The coffee guide · Melbourne
A coffee guide to Melbourne
A practical guide to a coffee day in Melbourne: where the roasters cluster, what to order and when to go.
Melbourne's specialty scene was built by roasters who opened their own cafés. Seven Seeds turned a Carlton warehouse into a roastery in the late 2000s and pushed lighter roasts for filter at a time when the city drank dark espresso. Proud Mary opened in Collingwood in 2009 with V60, AeroPress and cold drip on the menu. Since then a long line of small roasters has followed, many of them in converted garages and warehouses.
Plan the day around neighbourhoods. Collingwood and Fitzroy, which Broadsheet calls two of the best suburbs for specialty coffee, put Proud Mary, Aunty Peg's, Everyday, Acoffee, Plug Nickel and Calēre within a short walk. In Brunswick, Disciple and Kōhī no Deshi share Black Street, with Introspection around the corner and ONA a short walk north; Wood & Co and Wide Open Road are close by. The CBD is the place for standing bars: Patricia, Brother Baba Budan, Traveller, Dukes, Vacation and Project Zero, all within walking distance of each other.
Melbourne coffee is still largely milk-based, so the flat white and the latte are the local orders, and most bars pour them well. For black coffee, the roastery bars are where to go: Aunty Peg's brews one to one, Disciple serves only black coffee, ONA keeps rare coffees in a freezer and Maker pours only single origins.
Go early. Most cafés open around 7am and close by mid-afternoon, and several roasters, such as Rumble and Niccolo, open on weekdays only. Good Measure is an exception, keeping its espresso machines on until 8pm.
Almost every roaster on this list sells beans by the bag, and many also sell brewing gear. Aunty Peg's, Padre and Bench are good places to stock up, and Padre's staff will help you choose.
Where to start
25
No. 1
Seven Seeds Coffee Roasters
CarltonMust-try
Mark Dundon and Bridget Amor turned an old Carlton warehouse into a roastery and café after selling St Ali in 2008. They pushed traceable beans and lighter roasts for filter and cold drip when Melbourne still drank dark espresso. Roasting moved to Fairfield in 2017, but the Carlton room still pours the Golden Gate blend and a rotating single origin brewed the way you ask. It ranked 87th on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list in 2025. Expect a wait for a table.
114 Berkeley St, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
No. 2
Proud Mary Coffee
CollingwoodMust-try
Proud Mary opened off Smith Street in 2009 and roasts all its coffee a block away, at its Aunty Peg's roastery. It was one of the first Melbourne cafés to brew its blends and single origins on V60, AeroPress and cold drip, and those methods are still on the menu. It ranked fourth on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list in 2025 and 27th in 2026. Expect a queue, a bright warehouse room and a kitchen that runs until mid-afternoon.
172 Oxford St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 3
Aunty Peg's
CollingwoodMust-try
Aunty Peg's is Proud Mary's roastery, opened in 2014, with a coffee bar at the front. At the brew bar a barista serves you one to one, talks you through the coffees and may offer a taste or a smell before you choose. The list runs to champion roasts and rare Geisha lots, and the nitro cold brew comes in a beer glass. It is also a training space and a shop for beans and brewing gear, a short walk from the Proud Mary café.
200 Wellington St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 4
Everyday Coffee
Collingwood+1 locationMust-try
Everyday opened in 2013 pouring beans from other Melbourne roasters, and since 2019 it has roasted its own at the back of this vast red-brick warehouse in Collingwood. Espresso and filter both come from the house roasts, and every coffee arrives with a glass of sparkling water. The menu is mostly bagels, with cinnamon scrolls in the cabinet, and local DJs play on the sound system. As the name says, it trades every day of the year. Its smaller CBD sibling, Everyday Midtown, is on Little Collins Street.
36-38 Sackville St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 5
ACOFFEE
Collingwood+1 locationMust-try
Acoffee roasts in a converted Collingwood garage painted so white it looks more like a tech store than a café. Co-owner and coffee director Byoung-Woo Kang, Australia's 2014 cup tasting champion and a former Market Lane roaster, roasts lighter than is usual to keep each coffee bright and clear. The espresso machine sits on a long island bench, and filter roasts and drip bags are on the shelf to take home. A second Acoffee works on Russell Street in the CBD.
30 Sackville St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 6
Calēre Coffee
FitzroyMust-try
Calēre is a tiny Gertrude Street coffee nook run by Alicia Feng, easy to walk past. The coffee is always single origin, chosen from some of Australia's best roasters, and ONA lists the shop among the cafés that pour its beans. There is a small run of pastries, beans by the bag and handmade ceramic mugs. The name comes from the Latin for warm. It ranked 28th on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list in 2025.
