Melbourne’s Best Cafes

Melbourne is awash with some of the finest café’s this side of the equator, if not on both. And most coffee connoisseurs who’ve travelled will agree that it’s the coffee capital of the world. It’s no secret that Melbourne has a lively and diverse café culture, and it’s almost become cliché to talk about the diverse offerings available all over this sprawling culinary capital. It seems the city’s chefs are constantly working to outdo one another with new, ingenious creations and this is partly what makes Melbourne one of the ultimate places to enjoy a gastronomical, caffeine-infused experience.

We here at the Espresso Corp would like to share with you the cafes we think tantalise our senses with the greatest effect.

Give them a try – you shall not regret it.

Our Staples - Coffee & Food

Sir Charles

Sir Charles has the best eggs benny in the market! There you go, we’ve said it! If you like panko crumbed eggs on roti with sriracha sauce, then this is a must have. The rest of the menu is exceptional too. The coffee is also amazing as they have good roots in the trade. Their foundations were Axil coffee and they now use AU79. They also have their own roaster where they do small batches. They serve great single origins on filter and espresso and their blend is solid. You will often find queues out the door on the weekends here. It’s a place that we take most of our guests when they come to town.

sircharlesfitzroy.com.au

Fitzroy

Stagger Lees

Stagggerrrs! This was one of our first locals when living in Fitzroy and still remains a local today. These guys are the cool kids in town while serving ridiculous coffee and food. The whole menu is epic and lots of unique stuff in there. They serve Proud Mary coffee on a sick white neon lit Synesso machine. You will find 2-3 single origins here and cold brew on the reg’s during summer. Great milk and black coffee. Their burger and craft beer Friday dish is one to lock in. You can also buy bags of Proud Mary here to take home.

staggerlees.com.au

Fitzroy

Faraday’s Cage

Best. Sausage roll. Ever. You can’t not go here now! This is one of our un-assuming favourites tucked down a one way in the backstreets of Fitzroy. They’ve got their own bakery as well as solid menu that they change up every now and again. But do try their baked goods, if you are not into sausage rolls, try the ham and cheese croissant - arguably the top 3 in town! And their yummo cakes. Dukes coffee, served up to Melbourne standard. The owner is also a lovely lady.

faradayscage.com.au

Fitzroy

Monsieur Truffe & East Elevation

The cafe with the red door. What’s behind this door is quite unique! Inside is a micro/artisan chocolate factory glassed in inside an epic high roof East Brunswick cafe. The menu is top notch. We can not recommend the croque-monsieur highly enough. Wow. This is another place we often take guest staying in Melbourne. They have good coffee with Padre, but only a blend and sometimes it’s hit and miss depending who’s on the tools. But it’s all about the hot chocolates here - single origin chocolate with precise percentages of cocoa. Then just pop down the road a few mins to Padre’s roastery for a brew.

monsieurtruffechocolate.com

Brunswick East

Our Other highlights for coffee & food

Seven Seeds, Carlton

Axil Coffee Roaster, Hawthorne

A few other place the Melbourne cool kids hang out…

Higher Ground

The Mack Daddy of Melbourne eateries, Higher Ground cannot be described as anything less than a dining institution. Whilst the waits can be long, they can most certainly be worth it, with the refurbished power station creating a vibrant and relaxed atmosphere for dining on Berkshire bacon sandwiches with gribiche and brown sauce, or the sensationally sweet whole poached mandarin with vanilla cheesecake, chocolate brownie and coco nibs. Cheesecake and brownie in the one sitting? Yeah, sounds good.

Bang Bang at the Rifle Club

We had the pleasure of checking out this nifty dining hall in Elsternwick. Bang Bang RC takes Asian brunch to the next level with outstanding meals like the turmeric omelette and congee with master stock pork. At night, sou red curry ocean trout and crispy half duck keep the French Indochinese pleasures coming. It’s a real treat.

AU79

AU79 has everything you could want in a café. A fabulous bakery with pastry kitchen, an aromatic coffee roastery and food that will keep you coming back to Abbotsford time and time again. Mouth-watering offerings like crispy skin pork belly, Cone Bay barramundi or spicy chicken bao are some of the most flavourful on the Northside.

Dumbo

We couldn’t forget the west. The area has sprung up some of the most unique eateries in recent times, and Dumbo is no different. The abandoned milk bar has been turned into a go-to for people looking for taste creations in Footscray. Try the banoffee doughnuts with coffee mascarpone – it’s simply delectable. They haven’t forgotten the building’s milk bar roots, and classics like potato fritters and beef brisket burgers keep the good eating rolling along in the west.

How Much Coffee is Your Café Wasting?

If you work in a café or have ever had the unfortunate experience of walking around to the barista’s work station you will (often) witness a landfill of wasted coffee grinds. The machine, the bench, cleaning towels and of course, the floor, are all dusted with the remains of what could have become freshly brewed coffee. Freshly brewed coffee equals added revenue and with all that coffee being swept up and thrown straight in the bin, your café is losing profit.

Of course It’s not easy being a barista, especially when you are under the pump. A lot of baristas and cafe owners think that wastage is just part of the coffee making process. But just how much coffee is your café wasting, and why is it important to ensure that your coffee grinds are being optimised?

Read on to find how the how and why of coffee wastage at your café, and the perfect way to avoid it.

Why Does Coffee Get Wasted?

Coffee is wasted on certain grinders when a barista is working at high pace and becomes distracted or careless when filling the portafilter. The result is coffee spilling out from the portafilter and onto the counter/floor. Not only does this create a mess but it also results in a subpar coffee. Reports suggest that on average Australian baristas waste around 800 grams to 1.2 kilograms a week in spilt coffee grind. Trailing has confirmed that busy cafes can waste this daily!

