After selling Liar Liar to St. Ali in early 2009, Nolan Hirte opened this excellent cafe in the back streets of Collingwood.

Nolan and his team are set up with some ridiculous toys. There’s a syphon bar, an army of grinders housing a variety of blends and single origins (all from 5 Senses), a little one-kilo roaster they use to produce small batches for the cafe, as well as a Clover.

But the crown jewel of the coffee toys here is the six-group custom-made Synesso espresso machine. This thing is a bus. Synesso has taken two of their three-groups and melded them together and topped it off with chrome and wooden finishes as well as a foot peddle-operated steam wand. Madness.

The space doesn’t feel very Collingwood: it’s very slick and shiny, and being just off Smith Street, the likelihood is that this place will accelerate the gentrification of the strip now well underway thanks to places like Cavallero, Boire and The Panama Dining Room. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing or not. Either way, we strongly suggest you get down to Proud Mary and check it out.

Proud Mary

172 Oxford Street Collingwood

(03) 9417 5930

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