Auction Rooms in North Melbourne - awarded Melbourne’s best coffee last night - yet owner Andrew Kelly couldn’t attend: he was in Guatemala buying coffee beans. What’s so good about the place, anyway? Well, coffee aside for a moment, it’s as much film set as cafe, with its conversation pit and lab-like filter bar and its various nooks all apparently cobbled together from leftover building materials. There’s drama in the galley kitchen, too, where head chef Danusak Sawansak and his crew turn out cafe food that is sensitive to season and provenance, and in the big central bar where a three-group Synesso Hydra works steadily from shutters up to lockdown. But the Auction Rooms engine room is a couple of blocks away in a semi-refitted warehouse down a bluestone North Melbourne laneway, where owner Andrew Kelly and his roaster, Caleb Heaney, spend three to four days a week roasting their way through the sacks of green beans in countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, where Kelly travelled last year. The roasted beans, under the Small Batch label, go into French press, pourover, syphon and espresso brews, and to discerning cafes and kitchens all over town. Auction Rooms also offers a cold brew made in a french press and then put through two pourover filters before it is chilled.
Seven Seeds in Carlton, which was reviewed 30 times by Coffee Army volunteers
Very shortly a crack team from the Coffee Army will hunker down in a bunker at The Age and pore over the data from what has been an enormous survey.
The result of that night’s discussion will determine the major awards in the Coffee Army’s search for Melbourne’s best coffee for 2011-2012 and will be top secret until announced at a gala awards night in February.
Until then, though, here is a snapshot of the survey:
* Over 150 individual reviewers…
* Over six months in the making…
* Hundreds of suburbs and towns visited, including Bairnsdale, Blairgowrie, Bulleen, Diamond Creek, Echuca, Ferntree Gully, Fountain Gate, Forest Hill, Glenlyon, Leongatha, Portarlington, Rosanna, Spotswood, Strathmore and Woodend…
* More cafe-heavy suburbs received hundreds of visits: Melbourne CBD (over 450 visits); St Kilda/East St Kilda (over 200); Brunswick/Brunswick East (over 70); South Yarra (over 60); South Melbourne (120); Richmond (85)…
* Over 1000 different cafes visited, from A Cup of Truth in the city to Zous in Burwood…
* Most prolific reviewers got to more than 50 cafes each including Michael C (137); Mathew C (54); Christine E (91); Vanessa F (62); Caroline G (113); Collette G (71); Leila G (67); Peter L (168); Angus S (83); Steven S (107) and many more…
* Cafes received multiple visits: Seven Seeds (30 visits); Proud Mary (32 visits); Market Lane (52 visits); BBB (37 visits) and more…
In February we will announce the top coffee in Melbourne and a range of other awards… stay tuned
Coming soon… the first Coffee Army coffee blend. We’re visiting the Social Roasting Company this Thursday to experiment with our own custom roast. Places for the tasting are filled but we’ll be sending all active members of the Army a sample bag of beans… update soon
So… The Army has just passed the 1500 mark. That. Is. Incredible. A huge thank you to everybody who has contributed - promotions on the way shortly! More updates in your inbox. Amazingly, our goal to rate every cafe in Melbourne seems achievable. As is a well researched verdict on Melbourne’s best coffee. Who will take the prize, we wonder…
N. K.’s verdict on Liar Liar in Hawthorn…
This is a consistently good cafe, which I rate as one of the area’s best. The coffee is smooth with high-toned caramel notes and nice persistency. It could be hotter. The service and food is first rate. The vibe and atmosphere is cruisy and relaxed. A clover coffee is available in a brandy balloon for those who like a delicate, aromatic, spicy, new-wave experience. The music features wax on turntable and the mixed customers of uni students, local workers and residents of all ages seem to cohabit the moody space with good grace. There are banquettes, a communal table and Emeco 111 Navy Chairs. Never less than 14/20 coffee. Three of the four dailies, no AFR and no magazines - alas. I like this place.
Note: this is a snapshot opinion of one visit from one Coffee Army member. Micro reviews and scores may or may not represent overall Coffee Army opinion on individual coffee outlets