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Rosie Cramp, Bec Dunn, Jill Hutchinson, Adam Delmastro and Cale Sexton at Auction Rooms in North Melbourne.

Tell us about your favourite cafe and you could win one of 10 copies of the Age Good Cafe Guide (available June 18). Just email us at theagemelbournemagazine@theage.com.au And see page 21 for our brilliant Nespresso Pixie coffee machine competition.

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Feedback twitter etc in this spaceOur top 10 city spots, plus a surprise in Moonee Ponds

We had one goal: find the 30 best cafes in Melbourne but with a twist – excepting the city, no suburb could offer up more

than one. Why limit the list? Partly to spread the love – otherwise half the cafes would probably have been in Brunswick and Northcote – and partly to recognise how cafes adapt to serve their neighbourhoods: the best cafe in Armadale is a very different beast from the winner in Seddon. In the end, the suburbs represented were a bit obvious, and apologies to readers further afield, but that’s because that’s where most of the contenders are. There are great cafes in quiet, less fashionable spots, but the very best, the top 30, have risen where there’s plenty of competition, cross-pollination, and fussy customers who can easily take their business elsewhere. If we had to offer a

word to describe what’s hot in the Melbourne cafe scene right now, it would be “coffeehouse”, an old word (they were popular in 18th-century England) for a new(ish) kind of place that Melbourne is doing really well. Coffee is their main game: they roast their own, either on site or somewhere nearby. It’s a lighter roast than the typical Italian-style espresso, producing coffee with brighter, fruitier aromas and flavours. Coffeehouse baristas are using filters, syphons and French presses (plungers) to make tea-like brews that highlight delicate flavours and aromas. Cafes are doing great food with almost no kitchen (check out Nabiha in Moonee Ponds); others, with chefs at the helm, are turning out restaurant-quality dishes in casual daytime settings. There’s the occasional British accent – corned beef, black pudding, kippers,

Branston pickle (Duchess of Spotswood, Miss Jackson in St Kilda). The brunch menu stalwarts, corn fritters, smashed avocado on toast, BLTs, are everywhere, as are communal tables, which is no bad thing: Melbourne may have 10,000 cafes, but we all want to squeeze into three of them.

How did we judge the best? Matt Holden, editor of the upcoming Age Good Cafe Guide, drew on the expertise of his reviewers,

who have visited some 250 cafes for the new guide (out this month). He revisited a shortlist of 60-odd places and came up with the final 30. He judged the standard of coffee, service, and the “X” factor. No doubt you will disagree with some of our choices but here, in no particular order, is how it panned out:

Photography/Derek Swalwell, Fairfax Archive

tHe top 30cafes

2011

abbotsfordthree Bags fullcnr Nicholson & Mollison streets (9421 2732

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artisan coffee

open nights

wi-fi

fresh juice

good outdoor space

communal table

great for kids

Lycra alert

fashionably hard to find

beware hipsters

great cakes

In the beginning … 250 cafes went under the microscope, reviewed by our colleagues at the

age Good cafe Guide. We revisited the top 60, then whittled the list down to just 30. Did your

favourite local make the grade?

armadalecoin Laundry61 Armadale Street (9500 1888

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BalaclavaMonk Bodhi Dharmarear, 202 Carlisle Street (9534 7250

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These days, Abbotsford is more Kew than Collingwood, and this smart conversion in an old hat factory marks the line where geek meets chic. A blackboard menu of single-origins, pour overs and Clovers above the espresso machine marks this out as artisan coffee territory; but the high communal table (made from a piece of bowling lane, apparently) is just as busy with folks brunching on pumpkin fritters and ricotta hotcakes with poached

fruit. For lunch, they do beetroot-cured salmon with corn fritters or plump kransky sausage, potato bake and coleslaw; also try chef Sarah Foletta’s baked brownie cheesecake. Runner-up: the new Abbotsford Club at 28-36 Grosvenor Street. The old Coin Laundry

sign still hangs from the front of this one-time corner washhouse, but the Kleenmaids have been banished, replaced with a long green-and-white tiled bar, window bench seats with comfy cushions, a high

communal table and some bentwood chairs and tables. The food has an easygoing and approachable style, with breakfast running until 3pm (the corn and manchego fritters with guacamole are popular and tasty), and lunch offerings such as a Vietnamese chicken salad with pickled veg and roasted peanuts, Asian-style sticky pork belly with coleslaw and the indispensable steak sandwich with beetroot relish and fat chips. Runner-up: Rouge, 14 Beatty Avenue.

