Melbourne Coffee Crawl – Part 2
As you have probably discerned from the title, this is Part 2 of my countdown of the best places to get coffee in Melbourne. If you came straight to this page, then you might prefer to start reading at Part 1. Otherwise, let’s jump straight back into the reviews at number…
#8 — Social Roasting Company
5 McKillop Street
Melbourne
This is one of only two places (that I know of) where you can get great a coffee right in the CBD. If you are surprised that you haven’t heard of this place, then you might know them by their previous name, Octane. They roast their own beans (if you didn’t pick up from their new name) and are also located at Flemington (we didn’t go here, but that’s where they roast).
This was the last café that we went to while in Melbourne. After learning the hard way they don’t open on Sundays, we tried again on the way back to the airport. With all our bags on our back we walked in, made our order, put down our bags, and started chatting to the kiwi behind the coffee machine. Actually, we kept standing there talking to him until we had to go. Seats are so yesterday :-P
At first I was worried when I saw the barista use a spoon to remove the froth from the jug. However, my hope was restored when he poured our two classic-cup flat whites with good looking latte arts. I think one was a rosetta and the other was a heart.
Even though it was only 2pm it was already my 5th coffee for the day. Neverless, it was still very enjoyable. I can’t go into too much more detail about it because we only had 15 minutes to find this place, caffeinate up, and then get ourselves out the door and to the airport.
If you enjoy coffee (which you must since you are readying this) then you should defintely come here next time you are in the CBD. I defintely won’t be leaving this place until last on my next trip! Sorry, no photos. The Google car didn’t drive past here and we were in too much of a rush :-(.
#7 — Primary Cafe
399 Royal Parade
Parkville
Even though it’s not technically in the CBD, you can’t use that as an excuse for not dropping in to this wonderful cafe. It takes no effort (or time) to jump on a tram and be electromagnetically transported here. In fact, it’s so close to the tram stop that we managed to stay dry even though it was pouring with rain.
Apparently it’s not uncommon (thumbs-up for double-negatives) for somewhat well known people to drop in here. I say “somewhat” because while we were sitting down enjoying our flat whiles, Dan noticed somebody walk through the door, and it wasn’t a stunning blonde :-P.
“Hey, look who just walked in the door!” - Dan
“A person with hair?” — I asked.
“You know, Robert Harvey!” - Dan
“Who?” - Me
Apparently I’m pretty out of the loop because I have no idea who he is. Dan reckons he’s some footballer or something!
“Football, what’s that?” — I should have said. 
So if you’re like Dan and can recognise famous(ish) people walk through doors, then this place is for you :-)
Anyway, we ordered flat whites and pulled up seats at the large communal table. We had pretty high expectations since this is the home of Erin Sampson — an apparently well know latte artist. Even though she was away at a latte art competition, our coffees certainly weren’t lacking art! Here’s a photo of one of the coffees that Dan had. I wish I could pour tulips like that!
These guys use Veneziano beans, and I really enjoyed the coffee that I had here. Veneziano itself gave us slightly better tasting shots, but they were all single origins. I wish that could go into further detail about the flavours in all of the coffees we drank while in Melbourne. But my memory is getting bad in my old age (that’s a joke, laugh here). I’ll definetely be taking a notebook on my next coffee crawl!
Primary just keeps pumping out brilliantly made coffee that not only tastes great but has awesome artage. There’s only one or two cafes in Tasmania (that I know of) that are around this standard! It’s a cool place to chill out with friends over a coffee and some lunch. The interior is modern & funky and the food tastes amazing and is still reasonable priced. This place is definitely worth the short tram ride out of town!
Stay tuned to find out what the next six must visit cafes are. If you agree, disagree, or have something else to say, it’d be legendary of you to leave some comments below. It’d be great to hear what you have to say!
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Ahoy thar!
We went to Primary once – very funky inside. Elly says try the chocolate crepes! Primary gets a huge amount of business from Ridley College (a bible college) just near by. I grew up at Ridley!
Anyway, our friend Joel just proposed to his girlfriend there… the staff brought out an array of coffees each with a letter of the phrase “will you marry me?”. Much kudos to Joel, as well as Primary for playing along!
That’s very awesome! Did she have to prove that she could drink them all before he would marry her?
Oh, and cool gravatar Stu.
Love that tulip! I used to live in Brunswick when my Dad went to Ridley, so might have to go visit this place when we’re in melbourne. Might even have a chocolate crepe – sounds awesome!
Nice post, humf — thanks for pointing out the jokes, or I mightn’t've realised.