Sydney’s coffee has a centre of gravity, and it is Surry Hills. Single O bought a roaster there in 2003, Reuben Hills opened in 2012, Sample started as a multi-roaster bar in 2011, and Artificer and Paramount Coffee Project sit a few blocks apart. From there the roasters have moved west to Marrickville and St Peters, where the warehouses are, and the cafés have followed the workers into the CBD. The list is not ranked.
Single O, Surry Hills
Single O’s founders bought a 15 kg roaster in 2003, named it Big Boris and started roasting in Surry Hills, where the café still stands. The company became a B Corp, invented the Juggler milk tap and batch brew on tap, and describes its wholesale work as its main game. The Surry Hills café serves the Reservoir blend and around four single origins alongside a seasonal breakfast and lunch menu, with the Sideshow brew bar next door for takeaway pour-overs. On Saturday mornings there is a stall at the Carriageworks Farmers Market.
Reuben Hills, Surry Hills and Marrickville
Sourced worldwide, roasted in Marrickville, brewed all over: Reuben Hills has been a place to slow down and explore coffee without the gatekeeping since 2012, in its own words. The Surry Hills café serves a menu inspired by the regions its coffees come from, walk-ins only. The roastery, wholesale operation and retail counter are in Marrickville, with more than fifty single-origin releases to the company’s name.
Sample Coffee, Surry Hills, St Peters and Marrickville
Reuben Mardan founded Sample in 2011 after nearly a decade brewing and roasting for Single O and Mecca, and the company describes itself as born on Gadigal land, small by design and independent by nature. It began as a multi-roaster espresso bar, opened its own roastery in St Peters in 2014 and became a B Corp; every green coffee is bought above the commodity and Fair Trade prices and scores 80 or more. There is a shop in Surry Hills, the roastery and Pro Shop in St Peters and a new café in Marrickville. The roastery is moving to Marrickville in 2026 as its St Peters precinct is redeveloped.
Mecca Coffee, Alexandria, Paddington and Darlinghurst
Mecca has roasted since 2005, when its founders travelled to origin because, they say, Australian roasters could not tell them which farm their coffee came from. The café and roastery in Alexandria is the heart of the company, with a seasonal menu. A café at The Intersection in Paddington followed, and a new Darlinghurst bar opened in 2026 as a space for tastings and training. The original CBD café closed in August 2024.
Skittle Lane, the CBD, Circular Quay, Manly, Bondi and Brookvale
Skittle Lane opened in 2015 in a heritage-listed building in the CBD, calls Sydney Australia’s other great coffee city, and buys green coffee scoring 80 and above from B Corp importers. Circular Quay, Manly and Bondi follow the ferry and the beaches. Roasting moved in 2026 from the Bondi espresso bar to a new roastery and coffee bar in Brookvale, where a P25 roaster sits in the middle of the warehouse.
Gumption and Coffee Alchemy, the Strand Arcade and Marrickville
Hazel de los Reyes, Australian Barista Champion in 2005 and Cup Tasting Champion in 2007, and Clare, the unwavering enabler in the company’s words, started by hacking popcorn poppers to roast coffee and built Coffee Alchemy into a Sydney roaster with shops in New York and Singapore. Gumption, the sister brand, holds a shop in the Strand Arcade. The Coffee Alchemy roastery café is in Marrickville.
Campos Coffee, Newtown
Will Young opened the first Campos café in Newtown in 2002, and the green cup has since spread across the country’s cafés. The Newtown flagship serves the Superior blend of Ethiopian, Kenyan and Colombian coffee that the company aims to buy entirely at origin. A Panamanian geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda won champion espresso at the 2025 Royal Adelaide Coffee Show.
Artificer and Paramount Coffee Project, Surry Hills
Two Surry Hills counters round out the neighbourhood. Artificer is a specialty coffee bar and roastery run by Shoji and Dan that specialises, in its own words, in the procurement of delicious coffee: fifty to sixty different coffees a year, rested three to four weeks before they reach the grinder. Paramount Coffee Project, in the foyer of the Paramount House Hotel, has taken an unbiased approach to coffee since 2013, serving changing origins, processes and roasters beside seasonal café food, walk-ins only.
Haven and The Grounds, for the city and Alexandria
Haven, a Sydney roaster whose line is For Locals, By Locals, runs five cafés from Barangaroo and Darling Quarter to Green Square, Rosebery and an espresso bar in Haymarket. The Grounds opened in a former pie factory in Alexandria in 2012 and has grown into a destination with its own roastery at The Coffee Factory in South Eveleigh, where visitors can watch roasting, book a cupping or order a tableside pour-over.
What you need to know about Sydney specialty coffee
Which Sydney roasters are worth visiting? Mecca’s Alexandria roastery café, Sample’s Marrickville and St Peters sites, Coffee Alchemy in Marrickville, Reuben Hills’ Marrickville counter and Skittle Lane’s new Brookvale roastery all open to the public.
Where is good coffee near Town Hall? Skittle Lane’s CBD flagship and Gumption in the Strand Arcade are both a short walk away.
Where should a first coffee walk start? Surry Hills. Single O, Reuben Hills, Sample, Artificer and Paramount Coffee Project sit within fifteen minutes of each other.
Photo credits
Photographs belong to the businesses and are reproduced from their official websites with attribution.
