Creating countryside café culture

Australia’s standout café culture is no longer confined to the major capitals – vibrant new coffee pockets are emerging nationwide, from booming regions to small towns and everything in between.

One of the great things about coffee is it isn’t gatekept. The knowledge and craft of roasters and cafés from around the world can be replicated, honoured, adopted, and changed anywhere, at any point.

One of coffee’s greatest strengths is its openness. The knowledge and craft of roasters and cafés from all over the globe can be honoured, adopted, replicated, and altered anywhere, at any point.

The universal nature of coffee culture, at least in Australian terms, the third wave specialty movement is by no means limited to the nation’s major metropolitan locations.

While Melbourne and Sydney typically vie for the crown of the nation’s coffee capital, other major cities like Brisbane, Perth, and even Darwin are crafting their own unique coffee cultures and experiences consumers are seeking out.

And beyond the city limits – along country roads, across rivers, and in regional centres – new coffee hotpots are emerging across Australia. No longer are they towns to pass through to get from point A to point B, they’re serious destinations for all kinds of connoisseurs.

Apple of the eye

Tasmania can often be forgotten by the ‘mainlanders’ of Australia. As the country’s smallest and least populous state, the parochialism that borders on patriotism it’s known for has filtered through to its coffee scene.

Zimmah Coffee, a Tasmanian roastery founded in 2011, has seen firsthand the evolution of the Apple Isle’s coffee industry. Operator James Murdoch says Tasmania’s coffee culture is underestimated.

“Tassie is better than what a lot of people on the mainland would think,” says James. “I think the average coffee I get in most good cafés in Hobart is on par with the coffee I get in Melbourne.

“We really bat above our grade compared to how our coffee culture is perceived. There are some very good roasters and very good cafés down in Tassie, and there has been a progression. The skill level of the baristas is always improving, and now every café is looking at using top quality machines.

“There’s been a gradual increase in the quality of equipment, the quality of the coffee, the quality of the milk, and support for the food industry. Tasmania is a strong player in the national hospitality market.”

Tasmania has become something of a final frontier for a number of large scale roasters operating in the likes of Sydney and Melbourne, running frequent ‘tours’ to the state to dip its toe into the local market.

James says the quality of local roasters and that famous parochialism make the market a tough nut to crack for mainland businesses.

“The Tasmanian customer wants Tasmanian coffee, and the Tasmanian café owner that is in touch with their customers knows this. They want Tasmanian milk, Tasmanian ice cream, Tasmanian beef,” he says.

“There is an incredibly large percentage of Tasmanian cafés that use Tasmanian-roasted beans, and there’s an immense level of local support that happens here that you wouldn’t see in many other places. The biggest cities don’t seem to care quite so much where they’re getting their coffee from.

“Tasmania has that unique colloquial market of cafés and coffee roasters, but I think that’s something that is reflected in more regional areas around Australia, and even within Tasmania.

“If I go to Eaglehawk Neck, there’s probably a roaster from that region that is supplying most of the cafés there, and it’s the same if I go to somewhere like Dandenong in Victoria.”

Tasmania – and Hobart’s – elevation as a tourist hotspot has also promoted further growth within the region’s entire hospitality sector, according to James.

“I think we’ve had a boost to our hospitality industry because of the attraction of MONA (museum of old and new art) and the tourism associated with that,” he says.

“Our state was originally on the map as a destination for hiking, bush walks, and other nature-based activities, but now it’s become a destination for people with a range of interests including good food, and that’s reflected in the café industry.”

Creating new culture

When a regional Victorian town is dubbed ‘North Northcote’, there must be some alignment with the trendy and artistic inner northeast Melbourne suburb.

Castlemaine – about 1.5 hours northwest of Melbourne’s CBD – is one of the premier indications of a regional town pulling bits and pieces from different parts of the world to create its own unique flavour of coffee culture.

It’s a town that has benefitted from the exodus of seniors and young professionals from metropolitan hubs into regional areas, with its population booming in the past five years.

Edmund Schaerf and Elna Schaerf-Trauner were early adopters of the Melbourne tree change, moving from Northcote to Castlemaine in 1997.

They’ve run small lot roastery Coffee Basics since moving to the town, and also operate one of its most popular cafés, Das Kaffeehaus.

They have aligned their Austrian heritage with the best parts of Melbourne’s coffee scene, to create something almost totally unique to the Australian coffee landscape.

“We branded ourselves as a Viennese coffeehouse. With our tenancy at The Mill we managed to transform a 130-year-old, dilapidated industrial shed into a fusion of hipster Melbourne warehouse, third wave café, and the soul of our 500-year-plus Viennese coffee heritage,” says Edmund.

