HOT: Aix Cafe Creperie Salon, 24 Centre Place, Melbourne

Aix Cafe Creperie Salon is a stalwart out of all of the tiny-perch-on-the-pavement cafes lining bustling Centre Place.

As the name suggests, the café serves crepes and since my last visit a few years ago it has also increased its offering to standard breakfast items (eggs, toast), an expanded selection of crusty filled baguettes and laminated menus so you don?t have to huddle over the blackboard.

But if you?re going to go to Aix, then it would be remiss not to try a crepe – it has a long list of sweet and savoury options all under $10. I went for the mushroom, taleggio and spinach ($8.50) and it quickly came out neatly folded and smelling quite pungently of cheese (in fact, a nearby fag-puffing youth, not realising the source of the smell, kept on exclaiming ?Faaaark it stinks like sock. I hate parmesan. Faaark I want to throw up?. I felt like upending the crepe in her vulgar face).

Aix?s crepes are quite spongy and thick, almost pancake-y in their texture. So while they are not large servings they are deceptively filling. Personally I prefer the thinner crepes from nearby Le Roule Galette, but each to their own.

When you’re at Aix also check out the vibrant artwork which hangs next to the teeny-tiny tables inside and adorns a narrow strip of wall facing the laneway. They were produced by a Canadian artist/tourist who hung out at the cafe for a couple of months – the cafe gave him food and some money and he painted artworks for them. A very Picasso story, don’t you think?