Hop Cafe

Husband-and-wife team April and Nelson Chen, and friend Yvette Lin, opened Hop Cafe with a clear vision: great coffee, showcasing Western Australian roasters. And while Victoria Park Central isn’t the most obvious setting for a specialty coffee spot, this is one of the best places in Perth to sample WA’s healthy coffee roasting scene.

April is the cafe’s barista, while Lin produces dessert that is thoughtfully paired to the coffee, and Nelson works back-of-house. The trio’s previous careers in graphic design and architecture have inspired the shop’s minimalist and monochromatic design.

Roasters rotate monthly, with four single-origin beans on deck that can be brewed in any method you like – cold brew, batch brew, pour-over or espresso. Hop also offers tasting flights, so you can try the full spectrum of flavour possible from a single bean. Featured roasters might include Osborne Park’s Micrology, or Hop’s own single-origin coffees roasted by Pound Coffee in O’Connor. You can also purchase any of the beans or brew methods to replicate the experience at home.

To complement the coffee tasting flight, Lin has created a matched dessert menu. For example, you might pair an Earl Grey teacake with matcha frosting with the Ethiopian bean’s black tea tasting notes.

There’s also a small selection of desserts in the cabinet, plus savoury items like croissants, bagels and a couple of Taiwanese-inspired creations: a sandwich with house-made pork sausage patty, fluffy egg, pork floss and salad, and a flaky Taiwanese-style sausage roll.