Bocelli Café has a long association with the local residents of Adelaide, but when it comes to coffee quality, Café Co-Owner Davide La Scala says he and his team are ready to “up the ante”.
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@Panache
Mother and daughter team Jenna and Michele Stummer are changing the lunchtime eating habits of office workers in Perth’s CBD. Through their boutique-style café in the newly renovated Mill Green Plaza, the Stummers are providing fresh, healthy options, which, according to Michele, are unlike anything else in the area.
“I had a café in the plaza prior to its renovations and when I decided to open @Panache, I wanted to offer something a bit different,” says Michele. “Then my daughter came on board and shifted the focus to the vibrant, ever-changing café it is today.”
While best known as a lunchtime drop-in, @Panache was designed to showcase its warm, comfortable and upmarket appeal. Its ample indoor and outdoor seating make it the go-to place for respite for busy corporate folk in need of a meal or a good coffee.
“Since our trade has increased over 100 per cent in the last 12 months, our coffee offering has been a huge area of growth,” says Michele. “Coffee is now a core part of the business.”
Created on a Kees van der Westen three-group machine, @Panache serves Toby’s Estate’s Black Swan blend, which was created for the Western Australia palate. “The Black Swan blend is sweet and clean with the taste of stone fruit when served black,” says Michele. “As a milk-based coffee it gives off notes of butterscotch and dried apricots.”
While Michele gets busy behind the coffee machine and front of house, Jenna runs the kitchen. “Before we re-opened we consulted a nutritionist who talked us through our menu options,” says Michele. “We’ve come up with a ‘living menu’ that changes daily. Everything is prepared in store each day with lots of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.”
Michele says one of the café’s signature dishes is the almond bircher muesli, made fresh daily on-site. It contains traditional oats, nuts, dried fruit, maple syrup, and vanilla bean, soaked in fresh almond milk.
“Perth is definitely on board the healthy eating trend,” says Michele. “I love the café, I enjoy getting in everyday and seeing the business grow. It’s especially nice to know that we’re making a change to people’s eating habits.”
Fresh St@rt Organic Cafe
Fresh St@rt is devoted to serving coffee with a sustainable ethos. In 2014, the café won Fairtrade’s Café of the Year.
“It was totally unexpected,” says Owner Yvens Ferraz De Camargo.
Yvens has been working in the coffee industry for the past 25 years. He first worked as a computer programmer at RMIT University before going back to hospitality, where his passion lies. “I knew I wanted to do start a business with a social conscience, one with compassion and humanity. And so we opened this café on 19 June 2014 and started serving organic and Fairtrade coffee,” Yvens says.
Fresh St@rt was only open a few months when Yvens saw the advertisement for Fairtrade Café of the Year. He put an application in and forgot about it. Within a few weeks the organisers rang to say: “Why aren’t you promoting your nomination?” With just 24 hours to go until public voting closed, Yvens got to work and built awareness of the caffé’s campaign. “We put notices up on social media, told people in person and just spread the word. I didn’t believe in the power of Facebook, but now I do,” says Yvens.
The next day when he checked his emails at 5pm and saw the results. “I couldn’t believe it. We were announced Fairtrade Café of the year for Australia and New Zealand,” he says.
As the winner, Yvens was invited to meet Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop to accept the award, and he met with former Victorian Premier Denis Napthine. Fresh St@rt has three San Mario Lisa three-group machines and four Gino Rossi grinders on standby. It serves Jasper Coffee’s Café Femenino blend, and sources single origins from Ethiopia, Brazil, Honduras and East Timor. Fresh St@rt also serves cold drip and iced lattes. “After my 25 years in the industry, Jasper Coffee’s Wells [Trendfield] is showing me new things all the time. His attention to detail is remarkable and he’s a great example of a coffee company that’s got a sustainable conscience in the coffee they use, and in what they give back to coffee communities,” says Yvens.
Yvens has seen first hand coffee farms in Brazil and the deforestation in the Amazon, which greatly influenced his decision to support Fairtrade. “Some coffee farmers earn just $20 a month and many are fifth generation farmers. I’m a firm believer in karma. If we can make coffee with a conscience we can make a difference in the end,” he says.
Fresh St@rt has its fair amount of competition in the area, but Yvens says it stands out for its fair prices, personal service, and character. The coffee house is made from a recycled container. Everything is biodegradable and features a 180-year-old red gum bench. “We wanted to use recycled materials and make it looks as visually appealing as we could,” he says.
