Seven New Coffee Shops To Try This Summer

Assembly, North Melbourne

Behind a warehouse roller door in North Melbourne you’ll find beloved Carlton coffee shop Assembly’s second location. The new site also functions as a cellar door for non-alc label Tina, founded by Assembly co-owner Christina Trabucco and her cousin Imogen Hayes. 

At the new shop, the team serves coffee, tea, cans of Tina and pastries from South Melbourne bakery Austro. Plus, a signature drinks line-up that includes shan cha (mountain tea from Taiwan) and the Dunkaccino, a half filter coffee, half hot chocolate drink inspired by the discontinued Dunkin’ drink immortalised by Al Pacino in the film Jack and Jill.

Standing Room, Carlton

Standing Room’s new Dion Hall-designed Carlton coffee shop is just a six-minute walk from the brand’s first location, which opened inside Melbourne University’s Union House in 2013. A highlight is the seasonal shrub, which typically comes two ways. This summer, there’s mango shrub that comes served with soda water or topped with vanilla cream. There’s also self-serve cold brew on tap, and exceptional espresso drinks made with beans roasted by the Standing Room team. There are also fresh sandwiches, house-baked cookies and pastries from Wild Life Bakery.

Sabi Sounds, Hawthorn

Sabi Sounds, the new Glenferrie coffee shop from the Bar Selecta team, blends elements of a cafe, bar and record store. There are cafe mainstays including espresso drinks, iced lattes and matcha. But the more creative specialty drinks, designed by former Flower Drum bartender Joey Tai and saké sommelier Masaki Hisaike, are the main reason to visit. The Jazzy, for example, sees a velvety bittersweet base of cold brew coffee, hojicha and mandarin oleo (syrup) topped with mandarin-and-mango cream and garnished with dried coconut, mango and sprinkles. Then there’s the Slow Jam, a Mont Blanc riff that swaps the typical orange zest for the bright, tangy lift of freeze-dried strawberries. The late-night coffee shop also has Korean baked goods including salt bread, sweet-savoury matcha macadamia cookies, and bread rolls with fillings such as potato with egg or tuna with corn, as well as parfaits made with Kariton ice-cream. Plus, there’s a curated selection of second-hand vinyls available for purchase, and a room of individual listening stations with turntables and headphones, where guests are invited to relax and play from an 800-strong library of records.

Gardener’s Apothecary, St Kilda

Head down the colourful laneway behind St Kilda’s Space2b Hub – an art and design social enterprise – and you’ll find The Gardener’s Apothecary. The new cafe is the work of Kemi Dradi, who also founded Astral African Market for Black-owned businesses. Coffee beans come from Saazaa, and there’s a plant-based menu that includes veggie toasties and vegan pastries. There are DJ sets from Thursdays to Saturdays, and the cafe hosts a number of pop-up markets and community events throughout the year.

Attakai, CBD and Carlton

Newcomer Attakai has opened two new spots: one inside Collins Arcade in the CBD, and another on Bouverie Street in Carlton. Whisked-to-order matcha sourced from Shizuoka and Uji is served with a selection of changing syrups, which currently include strawberry, blueberry, mango and dragon fruit, is the focus of both stores. But there are also specialty coffee drinks including a kome latte (espresso with rice milk) and shirō (jasmine tea with grape-infused cold brew). Plus, there’s an impressive sando section including a wafu steak sando with provolone, parmesan, mashed potato and mild wasabi aioli; and a tofu kinoko sando of panko-covered tofu, sauteed mushrooms, salad and truffle aioli.

JDV, Prahran

JDV, which stands for joie de vivre, first launched as an online ceramic store in 2019. In November, founders Hang Wei Chin, Qinze Wu and Benji Tang (ex-Bench), opened the brand’s first physical store on High Street in Prahran. It’s split into three rooms – The Kitchen, The Living Room and The Scent Library – and is designed to feel like a real home. Each room filled with ceramics suited to its space. The store is also part coffee shop, so you can order hojicha lattes, the signature Joie de Vivre (cold brew, pineapple sencha tea and matcha cream foam), and a number of teas all served in ceramics that you can also purchase. Plus, there are house-made treats including purin (Japanese custard pudding), which comes in three flavours – cheese, matcha and black sesame – all topped with a bittersweet caramel sauce, and three kinds of cookies: peanut butter chocolate chip, double chocolate with walnuts, and pistachio and berries.

Additional reporting by Irene Zhang