“Coffee culture as we know it globally has its origins with the Ottomans, and subsequently with the Viennese. With Das Kaffeehaus, we managed to bring our knowledge of Melbourne’s coffee scene into a harmonious marriage with our heritage as Austrian and Viennese blow-ins to this beautiful and eclectic town.”

While coffee roasters now operate in just about all far flung corners of every state and territory, that wasn’t always the case.

Edmund says Coffee Basics was one of the first businesses to bring Melburnian third wave specialty coffee culture away from its metropolitan hub and into less populated areas.

“When we started there was one other small batch roaster in Central Victoria, and a few others including Grinders – which was still owned by Giancarlo Giusti and his wife,” Edmund says.

“Convincing the punters of small batch roasting was a challenge and took us about five years, but we focused on carving a niche for ourselves in Central Victoria and went far and wide in our region. We ended up with a customer radius of about 300 kilometres.

“We built up a good, strong client base to the point where we were wholesaling close to 50 tonnes of coffee per year. We’ve always stayed true to what we set out to be, and continue to do so.”

Coffee Basics and Das Kaffeehaus moved from its original location at the old Castlemaine hospital crematorium to become an anchor tenancy of The Mill which, over the past decade, has turned into one of the town’s key attractions.

After starting its life as a woollen mill in the 1800s, the repurposed industrial site reopened in 2014 as an artisan leisure destination. Now, it houses more than 40 small businesses including Das Kaffeehaus, a microbrewery, art spaces, a vintage bazaar, and a chocalatery.

Edmund says the appeal of trying something different – like a Viennese coffeehouse in country Victoria – has helped elevate The Mill site and turn Das Kaffeehaus into a destination venue.

“Over the first 12 months at The Mill we attracted more than 100,000 visitors,” says Edmund.

“We managed to create a resonance that spread far and wide. Now the whole site has become a destination spot for people from around Victoria, but also places like Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, and beyond.

“We have a really healthy cross-section of eclectic visitors. We are very proud of what we have managed to create with our legacy business.”

Challenging perceptions

The ‘combination venue’ operating as a café during the day and a bar at night is growing in popularity around Australia. That need to diversify and desire to evolve is benefitting Australia’s café scene, both in established hubs and new frontiers.

Wagga Wagga is a town that has long been known for the quality of its cafés. With about 70,000 people, it’s a regional hub between Sydney and Melbourne, and there are new and exciting ideas popping up in the region.

Meccanico Espresso & Wine has been operating in Wagga for about six years. French expat Katy Hodson joined the business not long after it was opened, which was co-founded by business partner Karl Hulford.

Katy says the location of Wagga – a half-way stop point between Melbourne and Sydney, and not even an hour off the main highway – along with its growing popularity as a tourist and living destination have evolved how people view the town’s hospitality scene.

“We have a lot of people here who are from Melbourne or Sydney, people have chosen to move here because it’s a nice place with everything you need,” says Katy.

“People are simply wanting better coffee these days, for the price you pay for it, it needs to be up to standard.

“Wagga is quite a big place when it comes to regional destinations, and there’s people who want the knowledge or have the knowledge to make better choices for their coffee.”

From its Art of Espresso beans from Young, biscotti from Griffith, and French pastries from in town, Meccanico aims to showcase some of the best local products in its menu.

“We have customers that come in every single day, sometimes two coffees a day, that still haven’t come in for dinner, but we have customers that come in every day for a coffee and then come in for dinner or our wine nights regularly,” says Katy.

“All our products are sourced locally, and that makes a big difference. It really shows off the town.

“Wagga is becoming a destination for people, and to have all that money going back into the community is really powerful.”

Katy believes it’s important to continue to challenge what people know in regional destinations to continue to progress not just the café sector, but the entire hospitality industry, in a growing town like Wagga.

“Years ago, there would not have been a sushi restaurant or a Vietnamese place here, but now there are, and they are incredibly popular cuisines. Things that used to be foreign to people become familiar, we need more of that,” she says.

“This wine bar concept was harder for people to really latch onto, and sometimes today it’s even still a bit difficult but we have found success with a European-style venue that isn’t ‘just a café’ or ‘just a bar’.”

Now, more so than when Meccanico opened, there is more competition in the café space in not only Wagga, but in similar regional hubs around Australia.

While Katy says she does see elements of what has made Meccanico successful in other, newer venues around the town, she’s proud of the influence the venue seems to have had on hospitality in the region.

“I would say we are still unique, of course we’re going to say that, but we were definitely the first venue of our type to open up and encourage people to do the same with a cool little café around the corner, or a speakeasy style of bar,” she says.

“We can see there’s a lot of inspiration that has been taken from Meccanico to open other places around Wagga, and it’s rewarding to see.

“I think people having a crack and opening more cafés and building with their own ideas will keep making the culture even better. Venues need to open, there is enough to go around, and they need to be different to broaden peoples’ minds. That will create more.”