The League of Honest Coffee is the third offering from the team behind Padre Coffee South Melbourne Market and the Brunswick East Project. And it’s safe to say they are raising the stakes in the battle for CBD coffee supremacy with their city outpost.

If the exceptional coffee and long global list of single origin beans doesn’t convince you that these guys mean serious business, then the striking pair of custom-painted Slayer espresso machines gracing the bar certainly will – the Slayer being to coffee geeks what the Birken bag is to the high-end fashion crowd: covetable, rare and ludicrously expensive.

A nice point of difference here is the down-to-earth graciousness of the staff and the sheer luxury of space – with the bright, airy corner spot eschewing the usual cramped style of many of the city’s better coffee haunts. Clever DIY design elements, like the giant plywood group-handle light fitting and the ceiling’s hand-painted coffee leaf motif, also keep things surprising yet simple.

There’s no menu, just a small selection of excellent Noisette pastries, and the flaky almond croissant makes a superb breakfast when partnered with a French-style bowl of coffee – one of their signatures.