Poolhouse Coffee

Luke Taylor and Jen Nguyen are the owners of Poolhouse Coffee beneath the Melbourne City Baths.

It’s particularly a win for RMIT students, who only have a few cafes on campus.

Poolhouse doesn’t have a full menu, but there are a couple of ready-made lunch options, including Vietnamese baguettes filled with crispy pork or lemongrass chicken or rice-paper rolls. There are also cronuts, doughnuts and sweet pastries from Rustica Sourdough.

Taylor designed the space with his furniture and art company Interspace. The process wasn’t easy; the steel chairs took seven prototypes to get right and two weeks to bend into shape – which Taylor did himself.

Take a seat at the marble brew bar, or at the banquettes surrounded by palm fronds if you have more time to spare.