Best Cafes in Brunswick

Melbourne is a coffee-obsessed place, and nowhere is caffeine addiction more visible than Brunswick’s hipster heartland.

There are two items that hipsters need for food, crushed avocado and specialized coffee, and across the streets of Brunswick, they can find both in abundance. In the hip inner-northern neighbourhood of Brunswick, Melbourne, we are here with the best cafes in Brunswick for a caffeine hit, from chic boutique roasteries to charming hole-in-the-wall brunch spots.

Brunswick is one of the trendiest neighbourhoods of Melbourne, host to some of Melbourne’s finest cafes. This is a huge deal for a town obsessed with coffee.

Brunswick is a well-known hotspot owing to its consistency of food and locally grown roasted coffee. Attracting crowds from anywhere who can’t ignore the rustic elegance and talent of Brunswick to dish up a tasty smashed avocado. If you didn’t enjoy a nice crushed Avo, will you really be a Melbournian?.

It was challenging to pick which ones to include on our list, with so many wonderful cafes in Brunswick. Here are our choices for the best Brunswick cafes.

Wide Open Road

Scandinavian cool is exuded by this expansive converted factory, and the house-roasted coffee is both tasty and responsible, with ethically and transparently sourced beans. The all-day brunch menu of Wide Open Road is almost as healthy as beans, selecting from dishes such as cauliflower and quinoa salad, harissa chickpeas, and a nutritious bowl filled with seared tuna, pickled cabbage, and ginger greens.

Miss Marmalade

This family-friendly café is not only perfect for youngsters, as grown-ups still have lots of decadent dishes on sale. The homely Miss Marmalade dishes up all the tasty breakfast classics, brews coffee from the Clark Street Roasters of Richmond, and also has a separate backspace to amuse the little ones with kid-sized furniture, children’s books and a cheerful toy set.

East Elevation

To explore one of the best cafes in Brunswick East, pump out house-roasted coffee, freshly made pastries, and seasonal brekky dishes, walk through the mysterious unsigned red entrance. East Elevation shares its trendy room with Monsieur Truffle, an artisan chocolatier, so you can wonder at those candy designs while enjoying your cappuccino. In order to cultivate fresh kitchen produce, the café often curates an alley garden around the corner.

Foxtrot Charlie

F stands for fruit, C stands for coffee, and Foxtrot Charlie stands for quality. This Sydney Road boutique roaster produces its own house mix, featuring a variety of organics, as well as a selection of single roots. With the rather modern brunch menu, the house-roasted coffee goes beautifully: imagine spinach and coconut milk pancakes, salmon gravlax on sprouted rye bread, and several vegan choices.

Home.one

This social enterprise café offers more than just morning porridge and afternoon bagels-100 per cent of the proceeds in Victoria are directed at battling childhood deprivation and hunger. Dishing out coffee and breakfast from a hole-in-the-wall outside Anstey train station, Home.one donates its lunch earnings to Eat Up Australia and its coffee and bagel sales to charities that support young street people, which ensures that the community really makes a difference to your morning cuppa.

Small Axe

Small Axe, fantastic tastes. In a sunny 100-year-old house on Victoria Lane, former Code Black chef Adam Pruckner launched his own spot just off Sydney Road in 2016, mixing new brunch staples with traditional Sicilian flavours. Of course, the coffee comes from Code Black. For black coffees, the softly roasted house blend is used, whereas milk coffees use the medium-dark ‘ex-wife’ blend.

Padre Coffee

Padre Coffee boasts sites in South Melbourne and Noosa, but where it all started is Brunswick East. A host of exclusive roots and house blends from hundreds of diverse estates around the world are roasted in this sleek Lygon Street café, followed by a punchy array of sweet and savoury takeaway snacks. Padre also hosts roasting and cupping workshops and has a shop room full of everything that a potential brewer could ever require.

A1 Bakery

Since way back in 1992, this Lebanese bakery, grocery and café have been an institution in the heart of Sydney Lane. The décor is old school, the reception is great, and with A1’s signature baklava, the coffee is better enjoyed. This family company often prepares a hearty meal, bakes a range of bread, and also offers home-taking Middle Eastern cuisine and specialities.

Ray’s Coffee

He began with this charming Brunswick institution before Mark Dundon launched legendary Melbourne cafés Seven Seeds with Brother Baba Budan, as well as Sydney speciality coffee giants Reuben Hills and Paramount Coffee Project. Ray’s buzzes with a diverse crowd flocking later in the day to this rustic Victoria Street institution for the top-notch coffee by Atomica’s Northcote roasters, and the malt, ale, and Bloody Marys.

Project281

Project281, built by Splinter Society Architects, has a stunning industrial-chic look. This old factory, with plants consuming every square inch of the site, has since been turned into an agricultural jungle. Project281 roasts its own coffee brand, branded as Creator Coffee, roasted with consistency by Anne Cooper, a multi-award-winning coffee connoisseur and coffee roaster. If you consider yourself a bit of a foodie, then you shouldn’t miss this spot. They serve all your regular classics for breakfast, incorporating touches of Japanese and Korean spices in their dishes (with a twist!).

Ona Coffee

Ona Coffee was originally established in Canberra in 2008 and was born for one reason: “to make great coffee and share it with as many individuals as possible.”

They have since worked their way (and have also entered Sydney) from Canberra to Melbourne, with one of their cafes showing up right here in the heart of Brunswick. Ona Coffee, unmatched by its rivals, has continued to earn numerous honours for four straight years since 2015, such as ‘Australian Barista Champion.’ It is one of the best cafes in Brunswick

Double Dutch Coffee Bar

For getting an exceptionally talented barista and one of the finest brews along Lygon Lane, the Double Dutch Coffee Bar is highly respected by the Brunswick group.

This accessible, funky and friendly little cafe is home to tasty snacks and bagels, selling for only $5 with killer offers such as toasties. The very best thing about Double Dutch is that with your furry friend beside you, you will spend a glorious day in the heat. It is always a bonus to be dog-friendly and undoubtedly offers you more incentives to visit.

Brunswick, full of tradition and rich in music, is one of the most lively inner-city neighbourhoods of Melbourne. The city is host to the best cafes in Brunswick and has a vibrant culture in which the arts, music and cuisine also play a major part.

In this lively inner-city neighbourhood, recent trends in Brunswick and condo living have made it possible for first homeowners and working families to live affordably. If you would like to be part of the Brunswick culture (and strong coffee), then register your interest with East Brunswick Village and get a feel for what could soon be your neck of the woods.