Vinyl Coffee Shop - CLOSED
This Dominion Rd staple is the poster child for casual cool with vegan burgers, tattooed chefs and jalapenos everywhere.
Overview
It seems to be a recurring theme of mine to never go to the restaurants closest to my own house. I lived about a 5 minute walk away from Vinyl Coffee Shop for almost a year and I never set foot in the place. But now that I live at least a 10 minute drive away i'm like, "Yea! Let's give it a go!"
Vinyl is the kind of place that has a definite regular crowd. The diners know how everything works and the staff are casual and address people by name. However, if you are a newcomer to this intimate little cafe you might spend your first time there slightly confused.
We walked in and the place was buzzing with activity. Very hip staff zipping around with takeaway coffees, tattooed chefs out the back and brunchers chatting away. We stood around, wondering whether this was a 'pick a table and they'll come to you' kind of place or a 'wait and we'll seat you' dig. We decided, with how busy it was, that if we just sat down we might get lost in the furor, so we went up to the counter and asked for a table for two. After being handed some menus and being told where to sit we got into the swing of things ad started examining the menu.
So, the menu. To my hot sauce loving, mexican food devotee eyes, it was beautiful. Everything was covered in jalapeños, there were burritos, spanish eggs, mexican dogs, original style vege dogs(!!!) and vegan burgers. It was glorious! Really I can't remember when I've been more enticed by a selection of food.
In the end we got the OJ Special Burger - crumbed onion rings, jalapeños, salad, relish and jalapeño mayonnaise - and Pedro's Eggs - with black beans, salsa, avo, jalapeños and chipotle on sourdough. Oh and with a side of curly fries of course.
As you can imagine the food was exceptional. I devoured my particularly non-breakfast like order in minutes and Pedro's Eggs disappeared like they were Speedy Gonzales. The fact that the food was so good made up for the slightly lax service, I put this more to it being so crazy busy than lack of trying, but I think it's definitely the type of cafe that gets better (and easier to navigate) each time you go.
We are already planning our next jaunt over to Vinyl, with my heart set on the Original Vege Dogs and trying to convince someone to eat their infamous Death Burrito - which I kid you not, while we were there, someone ordered said burrito and the waitress asked, in a completely serious way, if they had any heart conditions before she would let them eat it.
So, if there are any takers out there give me a call. I'll even shout you a ride to the hospital - after I finish my curly fries of course.
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