More than one cup to savour

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This was published 13 years ago

More than one cup to savour

Odds-on favourites ... patrons at the Kinfolk Cafe.

Odds-on favourites ... patrons at the Kinfolk Cafe.Credit: Simon Schluter

Ahead of the big race, Melbourne sceptic Amy Cooper goes in search of the city's heart.

IN EVERY sense, Melbourne has always left me cold. While having my suntan blasted off by Antarctic southerlies, I've pronounced the city austere, remote and immune to exuberance, its black-clad back turned snootily towards the frivolous north.

I've made fun of the things that charm Melbourne fans, such as the overworked grunge aesthetic best described by a friend thus: "It's as if Sydney had a council collection and Melbourne picked up."

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And don't the cities' Luna Park entrances speak volumes? Sydney's: a rosy-cheeked, jovial, grinning bloke. Melbourne's: a gaunt, pale creature with mouth frozen in an anguished roar, mid-audition for the gig as gateway to the third circle of hell. Behold the Melbourne face of fun.

Yet my loved ones love Melbourne. Some even live there. My partner fancies a romantic trip. As it seems Melbourne and I are to be family, we must reconcile.

Culture is where you should begin, Melburnians say, and I check into The Olsen, part of a new phenomenon of "art hotels" in the city's south. There are three so far and the promise of more; first came Prahran's The Cullen late last year, then South Yarra's The Olsen a few months ago. The Blackman recently opened on St Kilda Road.

The hotels, owned by the local, art-loving Deague family, immerse you in the artist's work and life; John Olsen's vivid outdoor colours and wildlife images infuse The Olsen's airy spaces. A six-metre mural dominates the lobby, 600 of his prints (and eight originals) are spread around, with at least two in each of the 229 suites, and frogs - one of his favourite motifs - appear everywhere, from sculptures to bedside chocolates.

I take a ride in the hotel's Olsen-decorated Smart car to The Cullen and find an even brighter, bolder palette sizzling with Adam Cullen's wit and irreverence. The brash, angry cartoon horses, cows and donkeys - as well as a gun-toting Ned Kelly - splashed throughout the public spaces are a joyous two fingers to every bland lobby painting you've never noticed. The Cullen makes you stare, then smile.

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If I'm to eat my words about Melbourne, the art hotels are a hefty starter. They're all light and warmth; fun-filled antidotes to solemn galleries. Simultaneously posh and playful, they encourage you to luxuriate in the art, wrapped in decadences such as The Olsen's 15th-floor glass-bottomed swimming pool or the sumptuous Art Series signature beds. Little quotes encourage you to eat, drink, relax and make merry. And there's not a speck of grunge to be seen.

Every morning, locals indulge another passion at Outpost, a new cafe a few blocks from The Olsen. "Melbourne people love their breakfast very much," says the head chef and co-owner, Paul Jewson. "We have blogs devoted only to breakfast."

As Jewson sautes mushrooms, I peer over his shoulder. Anyone can. Outpost is one big kitchen - no back or front of house. You pull up a stool among the produce and pans and eat as if you're at mum's. But what I'm really here to see is in the corner: a gleaming machine tended by a barista named Sam. It is a Japanese syphon, part of the paraphernalia of Melbourne's most intriguing current culinary obsession: the Third Wave of coffee.

As he reverently prepares a Tanzanian light roast with floral-citrus notes, Jewson says: "It's all about exploring the bean."

Third Wave moves beyond blends and lattes (that's so Second Wave) and treats beans - often single origin - as fruit, like grapes in wine, using methods that preserve their unique flavour profiles. It allows you, apparently, to "read your coffee like a book".

Part religion, part mad science, Third Wave has its own lore. Tasting is "cupping". Froth, plastic and mugs frighten Third Wavers like Sam, who is busy "controlling the variables" in my glass. He inspects the grounds and finds them to his liking: "a nice tight, even dome".

Craving caffeine, I grab but he stops me. "If you taste it too hot, you won't experience the finer flavours."

Some cities would consign Third Wave to the fringes of culinary esotericism but in Melbourne it has captured public imagination. Hell, it's even in David Jones; its Sensory Lab white-coated staff guide curious punters through tastes, aromas and brewing methods to discover their personal coffee "flavour profile". I'm hypnotised by the Cold Drip Brewer, which releases a drip of water every two seconds. Your cuppa could take eight hours but will be in its purest form, assures Sensory Lab manager Alyssia.

