Your Guide To Specialty Coffee In Hobart’s Northern Suburbs
Ten minutes out of Hobart’s CBD, an unlikely mini-metropolis is making its mark as a coffee mecca.
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Shake Coffee Roasters (image: Cliff Murray)
Contrary to the opinion of a stereotypical Melburnian hipster, the Tasmanian coffee scene has been happy to take on its mainland counterparts for many years. Specialty coffee is almost as ubiquitous as the humble puffer jacket, with most inner-city streets offering up one or more excellent espresso spots. The coffee aficionado is not geographically limited to the CBD, though. A short drive north out of the big smoke, a solid handful of artisans have carved out a specialty coffee trail of their own.
SHAKE COFFEE ROASTERS
Arguably the first kid on the northern suburbs specialty coffee block, Shake Coffee Roasters - or simply Shake to its loyal local community - serves up cups of the good stuff from the front room of its own roastery. Shake Co-Owner, Head Roaster and Operations Manager Ian Merrigan is obsessed with the origin, process and flavour, but he’s just as happy to serve you up your daily cappuccino as he is to introduce you to the intricacies of the weekly single origin.
“Our menu has been carefully designed to have a balance of bean offerings that suit espresso, milk-based and batch brew coffee,” he says. “Even the most basic coffee order can go to a whole new level with a change in bean or technique. Our team is constantly tasting and learning, and we love to share that knowledge with our customers.”
Shake’s roastery uses carefully sourced beans, with a focus on honouring the terroir and people involved in its production.
“For us, specialty coffee means ethically sourced coffee,” Ian says. “We choose to work with partners who pay above minimum wages to their networks of farmers, and are actively participating in their communities through education and resources.”
While the spotlight is firmly on Shake’s own range of beans, you’ll also find plenty of interesting guest roasters, a cabinet stocked with sweet and savoury treats from Queens Fine Pastry and Six Russell Bakes, and a calendar of community events that includes cuppings and friendly latte art competitions.
85 Main Road, Moonah
Monday-Friday 6.30am-2pm
Saturday-Sunday 8am-midday
Shake Coffee Roasters' Ian Merrigan (image: Cliff Murray)
LOTTIE LANE COFFEE ROASTERS
Aptly named for its location, Lottie Lane’s mint green-hued warehouse finds itself down a little laneway of the same moniker, off industrial-heavy Sunderland Street. Owners Chicko and Jess Mackeen have owned neighbouring venue Baked since 2016, when they brought their exclusively gluten-free production bakery to the northern suburbs to support their bustling inner-city café. Now, their focus is entirely on the Moonah businesses, serving up a gluten-free brunch and lunch menu from the streetfront, and roasting specialty coffee from a repurposed storage unit that invites visitors into its light-filled spaces for a gawk and a chat.
“We’re doing technical work in the roastery, but we created the space to be relaxed and inviting,” Jess says. “Our whole ethos is around community and sharing knowledge, so this is a place where people can come and talk about coffee and ask questions without feeling intimidated.”
Relaxed though the space may be, Head Roaster Chicko is serious about the exceptional coffee for which Lottie Lane has accrued a loyal fanbase of amateur and professional baristas.
“For us, flavour is queen - the whole point of what we do is getting the very best flavour out of our coffee,” Chicko says. “We love drinking coffee ourselves, and we’re fascinated by the science of developing its flavour profile, and sharing that with our customers.”
While the hustle of the roastery rarely pauses, a visit to Lottie Lane invites quiet concentration and personal development, too. Pit your palette against a line-up of coffee varietals in the cupping room, or make your espresso a little extra with a barista or latte art masterclass.
10a Sunderland Street, Moonah
Monday-Friday 7.30am-3.30pm
Saturday-Sunday by appointment
Lottie Lane Coffee Roasters' Head Roaster Chicko Mackeen (image: Amy Brown)
DISTRICT B SPECIALTY COFFEE
Creating a specialty coffee haunt of his own was always going to be on Turuu Lkhagva’s bingo card. A stalwart of Hobart’s caffeine and cocktail scenes for more than a decade, Turuu opened District B in 2021, bringing his much beloved style of hospitality to the streets of Moonah.
“He’s really good at fostering an instant rapport with our customers, so this place has become like a little family where people connect over coffee,” says wife and business co-owner Allison Zhang. “And he obviously makes really good coffee!”
