Saturdays in the city are getting greener (and tastier).

The most enjoyable thing about visiting a garden regularly is watching how it grows.

Plants wither and blossom throughout each season, and the personality of the landscape adapts accordingly.

Much like the garden they inhabit, Peter Rabbit has made a point of continually evolving to match their surrounds.

“We thought the university around here would be [mostly] takeaway, like, come and get your food and get out of here, but we found that with the space that we’d created, people wanted to hang around and they kind of expected almost that kind of sit down and hang out kind of food as well,” co-owner, James McIntyre says.

The lush setting is an oasis in the concrete Hindley Street neighbourhood, so it’s easy to imagine why people are reluctant to leave.

With their audience more captive than they initially thought, James and co-owner Jack Nelligan decided to create a menu more suited to relaxing amongst friends and foliage.

“I guess [since we opened] our food’s really taken over to become probably the most recognisable thing… getting into that real specialty brunch style scene,” Jack says.

And once you decide brunch is your specialty, the next step is obvious.

“Naturally your brunch day is going to be Saturday/Sunday [but we] didn’t really want to do a Sunday,” Jack laughs.

“So we’re like ‘Fuck it, we’ll just do Saturday.’”

It’s a worthy and welcome addition to the city’s slowly burgeoning weekend café scene, with no better setting for fried chicken, a burger and a pint than being surrounded by greenery.

“I think people see it as a bit of an experience,” Jack says.