{"id":682,"date":"2018-06-04T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/06\/04\/taking-it-easy-at-melbournes-vacation-coffee\/"},"modified":"2018-07-30T15:23:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T01:23:02","slug":"taking-it-easy-at-melbournes-vacation-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/06\/04\/taking-it-easy-at-melbournes-vacation-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking It Easy At Melbourne\u2019s Vacation Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vacation<\/p>\n

\"vacation<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture this: it\u2019s early morning and you\u2019re walking along Flinders Street at the edge of Melbourne\u2019s city centre, the sun is just starting to peek over the trees on the southeast side of the city, and you think to yourself, “the only way this could be better is if I were drinking a delicious coffee right now…” then, lo and behold, you stumble across a pastel paradise with a sign declaring “Vacation<\/a>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Opened in August 2017, Vacation is the brainchild of Julian Bedford, Jimmy Tjoeng, and brothers Kael and Matt Sahely\u2014a group that collectively has a wealth of experience working in and owning cafes, including the likes of Dukes Coffee Roasters<\/a>, Pillar of Salt<\/a>, Caravan Coffee<\/a> (London), Sensory Lab<\/a>, and Bawa<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

As has been mentioned numerous times before here on Sprudge, Melbourne isn\u2019t lacking in coffee shops. In fact, you could say the city is somewhat awash\u2014okay, flooded\u2014with coffee options. The flipside of this, however, is that the population\u2019s appetite for good coffee appears to be near insatiable, which allows gems like Vacation to carve out a neat little niche for themselves in the competitive city centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vacation<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vacation<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitting on the corner of Exhibition and Flinders Streets, Vacation is a beautifully light and airy space, with a 6.5-metre-high roof, floor-to-ceiling windows (to take in the surprisingly expansive view over Melbourne\u2019s Botanic Gardens and MCG), 1950s-style pastels, and a plenitude of satisfyingly rounded corners. Architecture and interior design of the space was undertaken by Alex Lake of Therefore Studio<\/a>, with branding by The Company You Keep<\/a>\u2014with the brief by the Vacation team to the tune of “peaceful, tranquil, holiday vibes.” It\u2019s an aesthetic that immediately feels calm and acts as a point of difference from the white-tiled, brass and copper, light wood Scandinavian stylings of many of Melbourne\u2019s cafes, and has even been referred to as “millennial-pink Tatooine<\/a>” by some visitors (which feels strangely apt).<\/span><\/p>\n

Chatting with Bedford, it\u2019s clear that they set out to build a cafe that didn\u2019t take itself too seriously, \u201cWe think that coffee quality doesn\u2019t have to come at the expense of approachability and service\u2014so we just tried to make it a bit fun and kooky,” he says. Whimsical illustrations personify the flavour notes on their packaging (including a googly-eyed pineapple), part of the fun and lighthearted approach of the Vacation brand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vacation<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vacation<\/span><\/p>\n

Espresso is brewed here on a white powder-coated La Marzocco Linea<\/a> with\u00a0Victoria Arduino Mythos One<\/a> grinders, while filter is exclusively brewed with FETCO<\/a>\u2014showcasing the coffee that the Vacation team roast themselves at Bureaux Collective,\u00a0<\/a>a coffee roasting collaborative space in Abbotsford. The food offering sits neatly alongside the coffee, with a simple cafe menu: think sandwiches (with Meatsmith<\/a> cured meat), toast with fancy toppings (avocado, seeds and sprouts, or peanut butter, banana, black sesame), and mueslis\u2014as well as pastries from Noisette<\/a> and Cobb Lane<\/a>, and some raw and refined-sugar-free treats from Sarah Sivaraman who bakes in-house. <\/span><\/p>\n

The response from patrons and the local coffee industry alike to Vacation has been a positive one so far: it\u2019s still a rarity to see a specialty coffee shop located in the city centre that has such a substantial food offering, and it\u2019s even more unique for somewhere like that to open on the weekends as it does (which thoroughly pleases the multitudes of local customers who live in the city).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vacation<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking towards the future, Bedford and the team hope to open more shops, and also have their own roasting space. Keeping in line with their aesthetic, however, they\u2019re going to take it slowly and let it grow organically, always making sure not to take it too seriously because, after all, it\u2019s a Vacation, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vacation Coffee is located at 1 Exhibition Street, Melbourne<\/a>. Visit their official website<\/a> and follow them on Instagram<\/a>.<\/div>\n

<\/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 Taking It Easy At Melbourne\u2019s Vacation Coffee<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture this: it\u2019s early morning and you\u2019re walking along Flinders Street at the edge of Melbourne\u2019s city centre, the sun is just starting to peek over the trees on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,41],"tags":[63,45,65,47,61,49,59,67,55,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682"}],"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=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}