Melbourne’s Five Best New Cafes
So many breakfast adventures are calling.
It's no unique observation that a new cafe opens every other week. With so many to try, test and travel to, even a second visit is a statement. That's why Melbourne's cafes have stepped out of of being repetitive. They're trying something new in the hope that you'll come back. Whether it's niche espresso or making menu decisions frighteningly easy, these are five new cafes that are doing things a little differently.
Little Big Sugar Salt
Savoury or sweet? The great internal battle when it comes to ordering brunch. Little Big Sugar Salt in Abbotsford understand this first-world problem and have designed their menu accordingly. It's broken down into either salty or sweet and big or small, so all you need to know is the mood you're in. Genius, right? This new Victoria Street addition is a labour of love from a group with as much passion as they have talent. The team — Charl Laubscher, Erika Geraerts, Morgan Green, Jesse Aston and Adam Houston — have done it all themselves from the painting to the coffee making.
385 Victoria Street, Abbotsford
Stovetop
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single cafe operating in Melbourne cannot survive without a coffee-making gimmick. Stovetop Espresso's is — as you may have guessed — stovetop espresso, an Italian steam-based coffee produced by passing hot water pressurised by steam through ground coffee. It's tiny but fashionable, and it's a first on the Melbourne coffee scene. This cafe space, however, is free of gimmicks and co-owned by two brothers who are possibly the nicest people you'll ever meet.
100 Leicester Street, Melbourne
The Stables of Como
Como House and the surrounding gardens are exquisitely beautiful. The colonial Victorian house built in 1847 offers an insight into a time long gone and now a new cafe has opened inside the walls of the property. The Stables of Como pays homage to the past and adds a hint of the present to the beautiful estate which acts as a haven from the busyness of Melbourne. Venture inside the high white walls of the grounds, wander through the gardens, and find a place amongst the big white umbrellas.
Cnr Williams Road & Lechlade Ave, South Yarra
Tall Timber
With cafe pedigrees taking over Melbourne, this new addition comes from one of the best. Building on the success of Coin Laundry and Station Street Trading Co., the team behind Tall Timber has brought a slice of hinterland idyll to a bustling Prahran. It's a local that has the potential to entertain and impress your dearest of friends, while also being a reliable choice for a comfortable, solo retreat. With the team already working together as smooth as a lumberjack's axe, Tall Timber is a standout.
60 Commercial Road, Prahran
The Grain Store
Local and sustainable produce is front-of-mind when experienced chef Ingo Meissner creates his European brunch fare — it's modern fine dining done with skill and diligence. The breakfast menu items like the sweet Grain Store toasted muesli parfait with mandarin, chia seed yoghurt and quince ($10), chilli and fennel sausage with winter vegetable mash, poached egg, Russian red kale, pear and cider relish ($17) and, if you’re lucky, a special of sweet brioche French toast with rhubarb, apple and caramel are indulgent and distinctive. The Grain Store is a cafe that you want to spend time in, and the fact that they take bookings means you might just be able to. Arguably boasting the best menu on the business end of Flinders Lane, it's a little slice of comfort for any occasion.
517 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
By the Concrete Playground team.
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