Around since 2009, Market Lane Coffee is one of Melbourne’s most-loved names in coffee. Its eight stores and counting – from Carlton to South Melbourne – always have a steady stream of locals and tourists seeking seriously good coffee, pastries, take-home beans and other coffee accoutrements.
This Brunswick outpost, opened in 2023, is no different. Behind the long hardwood benches, baristas make high-quality espresso with a seasonal blend and two daily single-origin coffees. There’s also pour over, for which you can choose from five single origin coffees. Everything is roasted, blended and tested at Market Lane’s nearby Weston Street headquarters. New additions include an iced cascara tea, which marries cascara (the dried skin of coffee cherries) with native aniseed myrtle.
It wouldn’t be a Market Lane coffee experience without treats from a local bakery. Pastries come from Austro, and standouts include a rhubarb and hazelnut streusel, a Vegemite and Gruyere scroll and a sour cherry tart.
In the David Goss-designed interior, terracotta tiles cover the floor and hardwood timber lines the walls, bringing warmth to the space. Yet it also feels light and spacious, with 25 or so seats to stop and enjoy your coffee. You can also take it to go, along with a line-up of freshly roasted coffee beans, home coffee grinders, Moccamaster brewers, tote bags and ceramics by Alison Frith.
