IT’S easy to get excited about Melbourne’s coffee newbies but there’s a special place in our caffeine hearts for these cafes that put our city on the coffee map.
We celebrate some of the oldest and best in our Caffeine Hall of Fame, and we want you to tell us your favourite cafes for #melbsbestcoffee.
Stay tuned later today when we’ll release the Herald Sun Weekend list of Melbourne’s 25 best new coffee joints.
ST ALI
12-18 Yarra Pl, South Melbourne
St Ali, in South Melbourne arrived on the scene almost a decade ago. Picture: Supplied
COFFEE got cool as well as serious when St Ali arrived on the scene nearly a decade ago. It was an early adopter of specialty coffee in Melbourne, with a focus on quality beans and brewing. Coffee pioneer Mark Dundon opened the cafe/ roaster in 2005, its back-block warehouse location an instant hit.
He sold up three years later to law student-turned-hospitality entrepreneur Salvatore Malatesta. Offshoots include Sensory Lab in David Jones, city, the Rue & Co pop-up on Collins St, Plantation in Melbourne Central and coffee brand Clement. Pop-ups have also landed in London, Milan, Korea and Jakarta.
AUCTION ROOMS
103-107 Errol St, North Melbourne
Auction Rooms opened in North Melbourne six years ago.
IN the old W.B. Ellis auction house, Auction Rooms has remained at the forefront of Melbourne’s coffee fixation since it opened in 2008. It started as the cafe to Small Batch’s roasting operation.
Small Batch has since moved to a dedicated space nearby, but Auction Rooms continues to be a go-to brekkie haunt, still backed up by Small Batch roasts.
AXIL
322 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn
Axil has been delighting Hawthorn locals for three years. Picture: Supplied
They’ve just signed a lease on a 100-seat cafe in Fitzroy, due to open before Christmas.
RAY
332 Victoria St, Brunswick
Ray has been serving top notch coffee in Brunswick for 13 years. Picture: Supplied
THE granddaddy of Melbourne’s cafe scene, Ray remains as vital to caffeinating Brunswick as it did when Mark Dundon, the granddaddy of Melbourne’s coffee scene, opened it in 2001. With Ray, Dundon heralded the “third wave” of coffee, where beans came with provenance and quality came first.
Roasting and brewing methods were experimented with to enhance the flavours and characteristics of different beans, not blends. Its off-Sydney Rd location was a risk at the time. But those risks paid off, and after three years Dundon sold Ray to set up St Ali.
A decade on, coffee here remains king. A full-bodied house blend makes for punchy lattes; single-origin beans are enjoyed as cold-drips. Its grungy warehouse space has been long imitated across the city — as has its coffee smarts.
PADRE
438 Lygon St, Brunswick East
Behind the scenes as coffee roasts at Padre for the past six years. Picture: Sarah Matray
THE Padre Coffee roaster/cafe arrived at the top end of Lygon St in 2008, and while the Brunswick East Project is still Padre’s spiritual home, the brand has grown to include cafes at the South Melbourne and Queen Vic markets along with its flagship League of Honest Coffee in the CBD.
At the Project, you can pick up an expertly made coffee along with freshly roasted beans and accessories for home, but there’s also interesting brews to savour, including cold-drip coffee spritzers, great affogatos and best-in-show iced coffees.
ATOMICA
268 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
In the bohemian heart of Melbourne, Atomica has been dishing up coffee for eighteen years.
WHEN Brunswick St was the bustling bohemian heart of Melbourne, Atomica was the
place to go for a coffee prepared with care.
Eighteen years on, it remains a vital part of Melbourne’s coffee scene, and its beans — still roasted on the premises, the first cafe to do so in Melbourne and around the world — remain some of the best around.
It’s low-key, unpretentiously grungy and the roster of up to 10 blends and single origins are available to drink in or to take a bag and go.
CUP OF TRUTH
12 Campbell Arcade, Degraves St Subway (below Flinders St)
Cup of Truth is a tiny hole in the wall rather than a traditional cafe connecting Flinders St Station and Degraves St. Photo: Melanie Russell
LODGED in a subway built for Melbourne’s 1956 Olympic Games, Cup of Truth is an essential pitstop for caffeine-addicted commuters. Barista Courtney Patterson keeps pulling the “shots” and Matt Forbes keeps supplying the cakes.
The Cup of Truth guys occasionally see the light of day, making regular forays to their southern satellite, Pardon (Shop 4, 155 Greville St, Prahran. pardoncoffee.com.au).
PROUD MARY
172 Oxford St, Collingwood
Barista Nolan Hirte works his magic for the customers at busy Proud Mary.
WITH one of the biggest coffee menus around town, Proud Mary manages to be super serious about coffee but have fun with it.
The menu features myriad single origin beans along with blends roasted to suit the many different brewing methods showcased — a simple espresso or an AeroPress, a cold drip or a pour-over.
The bank of grinders, a custom-built six-group Synesso machine (the only of its kind) and all manner of coffee accoutrements ensure even the coffiest geek is impressed, while the rest of us just sit back (once you get a seat) and enjoy some of the best coffee Melbourne has known.
SEVEN SEEDS
106-114 Berkeley St, Carlton
Seven Seeds has been delivering coffee-mad Melburnians with top brews for six years. Picture: Supplied
CAFE, retailer, micro-roaster ... Seven Seeds is all things to all coffee-mad Melburnians.
Mark Dundon and Bridget Amor established the business — their “engine room’’ — in 2008 and have given us everything from Brother Baba Budan to Traveller and Hortus.
All of them stand on the shoulders of Seven Seeds.
MARKET LANE COFFEE
Prahran Market, Queen Victoria Market, Carlton
Market Lane Coffee’s Fleur Studd makes a mean coffee at the Prahran flagship store. Picture: Supplied
“WE love to make coffee for the city that loves to drink it.’’ That’s the motto at Market Lane Coffee, and Fleur Studd’s specialty coffee roastery lives up to those words.
Prahran Market is the flagship, where a La Marzocco does sterling service in a warehouse room. But Market Lane’s three other cafes offer the same mix of “espresso beverages’’ and pour-overs with a smart slate of pastries, cakes and breads.
Source: Perth Now - 22nd August 2014