Hard to find? Check – it’s near the Safeway carpark in Balaclava. Name you’ll never remember? You bet. Good coffee? Most definitely: they roast it themselves, taking great care; co-owner

Marwin Shaw is a certified Q Grader (an accreditation program for coffee graders recognised worldwide). The building is an old bakehouse, now turning out breakfasts in the form of banana bread (served with a pot of lemon ricotta) or slow-cooked Mexican beans with feta and chilli jam. Lunch – from 10.30am in a reversal of the all-day breakfast syndrome – might be a soup or a sambar/curry/stew of the day, or baguettes. Runner-up: Las Chicas, 203 Carlisle Street.

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collingwoodproud Marycorner Stanley & Oxford streets (9417 5930

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carltonseven seeds114 Berkeley Street (9347 8664

Brunswick eastpope Joan77-79 Nicholson Street (9388 8858

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The BLT with avocado at Liar Liar in Hawthorn.

This little stretch of the number 96 tram trip was just a blur of printing workshops and taxi depots before former Circa chef Matt Wilkinson and partner Ben Foster opened Pope Joan about a year ago. The main room at the front has a kind of nouveau-farmhouse feel to it; then there’s a bit of enclosed space at the side that feels more deckish, and some Astroturf and a vegie plot out the back. The menu is kind of traditional, kind of modern, with a British

accent: boiled eggs with soldiers and bacon bits, slow-cooked egg with wild mushrooms and pan-fried polenta, coddled eggs with anchovy and black pudding salad. Runner-up: Milkwood, 120 Nicholson Street.

This is Carlton, but not the Lygon Street Carlton of Brunetti and University Cafe. This is the new Carlton, way down in the warehouse-conversion district south of the university. It’s another frontier being pioneered by Mark Dundon (Ray, St Ali), who has set up his coffee-roasting business in a couple of glass-walled rooms in the middle of this converted warehouse. You can watch the cuppers tasting and the roasters roasting if you care to, or just enjoy

the product. The food is descended – or is that evolved? – from Dundon’s original no-kitchen Ray playbook, starring hot-pressed sandwiches and bought-in quality pastries and cakes.Runner-up: Brunetti, 194-204 Faraday Street, for the Italian grand cafe experience.

fitzroy NorthJulio’s171 Miller Street (9489 7814

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Julio’s is the archetypal inner-city corner-store cafe: set in a quiet residential street, on a pretty corner, with nothing much else cafe-wise anywhere nearby. There’s a high communal table for newspaper-browsing and a few smaller tables inside, but the tables on the footpath are a big draw, weather permitting. The blackboard menu offers Mediterranean-influenced fare such as baked eggs with chorizo or a Spanish-style omelette. And the

bathroom, at the end of a rather winding trip beyond the kitchen, remains as it was when the Calabrian shopkeepers who used to live here did their ’70s renovation on it.Runner-up: Mitte, 76 Michael Street.

Gardenvaleomar and the Marvellous coffee Bird124 Gardenvale Road (9596 4186

Calling this little strip of Gardenvale Road nondescript is an overstatement, and this cafe/roastery would be much more at home somewhere a little more … descript. It’s an interesting space with a kitchen built from plywood and Dexion shelving, and an oversized coffee roaster in the corner. Co-owner Andy Gelman is an experienced roaster and barista, so coffee is the focus, with a menu of exotic single-origins. For breakfast, there’s a

salami melt (with relish and cheddar) and smoked salmon with labna and avocado and for lunch, there are toasted flatbreads, rolls and salads.

