneer Memorial Tower in the middle of the gardens.
It was a bit scary climbing the winding spiral staircase to the top, not for those with vertigo! But you get a bit of a view as a reward. And funnily, I was curious to see the reservoir that’s located in the middle of the garden, only to discover it’s a covered reservoir, hah!
Wombat Hill House
Cuisine: Breakfast/Brunch, Cafe Fare, Coffee
Address:Â Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens
Ph: 4373 0099
Web: www.wombathillhouse.com
Facebook: Wombat-Hill-House
I quite often find myself craving for afternoon teas when I’m out of the city… tea with scones, cream and jam to be exact. So we strolled down to Fatbees other handpicked cafe (right in the middle of the gardens) to see if they had what I’m craving for.
And they did! So we sat ourselves down. The indoor section here was a bit bustly, but the covered outdoor glass pavilion section was a lot quieter and pleasant to sit in.
Wombat Hill House was actually opened by Alla Wolf Tasker of Lake House fame. But it’s a lot more low-key and simpler here, which I didn’t mind. Pick a table, remember your table number, then order and pay at the counter. I also chuckled a little at the icon of a wombat with wings.
And of course it was accompanied with warm scones served with cream and jam. It has probably been more than two years since I’ve last had scones, so I was a pretty happy camper. And I also realised that I’m starting to like the rich floral fragrance of Earl Grey teas these days. It goes really nicely with sweets.
The thing I like about having scones is they aren’t sweet, and you decide how sweet you want them to be by adding however much jam you want. Although I confess I tend to go very heavy with the cream. And I like it when the insides of the scones are moist, fluffy and a little bit under baked.
We walked around the gardens a bit after our afternoon tea before leaving Wombat Hill.
Lake Daylesford is a pretty small body of water, and you can walk around it in less than an hour. We did that stroll at around 4pm, just before the sun began to set. I got this photo during a very brief moment when the sun peeked from behind the curtain of grey clouds.
I enjoyed the tranquillity that we got from this day trip, and all the more memorable because it was one of the few weekends where neither of us were working.