Today was Highgate Lane’s official opening. Located inside the Cusack Centre (entrance next to Bittersweet) in Kingston’s Green Square, Highgate Lane is the latest coffee roasters and cafe to open in Canberra.
An impressive looking motorbike is on display by the front ready to be admired by motorcycling enthusiasts (e.g my partner).
The warehouse look suits this small space with raw walls simply covered with chalkboard signage, black and red exposed piping, hessian sacks filled with coffee beans, a coffee roasting machine and a few tables and chairs. Minimal but sleek decor where the focus is all about the coffee.
The trio of owners all work at Bittersweet and were previously using the space that is Highgate Lane for other purposes. A decision was made to create something special and with a passion for good coffee, Highgate Lane was born.
Coffee beans are sourced from countries such as Papua New Guinea, India, Ethiopia and more – all are fair trade. The boys roast on site using their 15kg capacity roasting machine and will be churning out about 60kg of coffee a week.
The massive coffee roasting machine
There is expected to be 5 main blends available and 5 single origin blends that will change regularly. Coffee beans will be available to purchase for you home roasters. The boys emphasise that prices will be reasonable and cheaper than buying online.
I ordered a soy mocha ($4, I don’t quite remember if there was an extra charge for soy milk) and was happy to see a food menu for ‘breakfast rolls’. It was a salmon kind of morning, so the salmon, egg, rocket and hollandaise ($11.50) was my choice.
My big cup of coffee is velvety smooth. Exactly what I needed on a Monday!
The Bittersweet kitchen is utilised to make breakfast. The portion size was much bigger than expected. Absolutely delicious and cheap.
The boys are currently working on an app where customers can pre-order their coffee before popping down to collect it. This is expected to be available in roughly a month’s time. Great coffee and speedy service is a key focus. The boys are also thinking about introducing roasting and cupping sessions taking customers through the roasting process and tasting the differences in their coffee blends. Good for coffee noobs like me! This is still in the works but sounds like it will be very popular.
Highgate Lane will be open Monday to Friday from 6am to roughly 3pm (hours are still being trialled at this stage). The space will be open for Bittersweet patrons on weekends to allow for the overflow of diners.
Foodgasm 8/10
