July 2015

May Street Larder

When Australian Olympians Eamon Sullivan, Steve Hooker, and Jamie Dwyer paired up with celebrated Chef Scott Bridger to open May Street Larder in Fremantle, it was bound to draw a crowd. The fact that the group were already pleasing the locals with café Bib and Tucker just across the water in North Fremantle meant Perth residents were even more eager to see what they were up to.

“I think people came in thinking they’d see something similar to Bib and Tucker but really May Street Larder is completely different,” says May Street Larder Head Barista Josh Hathaway. “That bit of expectation from people definitely meant we had to be on our game right from the minute we opened the doors.”

May Street Larder can be found in a residential area, which links the suburbs of Bicton, Palmyra, and North Fremantle.

“We get lots of families coming in,” Josh says. “I think the mums like the fact that we’ll happily make the kids babyccinos, so that they can just relax with a latte.”

Josh says there was never any question what coffee they’d be serving. “When Eamon moved up to Perth from Sydney he was pretty determined to bring Campos Coffee with him,” he says. “He’d been a Campos drinker there for a few years and had become a bit of an advocate.”

Eamon first started serving Campos Coffee at Bib and Tucker, before bringing it along to help build May Street Larder’s reputation. The café serves Campos Coffee’s Superior Blend, in addition to Campos Coffee’s single origins on rotation.

“We’re currently serving the Kenyan Tchakakhan, which is quite currant driven and a little bit citrusy,” Josh says. “It takes people a little bit of getting used to, but when they get it, their eyes light up.”

May Street Larder’s menu is mostly made up of food to suit the health conscious, with a few indulgent deviations.

Josh says the Soul Sandwich, a polenta waffle topped with buttermilk fried chicken, smashed avocado, smoked sour cream, and jalapenos, is a bit of a favourite. “Scott is a bit of a perfectionist and ensures each dish looks absolutely amazing,” Josh says. “Everything is produced in-house. Even the bread is baked here.”

Percy’s Aeroplane Café

When customers walk through the door of Percy’s Aeroplane Café in Kew, Owner Wesley Lim knows they’ve come in for a specific purpose.

“When people visit a café it’s because they’re looking for an experience, maybe it’s a taste experience or maybe it’s just to step away from their busy lives,” Wesley says. “Either way, it’s our aim to make sure that purpose is met for every single customer.”
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Red Berry Espresso

For the cyclist heading into the hills along Greenhill Road in Glenside, a welcome respite can be found in the form of specialty coffee at Red Berry Espresso.

Four years ago Owner Walter D’Addario set up his coffee roastery on L’Estrange Street and began serving – as well as selling – beans to locals and passers-by.

“The coffee roastery combines my two passions, cycling and specialty coffee,” Walter says. “Cyclists are now making up about 50 per cent of my business.”

When Walter arrives each morning he hangs his own bike up on the wall, where it stays on display for the day. Cycling hats, musettes, and images of old cyclists adorn the walls surrounding it.

When he’s not on his bike, much of Walter’s time is spent indulging his other passion, experimenting with and creating specialty coffees. As chief roaster and the person responsible for sourcing the green beans, Walter ensures Red Berry Espresso only uses premium beans.

“We will often have 15 single origins available at any given time,” Walter says. “Lately I’ve been really enjoying a Cuban and a Sumatran single origin, which have great flavour profiles – my preferences are always changing though.”

Walter uses a 5-kilogram Toper Coffee Roaster to roast the beans, and a San Remo Verona three-group espresso machine.

Red Berry Espresso has recently started bottling its cold drip, which Walter says is proving really popular.

To complement its coffee offering, Red Berry Espresso keeps its customers fed with a selection of light lunches, cakes, and biscuits. “When people come in here I really encourage them to try a coffee they might not have considered before,” Walter says. “I like having the opportunity to experiment with coffees from all over the world and to teach my customers a bit about that coffee – at the end of the day it’s really all about the coffee.”

Mad About Coffee & Tea

In the past 12 years Faith McMurtrie has been a management consultant in Melbourne, set up a business in Queensland, and is now busily running Mad About Coffee & Tea, a multifaceted coffee shop in Darwin.

“When my partner and I came to Darwin four years ago there weren’t too many people doing specialty coffee,” Faith says. “Now there’s a group called the Baristas of Darwin who run smackdowns around the city, and there’s new cafés putting a lot of time and effort into training their baristas.”

Faith has played no small part in inspiring Darwin’s specialty coffee industry. As a certified trainer, Faith runs intimate barista training courses from her Mad About Coffee & Tea café in Parap. Participants are a mix of café and home baristas, as well as general enthusiasts.

“The majority of those who sign up are home enthusiasts who want to take their skills to another level,” Faith says. “I always love that moment when they realise just how much work goes into producing a great coffee – I tell them it’ll take about a thousand coffees before they achieve consistency.”

When Faith moved from Queensland she saw the potential for someone to be selling really good wholesale coffee in the Northern Territory. “We started working with Veneziano Coffee Roasters in 2006,” says Faith. “To say that they’ve been instrumental in helping us get things running would be understating the support they’ve offered.”

Veneziano flew their latte art champion Jean-Paul Sutton to Darwin when Mad About Coffee & Tea first opened its doors. Faith invited local baristas into the café to learn the tricks of the trade from him. Faith now serves a daily rotation of Veneziano, her own Five Elements blends and Toby’s Estate  coffee from the café.

“Veneziano assisted with the creation of Five Elements, which represents the five senses,” says Faith. “People are enticed into the store when they see our bright colours, then they step in and are wowed by the smell. They hear the coffee equipment and the music playing over the speakers. Then they taste our coffee and are really immersed in the experience.”