City Cafes

1998

For some Melburnians, and I certainly include myself here, coffee is an essential start to our day. Without the right espresso hit, the system doesn't start. But our obsession with coffee doesn't stop there. It lasts right through the day. It's not just a drink, it's an occasion, it's business. We meet in a cafe instead of an office. Coffee does the deals in Melbourne. It's a part of the city's culture.

Our Italian grandparents are really to blame for the extraordinary role that coffee plays in Melbourne's life. The influence of the Italian restaurant families (Codognotto, Massoni, Molina,Triaca, Vigano - my grandparents) of the 1930's set a stamp on Melbourne taste which has grown stronger and richer over the years. Their cafes and restaurants were all at the top end of Bourke, Lonsdale and Exhibition Streets and made the eastern end of the city come alive. Today Florentino Cellar Bar remains a special place to enjoy a glass of wine, the daily pasta ordered from the kitchen hatch and, of course, a coffee. Four doors up, sit more simply on a stool in the window of Pelligrini's and enjoy freshly squeezed juices and excellent coffee. Pelligrini's has not changed for decades. Nino and Sisto still supervise the front and Emma still cooks the bolognese.

Now coffee consumers are everywhere in the city and suburbs. From Collins Street, through the beautiful Block Arcade, you come to little Block Place which gets so crowded at lunchtime that you have to fight your way through the cafe tables clustered there. Round the corner in Little Collins Street, Laurent Patisserie sits elegantly in the old bank building on the corner of the Causeway. Across Swanston Street and up the hill, the Hairy Canary's open hatch window is a great spot for good coffee and snacks. Opposite are the huge windows of Georges where you can perch and watch the passing traffic whilst enjoying your latte - the biggest seller in this store in its first months of opening. Down the stairs to what was once the menswear of the old Georges department store is now the food store and huge kitchens which service The Brasserie. On the other side the Collins Street entrance the Cafe has banquette, table and chair seating, again with total vision in and out. Coffee drinkers seem to like being on show.

The importance of Melbourne as a coffee centre has been recognised by the Segafredo Zanetti group who have recently opened here two of a planned Australia wide chain of franchises. The first in the attractive Hardware Street is run with the Bortolotto family with chef Olimpia and her daughters supervising. Segafredo hopes to capitalise on Australia's booming coffee consumption, a recent BIS Shrapnel report says we drank 690 million cups last year. Nearby off Collins Street in Bank Place, Syracuse is popular for business breakfasts, coffee and an amazing choice of wine with a list of more than 500 labels. The owners here are also responsible for Degraves Espresso Bar a handy espresso stop en route to Flinders St station and, more recently forThe European and Melbourne Supper Club above on Exhibition Street.

Cafe culture is certainly alive and thriving in Melbourne but in the inner city there's also been an explosion in small bars which serve mainly drinks, some coffee and some, like Rue Bebelons in Little Lonsdale Street, which change with the light, serving more beer and Stollis -- the espresso operator replaced by DJ's spinning records at night.

See also Mary Keneally's piece on taking tea in Melbourne and Cam Smith's the rise of the chic Italian bistro