This is highly detrimental to the business. Not only do the spilt grinds end up cutting into productivity with the amount of cleaning that occurs, but the wasted coffee eats into the café’s profit. The best thing to do is ensure that your coffee is never wasted, and we here at Espresso Corphave just what you need to make this happen.

How Do We Help?

The Coffee Catcha is the perfect remedy for eliminating coffee wastage & increasing dosage consistency and is used by thousands of baristas around the world. The unique dosage funnel system attaches to the top of your portafilter/group head, effectively stopping excess coffee grinds from spilling out of the portafilter and onto the counter. Trials estimate that, when in use, the Coffee Catcha saves the barista 5-8% of all coffee that would otherwise be wasted. This has direct impact on profits. Our customers including roasters and cafe owners have told us that the Coffee Catcha has saved them thousands of dollars per year.

Have a Question?

If you have any enquiries about the waste-eliminating dosage system provided by the Coffee Catcha, feel free to get in contact with our friendly team of staff. We’re always here to further discuss how the system can improve revenue for your business, and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have regarding the Coffee Catcha.

Simply fill out an enquiry form on our contact page and we will get back to you with all the information you require.

How to Increase Coffee Quality Consistency Using the Coffee Catcha

There is an art to correctly dosing espresso. And even more of an art to correctly dosing consistently. You know when you head to a café and receive a perfect coffee, so you order another - and it’s weak or perhaps bitter, or just not right?That’s more often than not the result of underdosing or overdosing the portafilter. Baristas often mistake underdosing (or overdosing) the portafilter for the grinder needing adjustment, when this is simply not the case. Once the barista has dialed in the grinder, it’s all about grinding a consistent amount of coffee into the portafilter for every single coffee and only tweaking the grind setting when significant changes occur (eg. a new bag of coffee or environmental/temperature changes). A coffee needs to be correctly dosed to ensure the shots are running well and the coffee lives up to its flavour potential. Consistent dosing is needed to keep customers happy and coming back!

The Coffee Catcha ensures the correct dosage of coffee is dosed consistently into the portafilter. Read on to find out how the Coffee Catcha should become part of your café’s routine.

How It Works

The Coffee Catcha ensures a consistent dose of coffee is funnelled into the portafilter through with every dose. The unique design fits around the top of your portafilter basket, ensuring it catches all of the grinds you are using for the coffee. Without appendages like the Coffee Catcha when grinding/dosing, coffee grinds are liable to fall out of the portafilter, creating mess and wasting valuable coffee. The catching system also ensures that your dosage is consistent and not under or over dosed, with the results being the perfect coffee every time you make one.

Benefits of the Coffee Catcha

The benefits of using these handy little gadgets speak for themselves. The outstanding effects of the Coffee Catcha are being felt around the world, with baristas adding this professional dosing tool to their coffee making process  and using them every day.

Benefits of the Coffee Catcha include:

●        Eliminate Wastage: Wastage has long been a problem for cafes around the world. Now, with the Coffee Catcha, you don’t have to worry about losing coffee and therefore, profit. The unique system literally acts as a catchment, funnelling in all of the coffee each time you dose.

●        Creates Consistency: You won’t have to worry about ever under or over dosing your coffee again, as the Coffee Catcha allows you to measure the perfect amount with each brew. Simply place the Coffee Catcha to the top of your portafilter and grind the correct amount of coffee in – every time.

●        Stops Mess: Any barista knows the pains of having to clean up ground coffee from around the machine. It gets everywhere. Luckily, with the Coffee Catcha, you don’t have to worry about cleaning those annoying grinds anymore. The Coffee Catcha simply catches the coffee and funnels it through to make the perfect brew.

Have any questions? Feel free to get in contact with our team by filling out an enquiry form on our contact page.

My Station Always Gets Covered in Coffee!

What a nuisance. Any barista knows the pains of making coffee after coffee yet spilling a great portion of it on the station counter or floor. Not only is it a nuisance for the barista to have to clean at the end of a shift, but it is also bad for café profits. Café’s waste kilos of coffee a year through wastage when dosing, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The Coffee Catcha was invented for the very purpose of saving the coffee that would otherwise be wasted when dosing. The unique funnel system easily attaches to the portafilter, creating a safeguard for the coffee that would otherwise be wasted when dosing with the group alone.

Increased Revenue

The best thing about the Coffee Catcha? It’s simple: the revenue from utilising the coffee grinds that would otherwise go to waste on the café counter. Trials conducted prove that the Coffee Catcha has the ability to save 5-8% of grinds that would otherwise go to waste, and therefore save a café hundreds of dollars a year in coffee.

Consistent Coffee Without the Clean Up

The Coffee Catcha allows the barista to make consistently delicious coffee without the hassle of cleaning it up many times throughout the day. One of the main causes of weak coffee is poor dosing, which is caused by losing the coffee off the side of the portafilter when grinding. With the Coffee Catcha, you don’t lose any of the grinds, and a consistently delicious coffee is created with each brew.

What’s more is that there’s no mess. One of the most frustrating aspects of a barista’s job is having to clean the endless wasted coffee grinds that occur once a run of coffees has been made, and they will testify to its nuisance. With the unique funnelling system created by the Coffee Catcha, you don’t have to worry about spilling your coffee: only making a perfectly dosed and well brewed cup every time.

Contact Us for More Details

Want to learn more about this awesome new coffee making device? Feel free to get in contact with our friendly team of staff. We are always happy to discuss this wonderful product with anyone looking to incorporate the system into their café, and will be happy to answer any questions you have regarding the Coffee Catcha.

Submit an enquiry form on our contact page and we will get back to you with all the information you require.