I first spotted something being built at the back of the old Fitzroy GPO last month. Google provided no information to what Shocolate was other than bad spellers of chocolate. I had to have a try after Brian from Fitzroyalty declared it as “possibly the best hot chocolate of my life” and MelbourneHotorNot’s Joyce declaring it HOT.

What is Shocolate?

It’s best described as a cross between Koko Black and Brunetti. They offer both hot and cold chocolate based drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), individual chocolates, and pastries/cake type desserts. Where they differ from Max Brenner and Koko Black, for now anyway, is the lack of hot desserts.

The story which I hopefully have right, is that the Greek owner and a French chef decided to set up shop at the Fitzroy location. They were due to open in March but due to some delays were only able to open last month. Just like the other chocolatiers around Melbourne, they are looking to expand into other areas.

On my 2 visits, I’ve tried the Iced Hot Shocolate, Iced Mocha Shocolate, a chocolate ball with orange inside ( pictured above), an Exotic tart which resembled a Lemon Meringue pie, and a Mocha Tart (pictured below). All of them were top notch.  Some of their hand chocolates pack some unique flavours and the day I was there I tried the Vegemite Chocolate, which to someone who doesn’t really like Vegemite, found it to be quite nice.

Staff are extremely friendly and they all seem to have European accents. I don’t doubt that this place will be around for a while especially as they have a fantastic location right in the heart of Fitzroy. The only downfall for me is their lack of website. Seriously, just stick a PDF of your menu up there instead of having a website that says Under Construction?

Shocolate Chocolatiers

Johnston & Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (Next to 120 Bar)

Usually when one is advertising an apartment for rent, an agent might point out it’s location, size, or perhaps some features. You would also think that they would check their spelling or possibly even grammar.  Nope.

The Cleanest Appartment In Brunswick…….All New!
$305 p.w.
5/55C DE CARLE STREET BRUNSWICK
One too look at, this totally refurbished 1st floor two bedroom apartment. This property offers a large & sunfilled north facing lounge with balcony, a brand new kitchen with electric cooking facilities, two double size bedrooms with b.i.r’s, and a large brand new bathroom with internal laundry facilities. Other features include brand new window coverings, new carpets (to be layed still), large balcony & off street parking for one (1) car. Located one block from the Sydney Road tram & walking distance to the Moreland Train station, local shops, parks & gardens. Be quick this one will not last !

How many errors did you spot?

Realestate.com.au: Cleanest Apartment in Brunswick

The breadth of coverage around Melbourne is staggering and Google plans to further expand traffic information by transmitting anonymous speed readings from those using the mobile version of the Google Maps Application.

Another smart feature of Google’s traffic information is being able to look at historical information.  Say you want directions from Clifton Hill to St. Kilda around 5PM on a Saturday. The route usually would take you down Punt Road but potentially if historical information is smart it would tell you that Saturday afternoons along Hoddle Street are a nightmare because of footy traffic. Google has perhaps seen the success of it’s Flu Trends product in predicting likely occurance of traffic.

It’s amazing to think it that only three years ago, Google added the ability to actually look up an address on its maps and now we have real time traffic data.

Google Maps via [Official Google Australia Blog]

Friend Request?

We’ve seen the Google car but I didn’t think the Facebook car would be an old Kia.  Seriously, unless this is a company car, who pays money for a vanity plate with Facebk on it?

Picture via @arcadegazette

Lonsdale Street Water Main Break/ Photo by Lantrix

Last week I received my water bill. City West Water always send some interesting material with our usual bills.  Their own reported figures show that they are very good at fixing water problems quickly. One of the more interesting figures on their fact sheet is the unaccounted water percentage.  10.1% of Melbourne’s water supply seems to be unaccounted for.  Is this a normal figure? Surely it isn’t common to have  huge water main breaks such as today’s incident on Lonsdale Street?

Wikipedia reports unaccounted water or non-revenue water as water that is lost due to leaks or metering inaccuracies. While I thought 10% was big, China is an appalling 52%.  While it’s easy to criticize Victoria’s lack of forward thinking with it’s dams and desalination plant, at least we have good water infrastructure in place to retain most of our water.

Rickrolled

It’s one thing to get rickrolled on the Internet but out in the public? From Overheard in Melbourne:

You are not safe anywhere.

Overheard in Melbourne: Rickrolled

Here’s why.

Buckscoop has a fairly extensive list put together by it’s members. The problem with their comparison is that they are using Coles and Woolworths/Safeway online which are mostly different prices to their physical stores. There is no comparison with Aldi or any local markets. Let’s take a few common items a person would purchase.

So that’s about $1 dearer at Costco. I suppose we could remove the chicken, and we save $1, but is that really worth it?

How about the prices for those 1 off items. Let’s compare the sale items at Coles and Woolworths this week.

So that’s about $5-6 saved by using Woolworth and Coles.

The comparison made here is is just for food products and there may be savings on some of the other goods such as clothes and electronics. Personally, I can’t see it worth spending the money to travel to Costco, pay for parking and deal with a crowded store when I have a choice of hundreds of Woolworths, Coles, Aldis and local markets to choose from. It amazes me that people signed up for a membership without even knowing the prices and worse yet people who drive in from far away (even interstate) to get some bargains from Costco.

Wisebread (a popular American budget blog) recently published an article stating some of the same arguments with the U.S. branches. The most success smart buyers have is if they can find a specific item significantly cheaper than other retailers. The commenters on the Wisebread article point to diapers as a big saver. OzSoapbox found that premium cat food was good in bulk.

Even though it’s $60 to join, if you are not satisfied with your membership, you can get a refund. Take your shopping list there, compare prices, if you are not happy ask for a refund. Everyone shops differently and the prices from Coles/Woolworth’s  multibuy specials may be a recent marketing challenge to compete with Costco. The big winner in all of this is the Docklands precinct. Every year the areas adds new unique features that is transforming it from a ghost town into a thriving surburb. Now if only we can get that wheel fixed.

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

Club Wah caught this typo on The Age’s website last week.  Not only was it in the by-line but the error was also repeated in the article.

Melbourne's flags waving. Photo: ThatsMelbourne.com.au

This Sunday, 174 years ago, Melbourne was founded. What better way then to celebrate Melbourne by visiting some of it’s attractions on the cheap. Although the deals are not as sweet as previous years, a 2 for 1 deal is a good excuse to take a look at some of the attractions you have been meaning to see.

2 for 1 offers on the following:

Melbourne Aquarium
Eureka Skydeck
Melbourne River Cruises
Old Melbourne Gaol
Australian Racing Museum
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Chinese Museum Bridge of Memories Exhibition
City Museum at Old Treasury Melbourne
Cooks’ Cottage
Melbourne Golden Mile Guided Walk
Melbourne Aquarium
Old Melbourne Gaol

50% off:

Queen Victoria Market Tour
Rialto Tower Observation Deck

and a free swim at the City Baths. I would guess the deals this year aren’t as good previous years because Melbourne Day falls on a Sunday this year, assumingly the busiest day for most of these attractions. Maybe going next year on a Monday might mean less crowds and better deals.

ThatsMelbourne.com.au: Melbourne Day