Proud Mary, 172 Oxford St (corner Stanley St), Collingwood
Breakfast and lunch 7 days. Cash only.
I’ve never seen so much hype in the twittoblogosphere as Proud Mary has had in the few weeks since it opened. (Probably this will be about the 17th blog post you’ve already read about it.)
So you’ll probably already know that Proud Mary is one of these new “third wave” coffee houses that roasts its own single-origin beans, blends its own house roasts, has a modified fridge to store the beans in, uses Oompa Loompas to grind each bean by hand, and offers coffee made every which way you can think of (including syphon, Clover and French press, as well as espresso of course).
(OK, so I made up the part about the Oompa Loompas.)
And if you know all this, you will have also heard about The Six-Group Synesso.
I’ve never seen (or read) so much drooling over a piece of machinery that wasn’t a Ferrari.
Anyway, while it’s certainly big and shiny, I don’t really get the excitement – maybe it’s a testosterone thing. Check out the hordes of boys gawking at all the equipment.
We visited at around 11.30am on a Saturday, and the place was packed – we had to stand and wait for a table for about 15 minutes. There’s no table service, you have to order up at the counter.
The coffees took another 15 minutes to arrive after we ordered (despite the awesome power of the Six-Group Synesso – I noted they weren’t using all six groups). So that’s a half-hour total wait time to get caffeine – though to be fair, they haven’t been open long.
With all this expensive single-origin shiny chrome whiz-bangery, I am expecting awesome coffee. I ordered a latte with their House Blend beans:
How was it? Well, pretty good – although I didn’t enjoy it as much as
Outpost, or Seven Seeds. Generally I judge my coffee enjoyment on whether or not it’s so good I have to have a second cup (despite knowing I’ll be bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day). I didn’t need a second cup at Proud Mary.
That said, my brother the Coffee Nazi loved it, and plans to return. (Although it’s possible he just wants to go back to stroke the Synesso.)
Oh yeah – they have food too.
We just shared some fruit toast and a muffin – which were both pleasant. The hot dishes looked pretty good.
But let’s face it, you’re not coming to Proud Mary for the food. You’re coming to perve on the expensive coffee equipment. And if that’s what floats your boat, you’re going to love it here.
KATE
i'm not a barista, but i'm pretty sure the six groups are so they can operate with a ton of settings tweaked to suit the different s.o. beans and blends? rather than a raw capacity thing
Sawks – you could be right.
he usually is. he also works next door and no doubt consumes a lot of their coffee.
Correct. The Synesso is an uber-machine capable of being tweaked to the max. Simply awesome. Might I suggest that the OP perhaps didn't enjoy his coffee as much at Proud Mary because it was an origin he didn't really like? It's pretty hard to go wrong with the Synesso so I'm guessing you just didn't like the origin as much as what they served you at Outpost or Seven Seeds.
3 of the groups on the 6 group are reserved for each of the single origins so nothing taints the flavour
Hands down without a doubt the best coffe in melbourne is at proud mary!
Second to that the mailing room and then 7 seeds, I'm always right, so no disagreeing!!
Show me 1 other person that is as passionate about coffee as Nolan from
proud mary! Truly the king of coffee in Melbourne if not Australia!!! It's no wonder his coffee is always amazing!
Nolan's at Proud Mary?!? Awesome, I'll drop through soon. I have faith in that man's coffee. And he's a rad dude too:-)