Slap bang in the Manchester end of Collingwood with lots of raw brick, bare concrete and stripped timber and a coffee menu as long as your arm, this place is a bit of a hipster magnet, but in the ecumenical spirit of inner Melbourne a weekday morning will bring its share of chaps in business casual and blokes in safety orange as well. The seasonal menu is similarly ecumenical, from spongy hot ricotta cakes with baked figs all the way up to

an ox cheek ragu and most of the coffee here comes direct from growers in Central and South America via Proud Mary’s own roastery (now in Footscray). Runner-up: Cavallero, 300 Smith Street.

HawthornLiar Liar90 Kinkora Road (9818 8864

Side street, no sign; bare concrete floor, lots of dark-stained timber and black tiles; blackboard menu of single-origins; a cool-pop soundtrack drowning out the whine of the numerous coffee grinders and the chatter of customers; and a floor crew who look like the cast of a noughties remake of The Breakfast Club: this is about as cool as Hawthorn gets. The menu is in tune with that vibe, from the Bircher, labna and poached fruit or eggs

any way to the almost-cliche “smashed” avocado on toast, a grain-fed steak sandwich and a crisp and creamy avocado-charged BLT. Runner-up: Bread and Jam for Frances, 1/701 Glenferrie Road, behind Readings.

The syphon and pour over coffee bar at Auction Rooms in North Melbourne.

FYI A pour over is a free-standing one-cup filter/ A Clover is a high-tech one-cup-at-a-time brewing machine/ French Press is a fancy name for a plunger/ A syphon is a vacuum coffee maker

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1. For a real food-focused place, it’s hard to go past The Hardware Societe (120 Hardware Street ( 9078 5992). Try semolina porridge with rhubarb, fried eggs with jamon and manchego, or sardines on toast with tomato and mint gazpacho for size. 2. Toby’s Espresso Bar brings shots of Sydney specialty roaster Toby’s Estate to their Melbourne city beachhead (136 Exhibition Street, city ( 9650 1079).3. At the east end of town, in Monaco House, is Liaison (22 Ridgway Place, no phone), with Danny Colls, of Cafe Racer in St Kilda fame, in charge. (Not far away is Switchboard, the city’s tiniest coffee booth seating, in historic Manchester Unity Arcade, 220 Collins Street). 4. Hidden away down the west end is Elevenses Espresso Bar (585 Little Collins Street, no phone). It’s tucked into a corner of an old bluestone warehouse, a newish place run by a youngish couple, Shanny Sena and Tom Ervin-Ward, whose aim is to make every cup of coffee, well, awesome. 5. 65 Degrees (309 Exhibition Street ( 9662 1080) has world champion baristas and a house blend called Gridlock that has lines out the door at the morning coffee hour.6. West end cubicle drones who want to break out at lunchtime head for Kinfolk

(673 Bourke Street, no phone), a social enterprise cafe in the old Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company building. When you pay (in cash) you drop a bean into one of four jars to send profits to a worthwhile cause.7. Dancing Goat Cafe (shop 4, 280 King Street ( 9670 4002) has one of the best espressos in town, and a great range of cakes and sweets.8. The League of Honest Coffee (8 Exploration Lane ( 9654 0169) offers Padre’s specialty roasts to coffee fiends at the booming top end of Little Lonsdale Street.9. Manchester Press (8 Rankins Lane ( 9600 4054) does good coffee and sweet and savoury bagels from a hip converted printing factory in a picturesque mid-town laneway.10. And the best coffee in town? Brother Baba Budan (359 Little Bourke Street ( 9606 0449), no question. It’s a tiny place just up the hill from Elizabeth, recognisable by the crowds milling outside at various coffee moments through the day. Food is restricted to a few sweet bites (go the lamington). For variety, you’ll have to settle for some other kind of coffee, maybe a Clover, the high-tech (and pricey) Stanford graduate-engineered iteration of the French press (that’s a Bodum to you).

