SATURDAY BREAKFAST #9 - KINGSWAY, GLEN WAVERLEY

Visited 2 September, 2006

There is a shopping precinct at nearly every station on the suburban rail network, sometimes a few shops, sometimes a more extensive centre; and it’s not surprising that at Glen Waverley, the end of the line, there should be a commercial centre bigger than most.  There are several streets nearby to the station that are exclusively trade, although they weren’t always so.  Commercial has taken over from residential, but not all that successfully, I fear.  Instead of a tight bunch of shops around the end of the rail line (think of a Chupa Chup; or if you’re picturing more extensive development, think of a toffee apple), instead of a cluster around the station we have an elongated strip, stretching from the huge and autonomous The Glen shopping centre at the north end, to the Novotel complex at the south.  In between, a tapestry of streets and parking areas, including today’s objective, Kingsway.

Kingsway runs at right-angles to the end of the railway – in a sense, it is the final buffer that prevents the trains from going any further.  It is a street that has obviously been reinvented to facilitate the development of the commercial area; it is far too wide to have been surveyed that way originally, especially given that it is so close to the parallel and adjacent Springvale Road.  I am guessing that the railway line used to run almost to Springvale Road and, as part of the re-development, the line was shortened and the station re-located a little closer to the city. 

The name Kingsway is inapt.  It is a name having no resonance with a residential street in an outlying Melbourne suburb circa May 1930.  That’s when the line from East Malvern was completed and the Glen Waverley station opened.  It would have been bitter irony indeed for a street to be named Kingsway in those times of economic depression.

Appropriately named or not, Kingsway was our Saturday morning destination – the plan: to walk the street, survey the shops, and select a place for breakfast.  The street walk didn’t take all that long.  There was a tempting Chinese supermarket, and an interesting-looking op shop (sadly, not opening till ten), but the strip had about it a rather forlorn air.  The problem, I think, is that Glen Waverley has become a “commercial centre”, and it has as a consequence too many insurance and other service industry premises, and not enough retail outlets.  This is apparent on a Saturday when these non-retail places are closed.  Kingsway at 9 a.m. is certainly no thronging mill.

We breakfasted at Mocha Jo’s.  As usual, the routine is to check the menu before entering.  We are looking for places that serve “real” breakfast, hopefully with sausages as an available extra; and, in case we should have some surge of anti-fat conscience, the cafe should also serve muesli or porridge.  There wasn’t, in fact, much competition in Kingsway, and we chose Mocha Jo’s without fully considering the fare…..and we chose it because a chap who’d been inside saw us deliberating, and came out to tell us that this was the best place in town.  He and his friends had tried them all, and he knew.  What could we do but accept his advice?  An unsolicited recommendation is something all shopkeepers dream of.

We were not disappointed.  The Bircher muesli was well prepared and tasty, the bacon was crisp and plentiful, and the thick toast was as far removed as it’s possible to get from white sliced sandwich.  We made a special request for the fried eggs to be returned to the kitchen to be turned sunny side down, and that was no trouble.  The staff were affable and efficient, four front of house including the coffee machine operator.  The coffee was excellent.  The venue was modern and clean.

Mocha Jo’s is licenced, and it clearly has a life other than breakfasts.  Kingsway is not high on our Saturday “best of” list, but Mocha Jo’s is.

Gary Andrews