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Archie's All Day

Kylie Northover

All-day diner: Inside Archie's All Day.
All-day diner: Inside Archie's All Day.Wayne Taylor

Modern Australian$$

You'll possibly have to brave a queue outside and Instagramming diners inside, but the new breakfast menu at Gertrude Street's latest eatery (formerly Southpaw) is worth the effort. And we don't recommend queuing lightly.

As you might have surmised from the name, the new venture from Anthony Brem - also the name behind Collingwood's Bluebird Espresso - is an all-day affair. But the brekkie here is given as much love as the night-time mains.

Chef Nick Sawle (formerly of Clifton Hill's Terminus Hotel), has created a breakfast selection (served til 3pm), that traverses the globe; influences include Middle Eastern, Chinese, Australian and and Japanese.

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Instagram star: Miso-cured salmon.
Instagram star: Miso-cured salmon.Wayne Taylor

You can order toast, sure, or Brook Farm granola with summer berry compote and maple yoghurt ($12, served in a jar, natch) and yoghurt panna cotta (with blood orange and toasted almonds, $14) but the rest of the menu is an unconventional delight.

There's The Godmother – fluffy eggs served with hardcore "Godmother chilli" and a soft white roll ($10/$14 with bacon), a proper morning kickstarter and poshed-up coddled eggs like your grandma never made, served with potato puree, truffle salt and brioche soldiers ($12/$18 with shaved black truffle).

For a sugary hit Sawle has created an apple and rhubarb crumble quesadilla with vanilla mascarpone ($15) or, for a properly savoury Mexican option, there's Huevos sucio - dirty eggs, made with tater tots, jalapeno spiked Monterey Jack, avocado, tomatillo salsa with black beans, fried eggs and chipotle mayo ($17.50/$21.40 with chorizo).

Then there's what will surely become Archie's signature – the delicately complex yet light-as-air white miso-cured salmon with pickled cucumber and daikon, poached eggs, seaweed butter and rye croutons, themselves a marvel ($19.50).

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Apart from taking advantage of the 1am liquor licence and serving food from early morning to late night Brem says the idea was  to create something entirely different from Bluebird, a Collingwood favourite for years.

"Bluebird is very simple food and easygoing, but what's Nick's creating here is much more adventurous," he says. "We've also got more facilities here; there's three ovens, so we can be more adventurous."

And the presentation here is as photogenic as it gets - Archie's has been open only a couple of weeks and already a couple of Sawle's dishes are social media stars.

"The salmon, I do believe, is already a star on Instagram," Brem says.

And it's up there with the most popular.

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"With the dirty eggs, which is actually the easiest dish to make," he says. "It's very, very simple, but looks great. After that I'd say the pumpkin puree with poached eggs, pepita dukkah, Meredith goats feta, crispy polenta, ($17) has been really popular, and that's a more technical dish."

Anyone intimidated by so many bold flavours first thing will be pleased to know one of Bluebird's classics has come across – good old smashed avo, served here with mint, parsley, lemon and Meredith goat's feta with grain toast, ($16.50).

"It's been such a popular dish and The Age voted it the best smashed avocado in Melbourne," says Brem of a Good Food avo round-up in 2013. "We had to [feature it] really."

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