The coffee house embraces a community vibe with an outdoor ping pong table and art space nearby.
Campos Coffee Dulwich Hill
In the inner western Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill, residents and coffee enthusiasts have good reason to be excited. In late November 2014, Campos Coffee opened the doors to its newest company store.
To officially open its third flagship store in Sydney, Campos Coffee hosted a special media launch event where Campos Coffee President Will Young introduced the newest addition to the thriving specialty coffee scene.
“Everyone is asking: ‘what makes this new shop so different? What makes this shop special?’” Will says. “Clearly, the space itself is a new level in design for us. It is a fresh, new-look space, which maintains the professionalism of our brand.”
Will says there was no stone left unturned in the installation of the new store. “We looked at everything. The lighting is stunning and varied. The wood mosaic on the bench took many painstaking days to create and assemble. We have even addressed sound with acoustic panelling throughout the store. It was a lot of work by our whole team and we are thrilled by the final result.”
Will is adamant, however, that the new-look flagship store is not only special because it looks different, but because it retains the same values and qualities of the current flagship stores.
“The Dulwich Hill store has the same baristas, the same exciting coffees, the same commitment to consistency and service, the same handmade croissants from our own Rosetta Stone Bakery… the list goes on,” says Will. “We have a core formula across the whole country, which has always been committed to quality, and we never want to change anything about it.”
What’s unique is that many of the original Campos Coffee regular customers from their first store in Newton, NSW have moved to Dulwich Hill as their circumstances changed.
“The originals who used to come to Newtown in 2002 with their puppies and babies are showing up to the Dulwich Hill store with their old dogs and teenagers,” says Will. “They’ve moved to the area as their families have grown and they need more space. These customers mean the world to us. They’ve grown with us, and to be able to see them on an everyday basis again is very special indeed.”
The Dulwich Hill flagship store house blend is Campos Coffee’s Superior blend, which is served from a four-group La Marzocco Linea PB, and a two-group La Marzocco Strada. Campos Coffee has been serving this same award-winning blend since its inception 13 years ago.
“Our company cumulatively spends over 365 days at origin each year working with our producing partners and sourcing much of the finest coffees in the world,” says Will.
The new Dulwich Hill operation also boasts a selection of single origins. There is always a Cup of Excellence-winning coffee available. In February, the lucky locals will be able to taste the overall winner of the 100th Cup of Excellence competition from Brazil – Fazenda Ouro Verde. This is a coffee that was awarded a clear 100 score from the Head Judge of the competition, Silvio Liete. This coffee will be prepared through the Strada for a very limited time.
“This new venue is all about delighting and surprising our regulars,” says Will. “We have come a long way over the years, but we would be nothing without our loyal customers.”
Xtreme Caffeine
Just as the café name suggests, everything about this Darwin-based café is done to the extreme. “We take our food and coffee to the extreme, our staff are extreme, and so is our service,” say Co-Owner Naveen Kumar.
Located in an apartment block in Darwin’s bustling business hub, Xtreme Caffeine serves Mocopan Coffee’s Profondo and Tre Campi Fairtrade blends.
“The Profondo blend is dark, rich, and full-bodied coffee to suit our customer’s preferences,” Naveen says.
The Tre Campi Fairtrade uses beans from Minas Gerais in Brazil, San Jorge of Costa Rica, and Chiapas of Mexico. This Fairtrade blend is a true all-rounder, packed with hazelnut fragrance and a spice-clove touch in aroma. It highlights chocolates and spice notes, and with milk it delivers a smooth caramel finish.
Xtreme Caffeine started four years ago and Naveen says Darwin’s coffee scene has been thriving ever since. “People are becoming more educated about good coffee and are drinking more and more,” says Naveen. “We have a strong following of regular customers who come down from nearby offices to enjoy our coffee.”
Those loyal customers got behind Xtreme Caffeine when the café was listed as a finalist in the Café of the Year competition. Competing cafés first had to register, then create a dish on their menu featuring ingredients from the Heinz and Don ranges. Twenty-one regional finalists were selected via public voting.
To match the caffeine options, a gluten-free breakfast and lunch menu is available. “We serve fresh, organic, healthy food that’s made on site,” says Naveen.
One of the cafés favourite menu items is the Extreme breakfast – for “extremely hungry customers”. It contains scrambled eggs, grilled mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans. The breakfast granola is another stand-out with dried and house-roasted nuts. For lunch, try their famous chicken, meat or vegetarian burritos.