Canberra's Legendary Coffee Roaster Ona Is Opening Its First Melbourne Cafe

Canberra coffee fiends have long been familiar with award-winning specialty coffee roaster Ona, which now has a handful of well-known cafes and coffee venues dotted across the nation's capital. Even Sydney has been given a taste, with Ona's first interstate outpost launching in Marrickville in mid-2018.

Now, it's Melbourne's turn, as the caffeine maestros gear up to open the doors to their newest cafe venture, in the heart of Brunswick.

Set to launch in spring 2020, the Ovens Street venue will boast a similar set-up and offering to its siblings. The team has nabbed a building with what they call a "unique history", which they'll convert into a complete "coffee sanctuary".

For Ona, specialty coffee is a serious passion — in place of the standard cafe options, choice here runs to a simple trio of milk, black and filter coffee, with blends and single origins available for each. Expect a full service, open-plan coffee bar, optimised for customer interaction and with dedicated sections for espresso, milk work and filter brewing. Built-in freezers house Ona's famed frozen 'reserve' coffees, which use signature methods to vacuum-seal and store small portions of rare and expensive coffee.

Ona Coffee Marickville

This 'reserve list' hints further at Ona's coffee obsession, acting a little like the high-end vino offering you'd find at a wine bar. The lineup will showcase various coffee harvests, countries of origin and processing techniques, highlighting the huge array of flavour differences. Yep – get ready to unleash your inner coffee nerd like never before.

The cafe's food menu is still in the planning stages, but we're told to expect a strong sustainability focus, plenty of local ingredients, and a big contingent of vegan and vegetarian dishes. While Melbourne is not short on great cafes and roasteries, coffee fiends should be particularly excited about Ona — the acclaimed coffee brand's baristas and brews are often recognised as some of the best at the annual Melbourne International Coffee Expo.

Ona Melbourne is set to open at 22 Ovens Street, Brunswick, from March/April 2020.

Top image: Ona Sydney.