Lygon Street is known for show casing authentic Italian restaurants with a few other cuisines scattered throughout the area. Visiting the north side of Lygon Street reinforced this, shop front after shop front was littered with Italian food items and Italian brands. The market is saturated and each store is attempting to impose a sense of authenticity and home branded dishes.
Each shop front provided outdoor seating areas, with tables and chairs from different stores being only half a metre apart. It creates a sense of community between stores as they share the space. If walking down the street at lunch time smells of freshly made pizza and pasta waft out of shop fronts, as well as toasted paninis.
One thing that is prevalent of the European culture is the desire to feed, and this is present in the portions of dishes that are served. Coming from an English background but having grown up in Australia, the ability to take for granted the vast amount of food choices in Melbourne is far too common.
Lygon Street has become an epicentre of promoting food culture, especially that of Italian cuisine. Each café and restaurant holds dear the origins of its food heritage and family history. Sadly for consumers, due to the food craze of Melbournians, owners of these stores have commoditised these dishes and made it pricey compared to their cheap history. Basic ingredients can be marked up simply due to the label of being authentic, undermining the history that commemorated these dishes.
Cheap European Dishes 