First Look: The Bar Selecta Team Brings Korean and Japanese Cafe Culture to Hawthorn

Sabi Sounds grew out of a simple idea. Take some of the country's best bar talent, and have them shift focus to cafe culture. The Glenferrie Road spot blends elements of a cafe, bar and record store with coffee and specialty non-alcs that co-founder Michael Tan describes as “new wave” cafe drinks.

It comes from the crew behind Bar Selecta, one of the year’s best new openings, founded by a team with impressive pedigree: former Flower Drum bartender Joey Tai, saké sommelier Masaki Hisaike, The Elysian co-owner Kelvin Low, Golden Monkey co-founder Adam Ong and Brand Works’s Michael and Eleena Tan.

There are cafe mainstays including espresso drinks, iced lattes and matcha. But Tai and Hisaike’s expertise and creativity are most prominent in the less conventional drinks. The Jazzy, for example, sees a velvety bittersweet base of cold brew coffee, sweet hojicha and mandarin oleo-saccharum (syrup) topped with mandarin-and-mango cream and garnished with dried coconut, mango and sprinkles. Then there’s the Slow Jam – a “B-side to the Mont Blanc”, as Tan puts it – that swaps the typical orange zest for the bright, tangy lift of freeze-dried strawberries. A forthcoming liquor licence will introduce light, easy-drinking highballs and aperitivi as the days roll into nights.

Open from 7.30am to 6pm on Mondays and Sundays, and 10.30pm every other day, Sabi Sounds takes cues from Japanese and Korean cafe culture, where it’s common for places to stay open well beyond the Melbourne-standard 3pm close time. This influence extends to Korean baked goods including salt bread, sweet-savoury matcha macadamia cookies, and bread rolls with fillings such as potato with egg and tuna with corn, as well as parfaits made with Kariton ice-cream. The bakes are bought wholesale, but plans are underway to set up a kitchen for light sandos and Japanese snacks.

The team also wants Sabi Sounds to be a space for connection and community. There are plans to host DJ sets, artist launches with Mushroom Records, and livestream performances – an initiative inspired by NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and fashion brand Aime Leon Dore’s Sound series. 

The sound system is anchored by two 50-year-old JBL speakers imported from Japan, and a Linn Sondek LP12 turntable spinning tracks spanning soul, funk, jazz, disco and more. A retail corner, curated with Scotty Clarke of Vinylrules Music, sells second-hand records, and at the back of the cafe is a cosy, maroon-washed room of listening booths with turntables and headphones where guests are invited to relax and play from an 800-strong library of records. There’ll soon be a record club where people can share, sell and swap vinyl. 

Each season, an artist-in-residence will be invited to bring their distinctive touch to the space. The inaugural artist is Melbourne-based Nani Puspasari, whose music- and cafe-themed paintings can be found throughout the venue.

Next up, the team will join forces with the Kariton team to open Sabi Sounds in Manila in early 2026.

Sabi Sounds
717 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
No phone

Hours:
Tue to Sat 7.30am–10.30pm
Sun & Mon 7.30am–6.00pm

sabisounds.co
@sabisounds.au