Black Squirrel Café

In the beachside suburb of Sandringham in Melbourne, residents now have a reason to be excited about specialty coffee.
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Pakington Pantry

Geelong is home to the town’s beloved Cats football club, and Pakington Pantry. Owners Anne-Maree Dulic and husband and Chef Matthew started the café in November 2013, and the locals have been quick to make the venue a regular pit-stop.

“Every chef’s dream is to open their own venue. Matt has more than 15 years experience as a chef, and we decided the timing was right to open our own place,” says Anne-Maree.

Ironically, the couple grew up in Geelong before moving to the big smoke to pursue work. But as luck would have it, the ideal space came up for sale back in their grassroots town. “Geelong’s coffee scene has developed into a boutique coffee space. It has its own taste of Melbourne culture with cafés now opening in hidden streets and laneways,” says Anne-Maree. “Our aim has been to bring the Melbourne flavour to Geelong, and we’re already getting comments on how our venue – in terms of layout, service food and coffee – is very ‘Melbournised’.”

Adding to that is coffee by DC. “They’ve been a fantastic support. We first tried their coffee at MICE2013, then we had a chat with the team, went to their Preston roastery and really connected with their coffee and personality. Coffee is a partnership and we knew the DC team were the right fit for us,” says Anne-Maree.

Pakington Pantry is the first Geelong customer for DC. They serve the Monsoon blend, DC decaf and a rotating selection of DC single origin coffees through a La Marzocco GB5. A past favourite includes an Elephant Hills Peaberry from India. The Monsoon blend has a medium to full body with a deep dry cocoa and rich toffee flavour and an orange, mandarin zest finish.

Matt is in charge of the modern-Australian menu. A huge all-day breakfast and lunch menu keeps Geelong residents happy, with items including egg benedict, wagu beef and pulled pork burgers, and buck-wheat pancakes. “I quite like being the taste tester who works through Matt’s menu,” says Anne-Maree. “It’s all delicious.”

She is responsible for the café’s interior design, which she describes as “homey”, with wood furnishings and exposed brick walls. “We want people to relax and enjoy the environment. It’s a vibrant space and I love working here,” Anne-Maree says.

Capulus Espresso

Every day Capulus Espresso Owner Daniel Smith walks up Elizabeth St and opens a roller door to reveal a garage. But it’s not a typical space filled with tools or cars, it’s a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop.

Inside, Dan has created an industrial look to fit the garage space, with a timber bench, black walls and cord lights dropping from the ceiling. Capulus Espresso predominately caters to a take-away crowd, with a lot of foot traffic in the area, but Daniel always has a few milk crates out the front for his customers to sit and enjoy their coffee.

“Capulus Espresso is very much a community oriented place. Because the café is literally the width of a roller door, customers get to have a chat and know each other. It’s a very relaxed space,” he says.

Capulus Espresso uses locally roasted Zimmah Coffee for its custom-roast blend. “It’s quite punchy, not very acidic, with notes of chocolate and fruit,” he says. “It’s fairly bold but cuts through milk-based coffees well, and goes great for blacks too.”

For the espresso fans, Capulus Espresso serves its Hobart customers with a variety of rotating single origin coffees from Sensory Lab. A Brazilian coffee from Forquilha do Rio was a past favourite because of its rich, dark chocolate notes.

Daniel established Capulus Espresso in March 2014. He had worked as a chef in Melbourne before moving his family to Hobart five years ago, taking with him a little piece of Melbourne’s coffee culture.

“When I first moved to Hobart the coffee scene was just starting to evolve. Now we’re seeing lots of little boutique roasters and coffee shops opening up all over town,” says Daniel. “I decided to take some inspiration from the Melbourne hole-in-the-wall café scene and bring that to Hobart.”

Daniel may have ditched commercial kitchens for a customised dark grey three-group La Marzocco Linea, which he describes as “an old girl but a good girl”, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love the culture and vibe of working in a café, and the interaction I get with customers each day. It sure beats working in the back of a kitchen,” he says. “The best part is that I get to be involved in people’s lives every day.”