Pilgrim-style, I seek the Third Wave's birthplace. This being Melbourne, it's a laneway: Yarra Place, in South Melbourne, home of St Ali; importer, roaster, purveyor and champion of Third Wave coffees. Here, in a cafe and surrounding warehouses, are sacks of Ethiopian, El Salvadorian, Guatemalan and Kenyan beans and a fearsome-looking espresso machine named The Slayer. This one was the world's first model and belongs - as do St Ali, Outpost and Sensory Lab - to Third Wave's high priest, restaurateur Salvatore Malatesta. Malatesta's devotion to specialty coffee is borderline fanatical. He trains his baristas as Jedis of the brewing arts and encourages them to face off in coffee-making public "smackdown" comps. When I visit, he's just bought an undisclosed amount of single-estate Honduran beans for $45 a kilo (average coffee price is $3 a kilo). "It's the best," he says simply. It's this attitude that's helped Malatesta make Melbourne a global Third Wave coffee authority. "When we travel overseas, we're treated like royalty in coffee circles," he says.

Inspired and caffeinated, I try a new Cafe and Culture tour led by Hidden Secrets Tours' Fiona Sweetman. Sweetman knows where Melbourne's heart is and she has promised to share. She takes me straight to the new Kinfolk Cafe in Bourke Street's beautiful old Gothic, heritage-listed Donkey Wheel House. Here, a collective of young people uses coffee for good, redirecting profits into four charity projects - two African, two local. When you buy a coffee, you choose where your money goes by placing a coffee bean in the jar of your chosen charity.

Cheeringly, Kinfolk has been packed for its first five weeks. Such kind, clever projects flourish across Melbourne, Sweetman says, but they don't scream for attention. Look a little and you'll find them. "This is a city of layers," she says. "If you're a surface dweller, it can seem just another town. You have to ask questions."

So, I keep peeling back those layers and beneath each discover something innovative and fun. I dine at the just-renovated Middle Park Hotel and marvel at what owner Julian Gerner and his architects at Six Degrees have done with the 1889 building; oak and maple panels from the old MCC Long Room line a gracious, red-carpeted dining room where two British superstar chefs, Paul Wilson and David Marshall, whip up robust, gastropub dishes.

The formerly impossible happens; I extend my stay in Melbourne to see more cool new things: the gorgeous Isika Spa at the new Crown Metropol hotel, the almost illegally delicious new dessert bar at star pastry chef Philippa Sibley's Il Fornaio in St Kilda and the new 24 Moons Bar on ACDC Lane, where cocktails are based on the moon's phases.

Sweetman is right: this city rewards inquisitiveness. Melbourne won't dance with you unless you ask nicely. But once you start, you'll be boogying away like me - the Melbourne convert already planning return adventures.

But there's still the romantic weekend. Can Melbourne deliver?

It goes like this: noon toast with Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs at Juliet's Champagne Bar in the GPO Building; dinner at South Yarra's intimate, old-world French restaurant France Soir; then, a club spa suite in the opulent Langham Hotel, where my boyfriend presents me with a little box containing the key to his house. Now that's romance.

We laugh, because against the odds, Melbourne has become our Paris. It took a while but this tricky old city has given me its key, too.

BEST OF CUP WEEK

FROCK up and get hatted for top events during the Melbourne Cup's 150th anniversary week.

Photo Finish is a free photography portrait exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Cup. Snapped up close are the horses, breeders, fashionistas and colourful racing identities. Daily at the Atrium at Crown, Southbank, until November 7.

Take afternoon tea and peruse milliner Richard Nylon's creations on display in the Langham Hotel lobby. A free glass of sparkling for every hatted guest, 1 Southgate Avenue, Southbank.

Trackside too hectic? Crown Riverside's Carnival Live is a garden party site on Southbank with betting and bars, giant screens, DJs, "fashion moments" and free beauty treatments in the L'Oreal Paris powder room, open noon-9pm, daily until November 7.

Sharpen your stilettos and prepare to jostle at the eastern end of the public lawn at Flemington for the best view of Myer's Fashions on the Field, with a $90,000 Lexus up for grabs. On Derby Day (October 30), Cup Day (November 2) and Oaks Day (November 4).

Hottest hangs include a Cup morning champagne brekky at Shannon Bennett's Cafe Vue for $55 a head, (03) 9691 3888; and Albert Park Hotel's public bars , cnr Montague Street & Dundas Place, Albert Park. Cashed-up clubbers will be seen at Rogue dance party at Billboard nightclub, 170 Russell Street, Melbourne.

Trip notes

Getting there

Virgin Blue, Tiger and Jetstar offer steeply discounted Sydney-Melbourne fares for as little as $14.

Staying there

The Olsen has B&B deals from $239 a night for two. Reservations also for The Cullen and The Blackman at artserieshotels.com.au.

The Langham Melbourne is offering advance-purchase deals that give a 15 per cent discount on bookings made 30 days ahead. melbourne.langhamhotels.com.au.

See + do

Isika at the Crown Metropol is also open to non-residents. Booking can be made at crownmetropol.com.au/isika.

Book a Hidden Secrets Coffee and Cafe Culture Tour at hiddensecretstours.com.

Discover the Third Wave coffee trail at stali.com.au.

Sample Melbourne's cycling culture with a stylish mount ridden to you — helmet included — by Matt Hurst, owner of the Humble Vintage. thehumblevintage.com.

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