Unit 1/166 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Australia
No. 7
Disciple Roasters
BrunswickMust-try
Marwin Shaw, who opened Monk Bodhi Dharma in 2009, sold his cafés to focus on roasting and calls this backstreet warehouse a coffee cellar door. Every cup is served black: eight to ten espressos a day and pour-overs that run from everyday cups to very rare lots. There is no milk of any kind and no disposable cup, so bring your own or drink in from the ceramic mugs Shaw makes by hand. Beans, mugs and brewing gear are for sale.
16 Black St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
No. 8
Kōhī no deshi
BrunswickMust-try
Kōhī no Deshi, Japanese for disciple coffee, is the milk-loving twin of Disciple Roasters next door. Marwin Shaw opened it in December 2023 to serve only milk drinks, with six grinders, four blends and eleven dairy and plant milks, each pairing worked out for the coffee in the cup. The ceramics are his, shaped to hold exact ratios of coffee and milk. Try the affogato: an anaerobic Ethiopian espresso poured over vanilla ice cream from Sundae School.
18 Black St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
No. 9
ONA Coffee
BrunswickMust-try
Canberra roaster ONA opened this Brunswick café in 2020. Start with Raspberry Candy, the blend founder Saša Šestić used to win the 2015 World Barista Championship. The freezer menu holds more than 20 rare coffees, roasted, rested and frozen in single doses. The bright, minimal bar has separate stations for espresso, milk and filter, with batch brew, pour-over and cold brew on offer. Try the càscara if you want something other than coffee.
22 Ovens St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
No. 10
Wood and Co Coffee
BrunswickMust-try
Aaron Wood started roasting in his backyard in 2015 for friends who ran cafés, and opened this Albert Street shopfront in 2019. Today it is a roastery, wholesaler and coffee bar with a coffee-only menu: single-origin and blended espresso and filter, plus cans of cold brew. The Twin Peaks blend mixes Ethiopian and Colombian beans for toffee and mandarin notes, and single origins change every four to six weeks. From the few seats you can watch the team roast.
369 Albert St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
No. 11
Patricia Coffee Brewers
CBD+1 locationMust-try
Patricia has served coffee from a standing-room-only corner of Little Bourke and Little William streets since 2011. The menu is three words long: white, black or filter. All the coffee now comes from its own roastery in Coburg North, and the house espresso and filter change with the season. There are no tables, only a marble bar, brass hooks and a queue out the door most mornings. A second Patricia bar works on Lonsdale Street.
Rear of, 493-495 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 12
Brother Baba Budan
CBDMust-try
Brother Baba Budan was the Seven Seeds team's first city café, named after the Sufi who, legend says, smuggled seven coffee seeds out of Yemen. It pours the Seven Seeds house blend and a coffee of the day, usually a single origin, as espresso, filter or nitro. The room has a single communal table, a tiny bar and about 15 seats, with more chairs hanging from the ceiling. Food stops at small cakes and pastries. Expect a wait at peak times.
359 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 13
Dukes Coffee Roasters
CBDMust-try
Dukes roasts mostly organic coffees bought from small farms and cooperatives across Africa, Asia and the Americas, with each lot traceable to where it was grown. This small café in Ross House, a community-owned building on Flinders Lane, is the best place to try the latest single origins, brewed as espresso, filter or French press. The fit-out by Chris Connell uses reclaimed timber, recycled tiles and green trim, and there are only a few seats. Order a pour-over with a pastry and perch at the counter.
247 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 14
Vacation Coffee CBD
CBD+2 locationsMust-try
Vacation is a ten-seat café on the corner of Flinders and Exhibition streets, where the Sahely brothers uncovered the windows and restored an eight-metre ceiling. The fit-out is mid-century and eighties pastel: mint-green teak seats and pale-pink steel benches. The team roasts its own coffee and sells it by the cup and by the bag, with single origins on filter and batch brew. It ranked 71st on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list in 2025 and 100th in 2026. There are also Vacation cafés in Richmond and Cremorne.
1 Exhibition St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 15
Project Zero Coffee Meriton Suites
CBD+1 locationMust-try
Kirk Pearson opened Project Zero in the CBD in 2023, below the Meriton Suites on King Street, and added a second shop on Flinders Street. It roasts its own coffee: fruit-forward house blends such as Strawberry Cheesecake, plus single origins for filter and espresso. In 2026 Pearson moved the milk drinks, most of the business, to espresso pulled ahead of service, a change Broadsheet covered at length; black coffees are still brewed to order from rare releases. Pearson also hosts the Coffee Show podcast.
