First Look: Is Atelier Enso the Future of Melbourne Coffee Shops?

Alicia Feng is one of the most respected figures in Melbourne’s specialty coffee scene. But the World Coffee Championships judge and certified Q Grader insists her new Carlton coffee shop, Atelier Enso, isn’t really about coffee. 

“I hope to have a space where people can relax and I can connect with them,” she says. “I’m a Buddhist, and in the past few years I started to practise more. I feel more need for a peaceful and calm environment for myself, and possibly, for the people around [me] also. There’s more anxiety everywhere. There’s more depression. There’s a lot of problems. I view this [place] as more needed for daily life.”

This desire to slow down and connect informs everything at Atelier Enso, starting with the location. Late last year, Feng, who also founded Calere and co-founded Chiaki, took over the former Vertue Coffee Roasters site at 8 Raffa Place.

To get there, you have to take a very not-calming walk past a Shell petrol station. But when you arrive at the coffee shop, you’re transported to a coffee sanctuary that feels like it’s been stripped from a cosy anime, thanks to washi paper lights, white-painted brick walls, soft wood and stainless-steel finishes and a glass cabinet filled with Swiss rolls and cookies made at the Gaea kitchen.

“It’s very hidden, which means it’s physically already apart from business, apart from noises,” Feng says. “People [who] come here have to know us. You come with a purpose, an intention.” The name is a nod to enso, the hand-drawn circle that’s an important symbol in Zen Buddhism.

Feng also wants her team to slow down and connect with customers, which is why she’s opted for automated coffee machines – something controversial in the specialty coffee scene. “I think 99 per cent [of people] are very sceptical. One per cent want to try but they’re not sure,” she says of others in the industry. But for Feng, using this technology – including Link Bar milk frothers, X Bloom filter coffee machines and Eversys automatic espresso machines – is a way to ensure quality, while affording her team time to connect with customers and mitigate staff burnout.

The Swiss-made Eversys is the same brand of machine that helped propel New York chain Blank Street Coffee from a single location to 90 stores in five years, without needing to hire experienced baristas. It’s also found in service stations and other self-serve environments across Australia. While Sydney’s Beta Coffee uses an Eversys to prepare batches of espresso before opening each day, Atelier Enso is the first independent cafe we’ve seen using it to brew to order. It looks to be the tip of the spear; a blueprint for future Melbourne cafes.

“Normally in a shop you’re physically very tired because you are occupied on the [espresso] machine, so you don’t have a chance to talk to people or actually look after yourself. You’re physically and mentally tired, and once you’re drained, how can you give? It’s impossible,” Feng says. “High technology and automation, especially, really helps us. It frees us physically and it gives you consistency, so it frees your mental stress.”

But it’s not black and white. At Enso, the team uses Eversys machines for the house blend, resulting in impossibly smooth long blacks, and opts for traditional espresso machines when it comes to seasonal blends. There’s less focus on the Chinese coffee beans Feng has become known for at Calere, with the two current seasonal blends – both roasted on-site – originating from Panama and Ethiopia. Once the team is more settled, there are also plans to have pour-over sessions once a week, as well as public and industry sensory training sessions, aimed at sharpening the palate. 

“Wages are high, everything is high, but people are scared to put their prices up. So I feel the cafe industry just gets this pressure. There will be less of us if things continue like that,” she says. “Why are we fighting automation? Technology helps you if you use it well. You free up your own precious energy to do what is more important to yourself and also to the customer.”

Atelier Enso

8 Raffa Place, Carlton

No phone

Hours:

Wed to Sun 7.30am–3.30pm

@atelierenso