Blue Café Bar is a smooth operation smack bang in the middle of Inveresk, a precinct once home to locomotives and now representative of Launceston’s cultural comeback. Various education institutions inhabit the space, thus it’s crawling with furniture, fine arts and architect students as well as those sporting types hitting the running track by the North Esk River. So along with the usual mums, prams and pensioners, there’s a curious mix of hipsters and hyper-coloured athletes who congregate constantly at Blue.

Concrete dominates but high walls of panelled glass welcome sunshine en masse. The layout means a lot of leaning in on a weekend, when the energy at Blue may be electric but you’re not often fighting for a table.

A breakfast of corn fritters, coriander and Tobasco joined by slab bacon will resolve the most regrettable of hangovers. Or there’s the fried food of the moment: croquettes, with poached eggs or house-cured gravlax for the more discerning early diner.

There’s the extras I’m sure cafes offer only through gritted teeth, to choose from but the dishes are designed so well you don’t need them. Except slab bacon. Always get the slab bacon. Duck and papaya salad, Flinders Island lamb or hand-rolled wood fired pizza that’s proof less is more, will satisfy without spoiling at lunch. In between, pick a piece of cake from the counter. Here you’ll see Owner and Chef Kip Smith at work in the exposed kitchen where there’s organisation and order, reflected on the plates that leave it.

Blue doesn’t trouble itself with smoothies or fresh squeezed juice. Drinks are from the bottle or skilfully brewed. A simple list of grog that isn’t afraid to (Gasp!) look outside Tasmania supports Kip’s cuisine.

That’s what Blue does best: simple – just without the Nordic lusting or gastronomical price tag.

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Tel: (03) 6334 3133