Brown and Bunting Booksellers - Northcote

Brown and Bunting Booksellers are pretty much my favourite new bookstore in my little patch of Melbourne. I first discovered this awesome little second hand bookstore on the opening night of Northcote's "Northern Exposure" festival, which was ironically their opening night. It seems, without fail, every time I go in there, I always come out with if not at least one new book, an arm full.

When you walk into the store, you're immediately hit by a deliciously refreshing smell of what I can only guess is the only recently installed (they only opened some five months ago) timber shop fittings. Something about it just puts me right into a book hunting mood, and it seems every time I then manage to remember something I've been meaning to track down.

I think what makes Brown and Bunting so awesome, while it might seem to be a bit obvious, is their range. They always have an exceptional range of recent, and out of print books, and they're always organised and easy to find. The books are always in excellent, if not perfect condition. And best of all, they're actually really well priced (often surprisingly so!). Since discovering Amazon (and it's deliciously ethical clone betterworldbooks.com), I have found myself compiling lusty shopping carts full of "been meaning to read that.." books from 'market place' sources, often because it's just so damn cheap. But, I'm actually stoked to be able to say that B&B are generally cheaper than Amazon. Yep, how about that? And you get to feel good about supporting a small business of gorgeous, lovely Northcote people. And there's something about second hand books that's just a bit nicer, I find. Especially old ones.

I might be getting on a bit of a theme here with all my record store/cafe/bookstore trail here, but the staff (who I'm pretty sure are the owners as well) are absolutely lovely. Benita, who seems to always be working when I go in there is always really friendly, and I tend to always end up standing at the counter and yakking away with her about all sorts of delightfully interesting things.

I've been on a bit of a quest to read all the 1930's-1960's American classics, and it's just been amazing how every time I've been in there, the exact book I've been thinking I'd like to read has been sitting on the shelf. A bit of a feat, I'd say, for a second hand book store. They proudly exclaim on their website that they add/process four boxes of new books a day, and it really shows. Their range is terrific. I even found Wolfgang Flur's (former drummer from Kraftwerk) "I was a Robot". Which I got halfway through and left in a pub, to discover exactly how difficult it is to track down ANYWHERE, to B&B's credit. And another time, a brand new copy of Craig Schuftan's "Hey Nietzsche, leave them kids alone!". And another time, a gorgeous old copy of a Steinbeck Omnibus ("Grapes of Wrath", "Of Mice and Men"). Of course, you'll find your own gems.

In short, it's a really nice second hand book store run by lovely people, with everything you want, all in excellent condition, very reasonably priced. You should go there.

237 High Street, Northcote.

http://brownandbunting.com/

Nice site too.

(Benita jumped out of the frame when I lifted up my iphone to take this one.. I think I might have weirded her out a little.. It's ok! I'm just going to post it on the internet and say your shop's cool! Serious!). Gotta figure out a way of doing that without making people think I'm creepy. Hmm.

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El Joyero Cafe - Thornbury

A new cafe has just opened up near our house, and it's called El Joyero. Located just south of the High/Plenty intersection in Thornbury, kinda over the road and down a bit from South Preston Safeway. As someone forced to move away from the inner North by the great rental price soar of 2007, I am always excited when I find another gem surface along the ever northern creeping trail of High Street beauties (not that I'd rather live anywhere else now..!).

Ollie and Christina have done a great job with the conversion at El Joyero. Apparently the place used to be a jewellers (as a quick google search will verify), and they've kept some of the best bits of the furnishings. Beautifully decorated with everything indie nerds love (70's kitsch art, random music memorabilia, old toys etc etc) the atmosphere is gorgeously welcoming and cosy.

While the food menu is basic (but still tasty), the coffee is what wins here. El Joyero brews St. Ali coffee, a label of roasters with passion matched perhaps only by Alchemists.

So far I've had three flat whites and a long black here, and all have been really yummy. I thought at first the flat whites were a little on the weak side, but I'm thinking now that it's actually the flavour of the coffee, a bit more subtle and round.

They've also got a fantastic little collection of records, CD's and books for sale, much of them from bands and artists who've recently performed there (I just saw my first 5" record.. never knew there was such a thing!), as well as home made stuff (a notebook from a Bonsoy carton? Awesome!). I've also been eyeing off the copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Yeah, so it's a decent little selection of stuff.

They also host Sunday afternoon shows, film nights, art exhibitions etc (none of which I've been to yet), which seem to be that really lovely grass-roots community backyard vibe. (Have a look at the Myspace for more info).

Another little thing I love about the springing up of these super-cool little cafes, is how they're often placed in areas which are still very much populated by a high proportion of an older demographic, most of whom don't think "oh I won't go into that cafe, that's way too hipster for me..". On the contrary, they head in, and make the most of the fact that they can now get a decently extracted coffee in Preston. Which means you then get this beautiful juxtaposition of this cute, trendy little cafe full of nostalgia and indie collectibles, and people who remember when this shit was cool the first time round (before most of us were even born. While I was there today, a little old man came in and ordered an iced-coffee (he no doubt saw the sign out the front, which I can imagine was there to take advantage of the recent heatwave), and a little pink cupcake. So there was this 75 year old drinking an iced-coffee from a straw out of one of those old aluminium cups we all grew up with, and a cute little pink iced cupcake. Next to a Bob Dylan poster, and a guy who looked like one of the guys from Architecture in Helsinki. Gorgeous.

Go check it out.

923 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071‎ - (03) 9480 4070‎

Myspace




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