Melbourne

Melbourne

As Peoples, leading journalist *cough* – It is my duty to share a snap shot of my recent experience of the Melbourne café scene. And though a group of cafes and experiences of them should never be called “A Café Scene” (because it’s lame) – I will use it just this once.
Melbourne is dope. I heard the usual -  “it’s like a big Wellington” – But it reminded me more of an old school remix of Auckland.

First thing I do when I go to a new city is look for who I call, ‘indie kids’ and I follow them around. Where would they smoke their ciggies over a coffee? Center Way or Degraves Alley may be one of those places. We stumbled upon this gem, off Flindlers Lane. A little alley easiest described as a compact Cuba St. I must admit I spent most of my time down there. I just felt more at home (must have been all the graffiti). Now, I didn’t get the best coffee in the world and a barista turned her nose at the mention of my wife's request for decaf (let’s evolve, people), but this place has a lot of character. Amazing retail and café fit outs that I suspect happen by accident – as in, the bare bones of the street ooze, ‘cool’

The best coffee by far was from Seven Seeds offspring - Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke Street. Now, be aware I was only there for 5 days so I’m sure someone out there would suggest other cafes with great coffee, but you have to love a place that has a Clover sitting there. Super friendly, and one of the few places we found that was open early, Saturday morning.
I didn’t get a strong sense of Fairtrade presence in Melbourne, but there is the odd café, flying the flag (Superfino for example, on Flindlers Lane). It would’ve been nice to spend more time there talking to operators and roasters about their thoughts on it. In this respect, Wellington is a little further on (if Fairtrade is a direction you wanted to head in) and it may be, the industry in Melbourne (or Australia) doesn’t want to head that way. I don’t know.

I often wonder about the kiwi habit of comparing ourselves with other countries, and cities like Melbourne, and I think it needs adjusting. As wellingtonians, I think we can be proud of the coffee we serve, and the cafés we frequent. And I’d go so far as saying - other countries and cities should be comparing themselves to us.
   

_Shaun K Anderson

Tags // Melbourne, Australia, Fairtrade, Seven Seeds, Brother Baba Budan, Superfino, Degraves Alley,

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