When hospitality returns to normal in Melbourne there will be a new addition to their notable coffee scene. Canberra’s very own, ONA Coffee is opening their long-anticipated Melbourne flagship store. The opening runs a little off schedule due to Covid, nevertheless these professionals will open with a bang even under semi-restrictions still in play.
The specialty coffee roasters have played an integral role in putting Canberra on the globe for a good cuppa coffee. The team pioneered ‘Reserve Coffee,’ set the trend for dropping the disposable cup, and made it very well known to the world they house the best baristas and drink award-winning coffee cocktails for breakfast. On top of all that, they are lovers of the industry as a whole, with programs in place to take care of coffee bean farmers and a constant move towards making the industry sustainable.
ONA Coffee Melbourne will officially open its doors on Thursday, June 11. The store is located on at 22 Ovens Street, Brunswick for both dine-in service and takeaway, beginning with a maximum of 20 patrons inside and adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Founder and CEO of ONA Coffee, Saša Šestić says, “We’re looking to continue a focus on community in this Brunswick venue, and want to make sure that every person that walks through our doors feels that they’re in a space that represents Melbourne and the high standard of coffee the city maintains.”
Designed by Breathe Architecture, the venue has up to 110 seats inside, a deck for outdoor seating and waiting area, a filter experience bar, open plan kitchen, extended retail displays and a training room in an upstairs loft. A large focus has been placed on sustainability, with environmentally-friendly energy and a range of recycled materials being used in the construction and operations. ONA Coffee Melbourne will be managed by two-time Australian Brewers Cup Champion, Devin Loong alongside Three Poplars Consulting, which oversees ONA Coffee’s retail venues across the country.
Following in the style of their other venues in Canberra and Sydney, ONA Coffee Melbourne will be offering a range of ONA Coffee’s house blends and rotating single origins on a menu that focuses on coffee flavour and origin. “The format of how we serve our coffees is a little bit different to what people may be used to, but we’re really excited to share it with Melbourne,” says Devin. “We adopt a simple approach to our daily coffee menu, so instead of ordering based upon the style of coffee such as a latte or flat white, we serve each coffee in one way as either black, milk or filter and let the variance be in the blend, flavour or origin.”
In addition to this daily coffee menu, ONA Coffee Melbourne will also offer a special ‘reserve menu’ of frozen coffee beans. Having opened their Sydney venue, ONA Coffee Sydney with a frozen ‘reserve menu’ in 2018, the offering of frozen coffee beans is now a standard across all of the ONA Coffee venues.
“The reserve menu allows us to take coffee beans that are rare, exciting and that may not be normally served in a cafe and share them with our customers whenever we like,” says Devin. “Vacuum sealing and freezing the beans at low temperature significantly slows down the ageing process, so we don’t have to worry about these coffees getting old, stale and losing their flavour.”
“So what you get instead of a ‘normal’ coffee menu is a menu that reads more like a wine list, broken down by origin and flavour profile. It gives the customer more choice and helps everyone to learn more about where coffee comes from, and what different coffee varietals taste like.”
For more information, visit onacoffeemelbourne.com or @ona.melbourne on Instagram.