Really good coffee seems a simple enough philosophy, but achieving it requires Turuu and Allison’s specialist knowledge and painstakingly consistent approach. They - and son, Aiden - are the venue’s sole team members, pulling hundreds of cups a day for a steady stream of commuters, local business people and even those who’ve made the trip from other parts of Hobart especially for the District B experience.
“When Aiden was really little, I’d have him in the front pack while I was serving customers and pulling shots,” Allison says. “We’re so grateful for the community that we’ve got here - everyone is so understanding and supportive, and people keep coming back for good coffee and a smile.”
Single origin and house blends from Sydney roasting pioneers Single O are on rotation, as are daily pastries from Pigeon Whole Bakers and Treats on Franklin’s iconic (in Hobart, at least) Dutch apple slice. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get a giggle from baby Aiden.
96 Albert Road, Moonah
Monday-Friday 6.30am-3pm
Saturday-Sunday 7am-2.30pm
District B Specialty Coffee (image supplied)
WONDR BY VILLINO
When Villino’s first iteration opened in Hobart CBD in 2007, it quickly became the darling of a then just-blossoming Tasmanian specialty coffee scene. The Criterion Street flagship and its hole-in-the-wall neighbour Ecru are still going strong, and now Moonah’s Wondr by Villino brings the brand’s signature excellent brews and friendly hospitality to its northern neighbours. Based in a converted warehouse in close olfactory proximity to Pigeon Whole’s sourdough bakery, Wondr comprises Villino’s extensive coffee roasting operations, a cupping and quality control room, a purpose-built training room complete with four individual barista stations, and - of course - an inviting café space in which to enjoy a brew.
Founder and Owner Richard Schramm brought the Villino magic to the northern suburbs in 2022, creating the coffee equivalent of a cellar door experience in Sunderland Street.
“Wondr is an opportunity to have a great coffee and take a peek behind the scenes into the scope of work that goes into making it,” he says. “You can look through to the roastery and see us hovering over a roast, fussing over the details, scoring and writing notes in our lab as a team - it’s a very special thing that we’ve built here.”
House-roasted Villino beans showcase a diverse range of flavour profiles to suit espresso, batch brew and pour over coffees. and a generous retail offering shows off a similarly impressive selection of single origin and blends, backed by a team who loves very little more than matchmaking them with their next home brewer.
“There’s no pretense here - we cater for everyone and we’re not telling people how to drink their coffee,” Richard says. “But we love to share our knowledge, and our team is so proud to do what we do and be a part of this community.”
43 Sunderland Street, Moonah
Monday-Friday, 6.30am-2.30pm
Saturday 8am-12.30pm
Wondr by Villino (image supplied)
AGENT COOPER
Elrick Aubelack’s grin is legendary around Hobart’s group heads and steam wands. With a coffee CV that includes stints with the teams behind St. Ali and Axil Coffee Roasters in Melbourne, Elrick and wife Clare brought their love coffee to Tasmania in the early 2010s, opening Sash in Sandy Bay, followed more recently by Wide Awake in North Hobart and Agent Cooper in Glenorchy. The latter has been a welcome addition to the northern suburbs’ busy Main Road shopping district since 2021, serving up Padre’s Lucky Boy blend alongside weekly single origin rotations, V60 and batch brew.
“Agent Cooper is right in the centre of the Glenorchy business and shopping scene, and we stand out with the style of specialty coffee venue that we’ve created,” Elrick says. “Our focus has always been on making good coffee consistently, with great customer service - I think we’ve nailed it.”
A life in coffee was a happy surprise for Mauritian expat Elrick, who sipped his first espresso when he arrived in Australia as a teenager.
“I grew up drinking instant coffee, and had no idea about specialty coffee before I landed in Australia,” he says. “That first sip of a long black started everything, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of people who nurtured my interest along the way, and led me to creating my own pathway.”
After a short stint working in a Hobart seafood restaurant, Elrick rediscovered his passion for coffee when he was signed up to compete in a barista world championship qualifier. His feet have been firmly planted in coffee grounds since, and Agent Cooper’s steady flow of locals are the grateful beneficiaries.
“We love our Glenorchy family, because they know about specialty coffee, but they’re also very humble and chill,” Elrick says. “We’re all about connection, and it’s really special that our customers come to us not just for a coffee, but to have a chat and share their stories.”
390a Main Road, Glenorchy
Monday-Friday 6am-2.30pm
Saturday 7.30am-12.30pm
Agent Cooper (image supplied)
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