Store 1/140 King St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 16
MAKER Richmond
Richmond+1 locationMust-try
Stephanie and John Vroom, both coffee industry veterans, do not believe in blends. Their roastery, Maker, serves only single origins, up to five at a time, to show they can be as versatile as any blend. The Richmond café is the roastery's home, with the widest choice of espresso and filter, pastries and cakes, and roasters you can ask about what they are working on. Smaller Maker bars pour the same coffees in the CBD, South Yarra and Prahran.
47 North St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia
No. 17
Rumble Coffee Roasters
KensingtonMust-try
Rumble has supplied Melbourne cafés for years from its Kensington roastery, and its Transparency Project publishes how much growers are paid for their coffee. To drink it, go to the espresso bar on Macaulay Road, a few minutes from the roastery: it pours the house blends and rotating single origins on both filter and espresso, and sells beans and brewing gear to take home. Pastries come from Rumble's own Double Dutch bakery. It opens on weekdays only, from 7am to 2pm.
348 Macaulay Rd, Kensington VIC 3031, Australia
No. 18
Padre Coffee Brunswick East
Brunswick East+1 locationMust-try
Padre has roasted coffee in Brunswick East since 2008, and this big Lygon Street café sits next to the roastery. It buys from estates around the world, including less common origins in Indonesia and India, and the experimental blends and filter brews change with the season. Ask the staff: they will walk you through a coffee from farm to cup. Padre also runs brewing courses, and its small stall at South Melbourne Market carries up to a dozen coffees to drink or take home.
438 Lygon St, Brunswick East VIC 3057, Australia
No. 19
BENCH COFFEE CO. Lt Collins
CBD+3 locationsMust-try
Bench is a boutique roaster with its own flagship on Little Collins Street, an angular black-and-white corner bar designed by Arkhe Tekhne. Half the room is the statement bench, built on glass blocks. The coffee menu is short: the basics plus hot and iced filter, cold brew and an espresso tonic, with beans to take home. The only food is dacquoise in flavours such as Uji matcha and black sesame. Bench roasts in Brunswick, where the roastery shares space with a bakery kitchen, and runs two more bars on St Kilda Road.
321 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 20
Plug Nickel
CollingwoodGood
Before ONA opened its own Melbourne café, this tiny Collingwood spot was one of the few places to drink the Canberra roaster's beans, and it still pours them. Broadsheet calls it one of the city's most innovative coffee spots: alongside long blacks there is batch brew, càscara, cold brew and bottled lattes to take away. ONA lists it among its stockists, open every day for breakfast and lunch.
7 Peel St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 21
Wide Open Road Coffee Roasters
BrunswickGood
Wide Open Road roasts its own coffee in a big industrial room on Barkly Street, with its own cupping room and green-bean store behind the café. The Bathysphere blend mixes beans from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and Kenya and works well with milk, and the filter roasts are served as batch brew or pour-over. It is one of Brunswick's busiest cafés, with booths, comfortable chairs and an adventurous food menu, and tea is brewed with thermometers and timers.
274 Barkly St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
No. 22
Traveller Coffee
CBDGood
Traveller is the Seven Seeds team's second city café, a narrow, lightly toned room meant to recall an old Airstream caravan, with a neon boot hanging over Crossley Street. It is standing room only, with a European-style bar for reading the paper, and the takeaway window is set up to pour filter coffee quickly. The coffee is Seven Seeds, as at Brother Baba Budan, with sandwiches, cakes and pastries on the counter. It closes on Sundays.
2/14 Crossley St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 23
Introspection
BrunswickGood
Introspection is a small espresso bar on Wilson Avenue in Brunswick, a short walk from Disciple and Kōhī no Deshi on Black Street. It pours coffee from ONA, the Canberra roaster whose own Melbourne café is on Ovens Street, and opens every day from 7am to 3pm. It makes a good third stop on a Brunswick coffee walk.
6-8 Wilson Ave, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
No. 24
Niccolo Coffee
CremorneGood
Niccolo is a Melbourne roaster that supplies cafés, restaurants and offices, and its Cremorne headquarters on Stephenson Street has a weekday coffee bar. The signature blend is roasted from carefully sourced specialty coffee, and seasonal single origins rotate beside it. Stop in for a coffee and a bag of beans when you are walking the Cremorne back streets, where Vacation also has a café.
57-59 Stephenson St, Cremorne VIC 3121, Australia
No. 25
Good Measure
CarltonGood
Good Measure is a warm, timber-clad café and bar on Lygon Street, full of house plants and vintage furniture, that feels like a neighbourhood haunt in Japan. The drink that made its name is the Mont Blanc: a lightly sweetened Code Black filter brew under whipped cream, grated nutmeg and orange zest. By day it pours coffee with sandwiches and pastries; after dark the records go on and it becomes a cocktail bar, with the espresso machines running until 8pm.
193 Lygon St, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia