Specialty coffee: new Outpost by St Ali in South Yarra

Outpost by St Ali
9/9 Yarra Street, South Yarra (map)
no phone yet
currently open 7:30-5pm, Monday to Friday


Outpost by St Ali is the brand new South Yarra outpost of cult specialty coffee house St Ali (read about my St Ali coffee cupping adventures with Slightly Intense Thirty-Something Metrosexuals here). Hyper-confusingly, the address for the Outpost by St Ali is Yarra Street, South Yarra, and the address for the original St Ali is Yarra Place, South Melbourne. Not to be confused with Yarra Street in South Melbourne. Too many Yarras! Too many Souths!


Outpost by St Ali opened last Monday on the ground floor of a big new commercial/residential development, down a side street next to South Yarra train station. Current opening hours are Monday to Friday, just during the day. No weekends now 7 days a week, but just during the daytime. They're still awaiting chairs and tables, a phone and a proper food menu. The oven was delivered yesterday, and the domestic dishwasher will eventually be replaced by a commercial one.


I dropped in there this week with two other food bloggers, Jackie from Eating with Jack and Matt from Abstract Gourmet, currently over here from Perth for a week sampling the best Melbourne's food scene has to offer.

Bloody food bloggers, always taking photos! That's Matt taking photos, and Jack on the right twittering about how Matt and I are taking photos.


The plan is to introduce a simple menu (smaller than that at St Ali) of food that can be prepared in the oven, in addition to the smattering of pastries and rolls currently on offer. An outdoor seating area will follow. For now though, the emphasis is very much on educating people about specialty coffee - the stylish school science lab interior certainly helps! Jack and I just LOVED that matte tiled floor.


The siphon coffee maker (below), being heated by an eerie bright red halogen lamp.


I recognised Aaron, our barista, from his days at Auction Rooms. He showed us around, talked coffee geek technical talk with Matt, and gave me a taste of my first ever cold drip coffee (made using that gorgeous, steampunk-esque cold drip machine pictured below).


My siphon coffee and cold drip coffee side by side. Loved both. I was amazed by how light and sweet the cold drip was in particular.


Speaking of steampunk, how cool (albeit no doubt somewhat inconvenient in this day and age) is that antique cash register? The fresh herbs dotted about the room was another nice touch.


Oh and as you'd expect, plenty of single origin coffees (including beans sourced directly by St Ali rather than through a middleman).


Head there soon and check it out for yourself before everybody finds out about it!

15/10/09 Edited to add:
Hear ye, hear ye: as of this weekend, Outpost by St Ali is now open 7 days a week. Paul Jewson, the chef who started on Monday, is already whipping up some very interesting-looking dishes with the assistance of that gorgeous oven!