MELBOURNE | Located in the space formerly home to local stalwart ‘The Corner Café on Woodlands’, you’ll find the recently opened Glory Us. It’s a café by Tori Bicknell and Mike Byard, who bring a wealth of hospitality experience to the table.
Located across from Strathmore station, with an unexpectedly stunning view of Melbourne’s skyline, Tori and Mike have eschewed designer interiors, influencer invites, and “Broadsheet First Looks” to build a place that’s built for locals. Three weeks of painting, re-arranging, and freshening up the space have resulted in a cosy, bright, community-focused café.
Glory Us is the kind of place where locals pop in with the kids after weekend sports, for a coffee and a chat before heading into the CBD for work, and to catch up with friends and linger. As you walk in you’ll find Tori cooking away in the open kitchen next to a cabinet full of baked treats, while Mike takes care of front of house. There’s a rear courtyard, with plans for an upstairs wine shop and private dining room.
To the side, is the main space with a few small and larger tables and seats. Listening to the 80s heavy playlist as you browse through the menu, it soon becomes apparent that there’s more to Glory Us than meets the eye. Not surprising given Tori and Mike’s experience. The deceptively simple menu showcases top quality local produce, featuring twists that eschew trends and showcase Tori’s aptitude for flavour and technique.
The breakfast plate is a highlight. It contains prosciutto, asparagus, chevrano (a Dutch hard goats cheese), soft boiled egg, onion jam, caraway burnt butter, and pan toasted sourdough. Also must try is the salt beef brisket sandwich. Slow cooked beef is crisped in the pan, joined by pickles, melted cheddar and horseradish aioli inside a inside a ciabatta roll. Oh and there’s also a chip butty.
If you have a sweet tooth, you can’t go past the French toast. It’s a caramelised brioche affair that changes with the seasons. During the winter it was topped with brûléed banana, thick caramel, and cream. At the moment it’s honey burnt spring peaches, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry on top. There’s also the option of cake, cookies, and more from the pastry cabinet.
Coffee is by Kensington-based ethical and sustainable roasters Rumble. Co-founded by Tori’s brother Stan, each bean that Rumble roasts can be traced back to the source, with full transparency around the bean to cup process, down to how much each grower is paid.
Glory Us
62-64 Woodland Street
Strathmore
Victoria 3041
Australia
Telephone: (03) 8528 4774
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Mon – Fri: 6:30am to 3:00pm
Sat: 7:30am to 3:00pm