If you, like us, have been celebrating everything about Belle's Hot Chicken on Gertrude Street except the lack of bottomless cups of black coffee (a la American diners), lament no more. Right next door is Gertrude Stein's, where they're serving just that.
This is the sleek temporary retail space from Melbourne’s nice guys of wholesale coffee sales, Coffee Supreme, and their aim is to educate and caffeinate you as hard as they can. It's more an interactive shop than a café. They do free brewing tutorials at 3pm daily, and one wall is lined with their coffee maps and beans and all the kettles, Aeropresses and nice cups you need for filter coffee success. But there's also a couple of benches where they're happy for you to plant yourself and spend as long as you like drinking the batch brew if you're thirsty, sleepy, or lonely.
A batch brew, in case you're unfamiliar, is pretty much a pourover made on a large scale using a machine – the water is added gradually to carefully draw out the flavours. It's served from one of those pump-top flasks, but it's a far cry from the stuff of US petrol stations. Our Kenyan blend comes out naturally sweet and tart like a hibiscus tea. It’s an easy-drinking good time, even if you’re usually a milk fan or working with a five star hangover. They're also doing pourovers if you want to take any of the other bean blends for a test drive and if you need a snack, they've got a fat shortbread cookies. Get in while you can.