(Sample entry — replace with the real Melbourne write-up.) A flat white is easy to get almost right and very hard to get exactly right. The city that arguably invented the drink has spent two decades refusing to let it slide, and the reward is that a random Fitzroy corner shop still pulls one better than an expensive café in most other cities.
The thing they've stayed pedantic about is milk texture — silk, not foam, poured at a temperature that doesn't scald the shot. Everything else has drifted with fashion, but the milk hasn't, and that is what makes the drink still a flat white and not a small latte with a hopeful name.
A morning route
- Proud Mary in Collingwood — begin here, sit at the bar.
- Market Lane, Prahran market — small filter, walk the aisles.
- Auction Rooms, North Melbourne — end here, order the second flat white.