“Our aim is to make our café comfy and welcoming, with a strong focus on community, and to serve quality food and coffee with a conscience while supporting small local businesses and artisans. We try to use all of our produce: beetroot leaves for sautéed greens, pesto made from turnip tops, syrups made from fruit skins, ricotta made from excess steamed milk.”

Loop Growers crostini with slowcooked haricot beans, rapini, carrot-top pesto, and eggs; breakfast English muffin with pasture-raised slab bacon, free-range egg, Maffra Cheddar, red capsicum ketchup, and aïoli; and ricotta blintzes with local berries.

Lots of places claim to be seasonally focused, but in Alphabet’s case, it’s a day-by-day proposition. If it’s not available through Loop Growers, Food Connect, or at the West End Markets, it’s not on the menu.

At this wholesaler-turned-café, the cakes are a drawcard, including the monthly “karma kake” – customers pay what they want for a slice, and the money goes to a local charity.

The menu features humanely raised meat and eggs, organic milk, sustainable fish and veg, and herbs and honey from the garden. Imperfect produce is used in pickles, smoothies, and ferments, and all kitchen waste goes to Loop Farm for composting. For extra karma points, you can leave spare toiletries in the basket in the bathroom for Share the Dignity.