Higher Ground in Melbourne and Paramount Coffee Project have been awarded the 2017 Café of the Year award in the The Age and Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awards, respectively.
Thanks to the team behind Top Paddock and the Kettle Black, Higher Ground was acknowledged for being “a café with integrity, dedication, and damn good coffee”.
The old power house facility located at the west end of Little Bourke Street is a two-storey space pushing the menu envelope, serving Square One coffee and challenging CBD café design.
Higher Ground was also recognised in the top 10 of best new restaurants to open in Melbourne this year.
StreetSmart Australia was awarded the Food for Good Award, celebrating innovation and charity.
In 2003, Adam Robinson started StreetSmart Australia to help support and address awareness around the growing problem of homelessness. Since then, StreetSmart programs such as CafeSmart and DineSmart have raised more than $2 million for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, mostly through gold coin donations by diners and cafe-goers.
The judges recognised Paramount Coffee Project for being “one of the most impressively designed cafés to have opened in Sydney in the past five years”.
Paramount Coffee Project was established as a collaboration between Jin Ng of Paramount House, Mark Dundon of Seven Seeds and Russell Beard of Reuben Hills. Opening in Surry Hills, Sydney in 2013, together they envisaged a space which would showcase the variety of styles and approaches in quality coffee. The café is a collaborative project that has education, roasting, brew methods and coffee at its core.
Some of the other Melbourne Good Food award-winners include:
Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year – Brae, Birregurra
Best New Restaurant – Embla, Melbourne
Citi Chef of the Year – Aaron Turner, Igni
Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year – Igni, Geelong
Young Chef of the Year – Jarrod Di Blasi, Ezard
Vittoria Coffee Legend – Jean-Paul Prunetti and Geraud Fabre, France-Soir
Best Cheap Eat – Hem 27, Flemington
People’s Choice Award – Ezard at Levantine Hill, Coldstream
Bar of the Year – Heartbreaker, Melbourne
Sydney Good Food award-winners include:
Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year – Quay
Best New Restaurant – Restaurant Hubert
Citi Chef of the Year – Federico Zanellato, LuMi Bar & Dining
Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year – Paper Daisy
Young Chef of the Year – Noel Jelfs
Vittoria Coffee Legend – Leon Fink, group chairman of the Fink Group
Best Cheap Eat – Bovine & Swine Barbecue Co.
Bar of the Year – Continental Deli Bar & Bistro
