![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/08\/rudimentary_exterior_redo_epk_03-150x150.jpg\")
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Quite a few years later, with a stint interstate and something hopefully resembling wisdom under my belt, I made the move west, to the suburb of Footscray\u2014a suburb in close proximity to the Port of Melbourne, along a truck transport route, and home to the multicultural buzzing hub of the Footscray market. While the move was largely predicated by the cheaper rent, larger houses, and delicious Vietnamese food there, I happened upon a lot more than I bargained for, including a unique venue dedicated to thoughtful gardening, community, and very importantly great food and coffee, called Rudimentary<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Owned by Desmond Huynh and Lieu Trieu, Rudimentary sits on an expansive corner close to the business centre of Footscray: on half the property sits a beautiful garden and outdoor seating area, while a cafe occupies the rest. Upon walking through the gates, it\u2019s immediately clear Rudimentary is a bit different than your typical cafe, with the structure of the building itself, in fact, made from shipping containers.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a novel choice of building material, and a deliberate one at that. The block of land that Rudimentary now stands on had been in Huynh and Trieu\u2019s family for decades, having previously been an overgrown carpark for local businesses. With the appeal of Footscray growing over the years, the family was continually being approached by developers who wanted to acquire the land, but the family had no interest in either selling or developing it themselves for at least another five years\u2014as such, it was offered to Huynh and Trieu, a wholesale seafood operations manager and a pharmacist, respectively, to do with as they wished in the meantime.<\/span><\/p>\n Balking at the scope of such a proposition, the pair initially said no, before thinking on it further and deciding to approach it in a different way. Chatting to Huynh, he outlined, \u201cWe had five to 10 years [left at] the site, which meant that we had to get creative with construction methods. I studied architecture some years before and didn\u2019t like the waste the industry created, so rather than build something that would be torn down, we felt it appropriate to create something that was more robust and could be relocated when the time came to move on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Designed in collaboration with local firm\u00a0RD Architecture<\/a>, the cafe interior is light and bright, with a long bar housing the open kitchen and espresso bar that faces the cafe, and well-spaced-out seating. A few visible elements of the shipping container are thoughtfully revealed on the interior\u2014without which you\u2019d have no idea that it wasn\u2019t just a regular cafe fit-out. <\/span><\/p>\n Coffee from Small Batch<\/a> is brewed for espresso using their La Marzocco Linea<\/a>, while filter coffee is brewed with a Behmor Brazen<\/a> brewer. Almond milk and chai are made in-house, allowing the team to dictate what goes into the products they serve, as well as allowing them to tweak and improve on them as they wish.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the years, their menu has included inventive takes on classics and beyond, like chicken and waffles\u2014including pickled watermelon rind\u2014kimchi pancakes, and saffron rice pilaf. A key element that guides their menu is their produce that they use from the garden, a mere 10-second stroll from the kitchen itself. \u201cThe kitchen garden is run by our gardener, John, who is really knowledgeable and super-positive which gets us all inspired,\u201d Huynh outlined, \u201cJohn and the kitchen team get together once a season to go through what to plant for the coming months so that we can use whatever we\u2019re growing in the dishes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Desmond Huynh and Lieu Trieu, while not being the typical hospitality-lifers that we so often see setting out to open something, have built something quite special in Rudimentary. It\u2019s an incredibly quality-focused venue that pumps out thoughtful food and tasty coffee, while still paying respect to the neighborhood that it calls home and creating a space for the community to congregate. It\u2019s a fine balance that is incredibly hard to accomplish, and one that they\u2019ve managed with aplomb\u2014they\u2019ve combined the old and the new of the diverse and vibrant neighborhood of Footscray, and here\u2019s hoping they get to continue doing so for some time more. <\/span><\/p>\n Eileen P. Kenny is a coffee professional, winemaker, and Sprudge Media Network contributor based in Melbourne. Read more\u00a0Eileen P. Kenny on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Thoughtful Food & Tasty Coffee Outside Melbourne At Rudimentary In Footscray<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than seven years ago, I moved from Brisbane to Melbourne to start anew\u2014captivated by the coffee industry, the culture, the opportunities, and the freedom to wear as much dark-colored…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[63,27,65,33,61,32,59,31,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/08\/rudimentary_exterior_redo_epk_03-1170x780.jpg\")
\nMore than seven years ago, I moved from Brisbane to Melbourne to start anew\u2014captivated by the coffee industry, the culture, the opportunities, and the freedom to wear as much dark-colored clothing as I wanted. For those first few years, the range of my living and working largely radiated around the city and the inner-northern suburbs\u2014those hip and happening neighborhoods like Fitzroy and Carlton\u2014if you asked me about anything beyond those bounds back then I\u2019d probably have looked at you blankly, having only ventured outside of my radius to try and find a cheaper second-hand store. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"rudimentary](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/07\/rudimentary_eileen_kenny_14-1170x780.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/08\/rudimentary_exterior_redo_epk_05-1170x780.jpg\")
\nWhile shipping containers posed a challenge as an unconventional building material, the positives outweighed the negatives: the materials rang true with the historically industrial feel of Footscray, and the cost-effective nature of the material meant that they could transform the entire block of land on a limited budget, as Huynh puts aptly: \u201cThe business name\u2014Rudimentary\u2014gave us the framework for the entire project; it allowed us to create a space that was extensive but not expensive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"rudimentary](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/07\/rudimentary_eileen_kenny_13-1170x780.jpg\")
\nIn food-focused Melbourne, more and more is demanded of cafes, and even in this competitive climate, the menu at Rudimentary stands out. As Huynh explained, \u201cWe change our menu with every season and we use the season to direct us in where to go. The one thing that guides us most is availability of produce. We use what\u2019s in season because it tastes the best, it\u2019s cheaper, and allows us to keep it local. Avocado, for instance, isn\u2019t always the best year-round and is imported because Australians have an affinity with avo on toast. We elect to just pull it from our menu until it tastes good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"rudimentary](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/07\/rudimentary_eileen_kenny_05-1170x780.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nRudimentary is located at\u00a016-20 Leeds St, Footscray VIC 3011<\/a>. Visit their official website<\/a> and follow them on Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/div>\n