Places like Dukes Coffee Roasters are popping up around Melbourne more and more. And by that I mean places of the St. Ali and Outpost standard. They are raising the bar when it comes to coffee and I’m certainly not going to stop them.

Located at the better end of Chapel Street (just a few doors down from Lucky Coq) Dukes Coffee Roasters roast their own beans on the premises and serve up perfect coffee after perfect coffee. It’s at the regal end of the coffee shop spectrum and wholly deserving of its popularity.

I love Dukes but apparently so do a lot of other people. It can get very busy, especially on weekends but the spacious venue can always fit you in before long and that busy buzz of Sunday mornings is charming in itself. The waitstaff are on the ball as well so there’s smooth service even in the busiest times. 

Their food is fantastic too. The menu has unique touches so you don’t get bored but it still has all the breakfast basics to keep you happy. Try and choose between the potato roesti with smoked salmon, crème fraiche, pickled beetroot and dill, pancakes with vanilla bean mascarpone and citrus segments in toffee syrup or sweet potato and corn fritters with crispy pancetta, spinach and harissa mayo. There's an in-house deli out the back where they freshly slice their own cured meats and cheeses to stuff in baguettes for lunch or drape over your eggs. Many meals on the menu incorporate these cured meats that are so delicate they’ll melt on your tongue.

I'll admit it- I'm a coffee snob. I wouldn't kick up a fuss and get all dramatic about it but a bad coffee can leave a sour taste in my mouth all day (figuratively and literally). Dukes wouldn't dream of making a bad coffee. They're coffee snobs too and that's exactly how I like my baristas to be.