The Office. No not the TV show.
• By Tuan Nguyen
I went for a little walk down to 55 Cavenagh Street and popped into The Office. A funny name for a café, but also funky at the same time. Upon walking in I was very impressed by the high industrial style ceilings, floor to ceiling windows, giant artworks adorning the walls and spacious interior - not too sure about the giant buffalo skull though, more suited to an outback pub than a chic city café.
If you needed to meet up with a client, I reckon this would be a great place to take them. There's plenty of room and it's neither too busy nor too quiet. Indeed there seemed to be two meetings going on while I was there, "The Office" is quite a fitting name after all. The only problem I can see is that it's kind of towards the far end of Cavenagh Street (behind Woolworths/opposite the Mirambeena Resort) making it less accessible to most CBD workers. Food wise these guys have lots of gourmet health options including, gluten free, panini sandwiches, muffins, gelato, freshly squeezed juice and of course (cheap) coffee.
The salads and open grills seem very well thought out with nice combinations accompanied with home made sauces and ingredients. Not surprisingly with all this low fat stuff on offer, The Office is very popular with the ladies, so much so that for the first 15 minutes I was there, there was a total of 2 dudes to about 10 chicks present, not including the three female staff out the front - I seriously thought I had broken into Fernwood Gym. Guys reading this, if you're single and want to update your Facebook relationship status, then this is the place you need to be.
Back to the food, I had a tasty and satisfying open grill sandwich with chicken, sun dried tomato, cheddar cheese and home made pesto. There was an impressive amount of toppings, making me more accepting of the $12 I paid for it. Most of the plates on the other tables also seemed quite generous as well. The Office - stretch those legs and go for a walk during your lunch break. Sit inside by the giant glass windows, eat and watch the world go by. Then get back to work.