MELBOURNE | Ramez Abdulnour is one of Melbourne’s third wave coffee pioneers, helping take the city’s coffee scene to the next level in the mid 2000s. He’s been roasting coffee under his Rosso Roasting Co brand for many years, mostly supplying cafes and restaurants around town.
Recently, Ramez opened The Rosso Coffee Experience. It’s a concept café and roastery in North Melbourne, inspired by the many informal coffee lessons he’d give customers who visited his wholesale roastery in Tullamarine. I was invited in to take a look, and Ramez was on hand to show me what his new venue is all about.
The Rosso Coffee Experience features many of the hallmarks that you’d expect from a Melbourne roastery and café. It’s housed in an old warehouse, beans are roasted on-site, and used to make any kind of filter and espresso-based coffee you could want. There’s a snappy all-day brunch menu, with a retail counter filled with freshly sealed bags of beans and coffee equipment for home.
What makes Rosso unique, is the long DIY coffee bar, where with the guidance of one of the venue’s baristas, you can have a go at making your own coffee. There’s high tech grinders, tampers, and milk steamers, and decidedly low tech equipment like V60s. Decide on the kind of coffee that you want to make, and you’ll be taken through the process, learning a lot along the way.
It’s quite a personalised affair, so you can learn something no matter your level of expertise. Even me, someone who owns seven kinds of brewing equipment at home, and brews coffee each day, learned a few tips and tricks to improve my home brew game.
On the food side of things, the all-day brunch menu has been designed by Alain Ducasse and Neil Perry trained French-Mauritian chef Michael Berneger. It’s seasonal, globally-inspired menu that caters to all dietaries. Think okonomiyaki-inspired fried fish and waffles, a pretzel steak sandwich, and chorizo chilli folded eggs
Rosso Coffee Experience
117 Dryburgh Street
North Melbourne
Victoria 3051
Australia
Telephone: (03) 9329 3560
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Wed – Fri: 7:00am to 3:00pm
Sat – Sun: 8:00am to 3:00pm