Ridge Road · 1,200 ft · est. 2009
Coffee with a view
We roast in small batches at the top of the hill, then pour it slowly while the valley wakes up underneath you.
Our story
A shed, a roaster,
and a very
stubborn hill.
In 2009 we hauled a 5-kilo drum roaster up Ridge Road in the back of a borrowed truck. It took four of us, most of a Saturday, and one broken tailgate. The shed it went into is still standing — it’s the room your beans are roasted in this week.
Everything since has followed the same rule: if it can be done slowly and done better, we do it slowly. Green coffee is bought from four farms we visit. Milk comes from the dairy you passed on the way up. Bread is baked at the bottom of the hill at 4am and arrives still warm.
The ritual
Four minutes,
start to finish
Every pour-over on this hill follows the same recipe. Scroll it through and watch the clock run — this is exactly what happens behind the bar.
Weigh & grind 0:00
22 grams, ground medium-coarse the moment you order. Coffee starts losing itself about thirty seconds after the burrs stop.
The bloom 0:30
60ml at 92°C, then we wait. The bed swells and lets go of the carbon dioxide it’s been holding since the roast.
First pour 1:15
Concentric circles out from the centre, never touching the paper. Up to 180ml and hold.
Second pour 2:30
The rest of the water in two gentle stages. A flat bed at the end means the extraction ran even.
Drawdown & serve 4:00
Swirl, rest ninety seconds, then drink it. It changes three times on the way down to room temperature — that’s the good part.
On the roaster
Take the hill
home with you
Morning Fog
Washed caturra picked at 1,750m. Bright, clean and floral — the one we brew as filter every day.
Ridge Line
Our house blend base. Natural process heirloom cut with a Brazilian pulped natural for body.
Last Light
Pushed just past second crack for the people who take it black at 4pm and sleep fine anyway.
Regulars
Worth the drive up
I came for the view and stayed for a flat white that ruined every other flat white for me. Fifteen minutes out of town and worth every one of them.
They let me sit with one cortado and a notebook for three hours and nobody once looked at my table. That’s the whole review.
Ask them about the roast. Genuinely — ask. You’ll leave twenty minutes later knowing more about coffee than you did about anything that morning.
Find us
Top of Ridge Road,
past the water tank
1188 Ridge Road, Hillcrest. Parking under the gums. The last hundred metres are gravel — take it slow, the view isn’t going anywhere.
Book a table
Weekends fill by 8am. Tell us when and we’ll hold one by the window.