Glen Iris Pantry will always be more than a milk bar for Fil and Chris Papagianis, who owned the eatery across from Ferndale Park for 35 years. It’s become part of the furniture in the south-eastern burb, but the Glen Iris Road spot has entered a new era.

Now at the helm is cafe heavyweight Julien Moussi, the director of Only Hospitality Group, which also has Bentwood, Clubhouse and Stanley, plus 19 other venues. Moussi grew up in the area – and bought lollies from the milk bar as a kid – and his reimagining of it is two-pronged.

It's what the team describes as “co-branded”. By day, it’s a bright, breezy coffee and brunch spot with Asian flourishes called Pantry Glen Iris. But by night, it morphs into Too Good Talker, a moody, entirely Asian-inspired diner and cocktail bar.

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Start the day with gingerbread porridge with lemongrass poached pears, matcha-pandan waffles or XO scrambled eggs with crunchy rosti. And for lunch there’s a hulking Korean fried chicken burger stacked up with slaw and slathered with mayo. Behind the menu is ex-St Cloud chef Franky Pham.

But as the sun sets, an ingenious rotating sign on the frontage signals the change in venue, replacing “Pantry Glen Iris” with “Too Good Talker”, illuminated in red neon. Two ex-Lucas Group chefs, John Woo and Allan Hwang, are in charge of the night-time menu, which features thick, hand-pulled lamb biang biang noodles; DIY bao buns (choose from sticky beef brisket or miso-glazed eggplant); and flaky roti. Cocktail-wise, the pretty-in-purple Lychee Lavender Collins is a crowd-pleaser, but there’s also the aromatic, gin-spiked Thai Basil Smash and a spicy Marg citrused up with yuzu.

The space easily transitions from day to night, with a suitably two-toned paint job (half rich burgundy, half creamy white) that speaks to the venue’s duality.

Pantry Glen Iris and Too Good Talker
106 Glen Iris Road, Glen Iris

Hours:
Daily 6am–5pm, 5.30pm–late

pantrygleniris.com.au
toogoodtalker.com.au