Ona Coffee

Ona Coffee’s Sydney outpost in Marrickville is unlike its popular Canberra venues – The Cupping Room, Ona Fyshwick, Ona Manuka, and Highroad. Those are brunch first, coffee second; here it’s all about the coffee.

Whether you enjoy your coffee white, black or filtered, there’s multiple coffee blends, of various styles and origins, on offer. Ona Marrickville also has a working list of premium-reserve coffees, available to taste by the glass. These have also been roasted and aged to a point where the coffee essence is at its best, before being vacuum-sealed into individual doses and frozen.

The minimalist but warm space – aided by matcha-green paint and a healthy dose of natural sunlight – ensures the coffee does all the talking, too.

The only things standing between you and the baristas are a long plywood island table – which doubles up as a seated bar – and the baristas’ work bench where their tools are lined in a row, including a striking black San Remo coffee machine, coffee bean dispensers and Hario V60 coffee makers.

Given coffee is the focus, the food menu is short, but that’s not to say it hasn’t been carefully considered. There are dishes such as a citrus house-cured kingfish smorrebrod with lemon aioli, pickles, capers, boiled egg and rye; and avocado with a poached egg, activated-charcoal labneh and a house-made togarashi (spice blend) on rye.

For something on the sweeter side, there’s the rye waffle with rhubarb, orange mascarpone, walnuts and maple, as well as Short Stop doughnuts and Butterbing cookies.

While the cafe operates as a daytime espresso bar out front, out back there’s a dedicated barista training room. It’s used mostly for wholesale training, but is also open to anyone wanting to learn barista skills – from basic to advanced – and even latte art.