Six To Try: New Melbourne Cafes (And a Cart) Doing Something Different

Mary’s, Collingwood

Mary Akindele of Sam’s Cafe in St Kilda always had an itch to open a venue with Nigerian food and drink. After years running her own supper clubs and experimenting with flavours, she’s brought that vision to Collingwood.

“There’s a lot of traditional elements, but I don’t eat Nigerian food all the time so I want to make it accessible for people, and show what it means and looks like to me,” she says.

The menu features classics such as fried plantains and jollof rice, alongside dishes with Mary’s own take on Nigerian flavours, such as focaccia filled with stracciatella, honey and obe ata din din (a stew made with tomato, capsicum and onion. Breakfast and lunch are served daily, with dinner available Friday and Saturday.

Drinks include single-origin batch brews from Locale Coffee Roasters, hot chocolate, chai and Mary’s own alcoholic take on zobo (a refreshing hibiscus drink usually made at home) and the Chapman (a non-alcoholic cocktail served in bars, made with a soft drink, grenadine syrup and Angostura bitters).

Ryu

You’ll find cousins Saliha Kirca and Reyhan Adalar whisking and stirring at this cold brew matcha cart each weekend throughout Melbourne’s markets. Inspired by their own children, born in the Year of the Dragon, Ryu (“dragon” in Japanese) is all sweet, with a menu of dessert-style matcha and cold brew drinks.

The cousins make everything from syrups, foams and toppings themselves, and all matcha (ceremonial grade and sourced from Kagoshima) is whisked to order. The hazelnut bueno matcha, vanilla sea salt cold brew matcha, and strawberry pudding matcha (matcha, cold foam and homemade strawberry pudding) are the usual sell outs. Watch Instagram for updates on market schedules.

Tone, North Melbourne and Prahran

Coffee has been part of Caleb Cha’s life for nearly two decades. In 2015 he won the World Latte Art Championship, has been judging competitions since 2017 and now puts his experience to work at his roastery and cafe, Tone Coffee in North Melbourne and Prahran.

People usually come, or come back for, the Tiger Bomb (inspired by an Old Fashioned cocktail), an iced espresso drink finished with cream and a touch of orange zest. It took three months of testing to perfect. “One, the espresso flavour had to be strong. Two, the ice had to maintain its body. Three, every element had to be perfectly balanced,” Chua says.

There’s also a small, well curated, rotating pastry section of almond croissants, banana tarts and friands from Austro Bakery.

Groove, Abbotsford

From morning to night across Vietnam, cafes (some up to four stories high) are filled with people sharing tables or sitting alone.

“It’s something very unique that we really love,” Quoc Bao Truong says. “As Gen Z Vietnamese, we don’t often get the chance to go back and see our families or friends. We wanted to recreate that feeling of connection and nostalgia.”

Truong, with friends Thi My Ngoc Vo and Hoang Duong Pham, opened Groove in Abbotsford last month. There’s plenty of room to sit – on low stools, high chairs or bean bags.

On the drinks menu, you’ll find Vietnamese faves like ca phe trung (egg coffee) and ca phe sua da (strong drip coffee with condensed milk). Beyond the basics, try the hojicha matcha (matcha plus cold-whisked hojicha foam), cheese cloud matcha (cold-whisked matcha with cheese foam on top) or the London Fog (Earl Grey tea matcha). Everything is whisked to order using ceremonial grade matcha. Drinks are usually enjoyed with a slice of housemade Basque cheesecake or a buttery garlic-cheese scroll.

Daly’s, West Brunswick

There were talks of what the empty brick building on the bend of one of Brunswick's West main roads would turn into. Since June, Gus Switala (previously of Thanks Coffee and Reece Starkey officially reopened it as Daly’s. Here, savoury highlights include a creamy herbed chicken sandwich (with caramelised onions, cheese and salad), or $10 smashed avocado with Meredith’s goat cheese. Coffee is from Allpress, and there’s a new housemade cake each week. Previously we’ve seen blueberry lemon loaf, chocolate olive oil cake and flourless mandarin cake.

Kopcha, Nunawading

A kopitiam is a Malaysian coffee shop. And “cha” means “tea” in Mandarin. Together, it’s Kopcha , a Nunawading cafe by Melissa Ma and Ivy Wong. You’ll find Malaysian and Hong Kong-inspired dishes like Laksa Crabby Spaghetti (fried softshell crab, spaghetti and chilli-coconut laksa sauce), roti canai and kaya toast. There’s an extensive drinks list including the Salted Malay Iced Kopi (coconut, gula melaka and a pinch of salt) and Milo Dinosaur (milo, condensed milk and evaporated milk over ice).