The State Library of Victoria Will Soon Be Home to a Vegan-Friendly Cafe

The State Library's new café, dubbed Guild, has gained an operator, with the announcement that local business Almond Milk Co. will helm the space.

Part of the library's $88m 2020 Vision redevelopment, Guild will open its doors on Friday, September 21. It will sit inside the Library's new Russell Street entrance space, Welcome Zone, a collaborative area that will also contain an expanded Readings bookshop.

On the menu at Guild will be lunch staples: salads, sandwiches, Sensory Lab coffee and – of course – almond milk, both plain and flavoured. The cafe will also have coffee "day passes" for those ensconced in the Library, giving them the important lifeblood of caffeine via filter coffee — all day.

As well as being Melbourne's largest distributor of almond milk, Almond Milk Co. has two cafes already running in Melbourne: one in Country Road, Brighton, and another in Husk, Toorak. This will be its first CBD digs and non-retail based outlet.

And, that's not all for the State Library's facelift. In addition to Guild, the Library will also see two new entrances, new reading rooms and an event space with a kitchen. One of the redone entrances will be on Russell Street and the other will be an accessible entrance, on La Trobe. Both will be the main access points, upon opening, as the Swanston Street entrance will close temporarily for the second phase of the redevelopment – due to be finished by spring 2019.

Guild will open its doors from 10am, Friday, September 21 at 285 Russell Street, Melbourne. 

Images: Lisa Crooke