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Toby's Estate opens Melbourne espresso bar with unique retail concept

[Tue 20/07/2010 04:31:54]

Master roaster Toby Smith, founder of well renowned Toby’s Estate coffee, has continued his foray into retail and opened a second espresso bar in Melbourne earlier this month.

“It’s great to have a little hole in the wall, which gives us the opportunity to showcase our coffee to an ever growing city of coffee lovers,” Smith says of the new café.

The move complements Smith’s expansion into Australia’s retail and hospitality scenes, which has grown off the back of his healthy wholesaling activity that began in 1998 when he established the Toby’s Estate label.

The new café offers coffee aficionados a unique retail concept that combines the simple act of consuming a beverage with an element of education regarding different coffee blends and fair trade practices.

The espresso bar uses Toby’s Estate Woolloomooloo bean blend and consumers are also presented with the opportunity to sample the brand’s farmer relationship coffees, which are comprised of sustainably grown and certified beans.

Domestic coffee equipment is also on sale including the cast stainless steel stovetop espresso maker, OTTO, and the hand-held espresso machine, mypressi Twist.

Located at 136 Exhibition Street, between Bourke and Little Collins Street, the new café takes up a modest 16 square meters and is open from 7:30am to 4pm from Mondays to Fridays.