Totally Instagrammable: Alexandria

There's a dumb little tag somewhere at the bottom of this website where I say something about this city being much more than hipster brunches. Well this next suburb is the absolute pinnacle of that.

Alexandria

No, we're not in Egypt (as cool as that would be). Alexandria is a suburb in Sydney's inner suburbs, starting just a few km from Sydney CBD. I got in by foot today, coming over from the suburb's northern border. 

As soon as I entered Alexandria, I was treated to the kind of odd mishmash of stores that inner city folk enjoy, with a fancy bakery, a second hand store, and somewhere to learn kung fu.

This street (Botany Rd) skirt's the suburbs border, so I turned right at the next intersection to make sure I didn't see anything that isn't in Alexandra. 

Don't look at Alexandria Hotel. It's actually in Eveleigh. 

Within the safe bounds of the suburb's borders, I found myself in a pretty typical, tree-lined Inner Sydney residential street.

Here, you can look at fancy old houses,

the old Alexandria Town Hall,

and terraces galore.

At the end of the street, and meeting another beautifully tree-lined road, 

is Alexandria Park.

The park itself is just a park, but they do have some pretty sweet gates to get in.

Skirting Alexandria Park is more Inner City tomfoolery, with a 21st century attempt at the terraced house (I can't say that they pulled it off),

this interesting old electric substation,

and some abandoned photorealistic canvas paintings.

Further south still is another interesting building,

the Yiu Ming Temple. This is a Chinese temple from 1908, when the country was still very much in the thick of it's White Australia Policy.

So at the start of this post, I mentioned hipster brunches. Well the reason I was in Alexandria today was that I was invited to a hipster brunch with some friends. It was now time to head there. 

To get there, I headed westbound, passing this utterly bizarre building,

and entering the industrial end of Alexandria, marked with warehouses, 

factories,

and even a bus depot.

Continuing on,

I soon arrived to the spot. This is the oddly named "COOH Bourke Road".

It's got a pleasant interior and was bustling today. Good start.

Now let me explain some things. I'm a simple man of simple pleasures. Whenever I have breakfast (or brunch) out, I almost always go for the basic bacon and egg roll with a flat white (or latte if I'm feeling fancy). 

But you see, this is the kind of place where every ingredient on the menu needs an adjective. They don't use mushrooms, they use field mushrooms. They don't use oats, they use organic grains. And they certainly don't use chicken, instead opting for free range hormone free marinated chicken breast.

I figured I'd skip my usual for today and go for something different, After all, these hipster places never have good bacon and egg rolls (case in point, the one here is described as "Double rasher of free range nitrate free bacon, ethical free range egg & rocket served with tomato onion jam & aioli on an organic bun"). Who puts rocket on a bacon and egg roll? Seriously.

Chilli jam scrambled eggs sounded interesting, so that seemed like a good option. 

For my coffee, I even went nuts and ordered a vegan peanut butter latte.

How was the food? Well, it was 18 bucks for some goopy and tasteless eggs on toast. Some garden clippings on top didn't improve the situation. 

I should've just had their rocket and egg roll.

At least the coffee was more interesting. It tasted like drinking melted peanut butter (which meant that it was delicious). 

Let's move on from COOH now. Across the road from it is another much more famous Alexandria brunch spot, The Grounds of Alexandria.

I hate it.

Look, truth be told, the outdoor dining campus that makes up The Grounds is actually quite cool in and of itself, with greenery,

colours,

and some farmyard animals.

Unfortunately, the place is a victim of its own success. On weekends, this place has the crowds of a New Delhi train at rush hour, all taking the exact same photos for their Instagrams (incidentally, follow mine at @SydneyCompletion). As a result, it's stiflingly crowded. 

As just another idiot with a camera and blog, I was part of the problem, and not the solution, so I skedaddled out of there as soon as possible.

With the #LadiesWhoLunch bullshit out of the way, I had one final Alexandria stop to hopefully redeem the suburb.

Down the road from The Grounds, and continuing west, the industrial lots come to an end,

meeting at a big construction-y intersection.

Snaking through traffic lights and safety fences,

leads to a backdoor entry into Sydney Park.

Sydney Park is an absolutely massive park, and is amazing. 

It's got sporting facilities,

endless pathways,

glowingly green grass,

a big lake,

and so many adorable dogs running around.

If dogspotting isn't your thing, you've even got some kooky old industrial smoke stacks out front to entertain you. 

I have mixed feelings about Alexandria as a suburb, but I'm crystal clear about Sydney Park - it's brilliant.

From the park, I was able to hop on a train at neighbouring St Peters station to get home. 

Alexandria: Saved by the pups.