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once upon a time in the city…We couldn’t pick just one cafe to represent the whole of the cBD. so here’s our top 10…

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Kensingtonthe premises202 Bellair Street (9376 7565

Closed Mondays

Pleasant tree-lined Bellair Street is the perfect spot for a cafe – which is why there are quite a few in this little strip. Alex Anderson and Kate Holloway (veterans of St Ali, Seven Seeds and Liar Liar) opened this one last October. The brunchy menu emphasises good produce – smoked kippers or a bacon and egg roll, a ploughman’s sandwich of tasty Newmarket ham, Black Jack cheddar and pickled onion relish. And Kate Holloway

bakes on the premises – pretty cupcakes, a killer slab of carrot cake, and sweet and savoury muffins and friands.Runner-up: Luncheonette, 173 Rankins Road.

Moonee pondsNabiha10 Hall Street (0400 937 418

Closed Sundays

There’s almost no kitchen at this sliver of a place hidden away behind Moonee Ponds’ main street, but that doesn’t stop owners Rosalyn and Sam Manno assembling amped-up versions of Sydney Road Lebanese classics: zaatar (thyme, sumac and sesame seed) and lahm bi ajine (grilled spiced lamb) on chewy home-made pizza bases, and a delicious plate of toasted olive sourdough smeared with shanklish (a creamy Middle Eastern cheese),

tomatoes and mint. Sam has smartened the narrow breeze block-lined space up with little plywood tables, recycled timber and a banquette stitched together from old leather jackets. The coffee is as good as anywhere in town.

The team from Nabiha: Sam, Rosalyn and Liza.

Grilled spiced lamb pizza at Nabiha in Moonee Ponds.

North Melbourneauction Rooms103-107 Errol Street (9326 7749

This ticks all the coffeehouse boxes – big, airy space showing traces of its architectural provenance in the paint-flaked, bare-brick walls and bare timber floor; staff who look hipper than (most of) the customers. And yes, that’s a small coffee roaster on the rather laboratorial-looking syphon and pour over bar. The fairly serious menu here offers plenty for folks who like good food with their coffee, from coconut French toast or a Moroccan

tomato and chorizo stew to spiced fish taco and the tasty “knuckle sandwich” of flaky braised pork knuckle with vinegary piccalilli, rocket and aged cheddar. Runner-up: Grigson & Orr, 445 Queensberry Street.

Steve and Trevor Simmons at Penny Farthing Espresso in Northcote.

Northcotepenny farthing espresso206 High Street (9482 2246

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Brothers and baristas Steve and Trevor Simmons gave High Street a kick along when they opened their relaxed cafe last year. The light shopfront on Ruckers Hill is fitted out with op-shop tables and chairs and a big case of vinyl behind

the corrugated-tin bar. There is, of course, a blackboard coffee menu of single-origin and single-estate coffees, plus fruit and French toast, various eggs, a light lunch menu of sandwiches and, for the hungry, tofu scramble or a vegie stack or even a seared kangaroo fillet. And what’s on all that vinyl? David Bowie’s Hunky Dory last time we visited, which sums up this place nicely.Runner-up: Red Door Corner Store, 70 Mitchell Street.

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Barista Tom Singer and Beck Rafferty at Salford Lads Club in Port Melbourne.

Sliced porterhouse steak sandwich with beetroot at Pillar of Salt in Richmond.

port Melbournesalford Lads club1 Fennell Street (0409 543 911

d h Closed Sundays

That’s lad as in smart, cheeky, urbane. Former bricklayer Greg Saunders has turned a car garage in the industrial wilds of Port Melbourne into a bright, airy warehouse-style cafe with exposed steel roof trusses, some fixie bikes, soccer and cycling paraphernalia and a produce-driven menu as cheeky as the name: try a prawn cocktail sandwich from the cabinet, or a Delhi-style lamb curry from the blackboard menu. And on Thursdays and Fridays there’s the SLC

steak sandwich with Swiss cheese and house-made tomato relish on Noisette bread. Coffee is serious without being geeky, and there are a few nice tables on the grass under the big shady tree out front.

