Australian Style Cafes Bound for Bed Stuy, South Slope

Brooklyn cafe and restaurant owner Alexander Hall is opening two more Australian-style cafes, one in South Slope and the other in Bed Stuy. Both will be called Brunswick, after a neighborhood in Melbourne, his home town, which is known for its great cafe scene, he said.

Like cafes in Australia, they will offer good coffee, table service, newspapers, and modern decor, he said. Both will be casual and welcome children.

The location at 240 Prospect Park West, on the border of South Slope and Windsor Terrace, will open in the next few weeks. The cafe at 144 Decatur, whose storefront faces Marcus Garvey, above, will open May 12.

Items on both menus will include organic poached eggs, granola, salads, paninis, and pastries and biscuits made at Hall’s Lower East Side cafe, Bluebird Coffee Shop. Both will be open from 7:30 am to 6 pm and serve breakfast and lunch.

The cafe at 144 Decatur will be quite large, with seating for 48 people. It is being gut renovated right now. A bar will be fashioned out of 140-year-old pine found in the space. There will be an open kitchen and banks of windows running along the side and back of the space. The building is landmarked.

Hall also owns Prospect Heights cafe Milk Bar and Crown Heights restaurant Sunshine Co. He is also opening another cafe on the Lower East Side, Rosella Coffee Shop.