Richmondpillar of salt541 Church Street (9421 1550

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There’s quite a grown-up feel to this newish Richmond cafe and it suits the neighbourhood perfectly. At a big communal table, locals scan the dailies over lattes and breakfast: soft taco with Persian feta guacamole and beans or an omelette niced up with smoked salmon, ricotta and fresh herbs. Lunch goes from baguettes to a steak sandwich (actually a tower of sliced porterhouse, roasted roma tomatoes and beetroot relish

teetering on a slice of toasted sourdough) and beyond. Weekends are extremely busy and the fitout is the last word in stripped-brick walls, white tiles and bare concrete floors.

spotswoodDuchess of spotswood87 Hudsons Road (9391 6016

A cafe with restaurant-quality food in a neighbourhood better known for power stations and oil refineries … locals know they are onto a good thing, which is why you’ll have to come early on weekends or wait around for a table. Andrew Gale (ex Station Hotel) and crew are busy out back smoking salmon, pickling vegetables and even squeezing lemons for lemonade. The effort shines right through the menu, from a God-that’s-good pickled

pork and piccalilli sandwich to the crisp pig’s jowl with fried egg and truffled sauce and a lovely piece of chocolate and stout cake. The house blend is from Auction Rooms’ Small Batch roastery, complemented by guest blends from other local roasters.

south MelbourneDead Man espresso35 Market Street (9686 2255

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Big call, with St Ali just down the way, but Dead Man Espresso has a lot going for it. It’s in a nice compact space perched up above street level on a corner, with a view across South

Warehousia. The folks here are just as serious about coffee, the blackboard listing a couple of espresso blends and a few single-origins to enjoy as pour overs (although they don’t roast their own, relying on Seven Seeds and Market Lane for their beans: good call). The food stands up, too, with, among other tasty offers, a take on the BLT with pork belly and pureed spinach on brioche.Runner-up: St Ali, 12-18 Yarra Place.

south YarraMarket LaneShop 13, 163 Commercial Road (9804 7434

Closed Mondays

Melbourne’s best cafe? Not with such a limited (but quality) food offering – baguettes with Lescure butter and Annie Smithers jam, pastries from Dench, cakes from Sugadeaux, sand macarons from La Tropezienne. But Melbourne’s best

coffee? Almost certainly. Fleur Studd and Jason Scheltus source their coffee beans direct from the growers and roast them in small lots to produce quality espresso and milk blends and a range of single-origin coffees for aficionados of pour over and other non-espresso processes, with a blackboard and coffee flowchart to help you figure it all out. Runner-up: Coffee Darling, 2 Darling Street, with a family feel and an all-day breakfast menu.

The corned beef sandwich at Miss Jackson in St Kilda.b

Carb load with a steak sandwich out the front of Salford Lads Club in Port Melbourne.

FYI Your dad will know this, but piccalilli — appearing on cafe menus all over town, for some reason — is a very English relish, made from vegetables (usually cauliflower) and spices

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Barista Emily Ch’ng at Market Lane in South Yarra.

House-cured salami and prosciutto at Umberto Espresso Bar in Thornbury.

Richmond’s Pillar of Salt.

thornburyUmberto espresso Bar822 High Street (9484 8654

d h ] Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

The story goes that when Marco Finanzio was a little boy, his dad, Umberto, used to take him and his brother to the local espresso bar on Saturday mornings. Finanzio junior has recreated the feel of

those old-time northern suburbs places – minus the smoke and the card games – with a bit of a modern twist in this narrow space way up High Street. There’s a menu of Italian home-style favourites – who can say no to a platter of house-cured salami and prosciutto? And some days, Umberto Finanzio (who has worked in the coffee business for 32 years) is behind the bar, dispensing some old-fashioned Italian charm.Runner-up: Maize, 709 High Street.

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st KildaMiss JacksonShop 2, 19 Grey Street (via Jackson) (9534 8415

d Closed Mondays

Certain places in Melbourne remind us of the kind of hostelry where Samuel Pepys might have stopped for a corned beef sandwich on his way from the Admiralty to the diary … among them, Miss Jackson, a series of smallish rooms with plain white walls and bentwood chairs; and the amiable but grown-up service by owners Steve Kovacs and Matt Boughtwood. And the menu, put together by a real chef, Sarah Spiteri, which does include a corned

beef sandwich served on a wooden board with pickled cabbage and a side of cornichons. The coffee is straightforward.Runner-up: Dr Jekyll, 107-113 Grey Street.

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