Everyday made a name for itself in Collingwood, the CBD and most recently in Northcote at All Are Welcome by serving great coffee. Its latest location on Queensbury Street in Carlton does just that, and a lot more.

“It’s not a coffee shop in the true sense,” explains Everyday founder Mark Free. The venue is little more than a couple of plywood tables and the electricity connected. In the middle of Carlton’s university quarter, and occupying a former receiving dock, this new Everyday is rough and stark. It’s all about the hustle.

“There’s a long tradition of coffee houses as meeting places, and places where you get shit done,” says Free. “There have been plenty of revolutions planned in coffee shops, I’m sure.”

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Everyday has partnered with a couple of others to set the space up: design studio Public Office (located upstairs), Perimeter Books, and bookmakers Ziga Testen and Stuart Geddes. It was Testen who first raised the idea of collaborating, but the conversation soon swelled to involve Geddes and Public Office’s Paul Mylecharane and Matthew Lenz, too. All four were regulars at Everyday’s Collingwood store. As
Free explains, “[together] we conceptualised it as a multi-use space … it’s a bookshop with a coffee cart, and also an event space.” Add print shop to that, too.

Free says they’re essentially testing a concept to see if it works. If it does, they’ll upgrade to something that feels a little more permanent.

A trusty La Marzocco Linea espresso machine – all stainless steel and right angles – sits comfortably amid the industrial aesthetic. It occupies most of the small countertop, alongside a grinder, batch brewer and cashbox. A couple of plants hang from hooks, soaking up the sunlight that streams in through large, street-facing windows. A couple of retail shelves display titles from Perimeter Books – a small press in Thornbury – that Free describes as “topical and fluid”.

“They’ll be tailoring the collection to coincide with whatever’s going on at the time – in the shop or around town,” he says.

Public Office is also building a library of influential design books that people can leaf through as they down their daily brew. They’re asking other Melbourne design firms to contribute titles that inspire them, and will make a copy of each available at the coffee shop.

“In a way it’s a bit of a sidestep [for Everyday],” says Free. “We didn’t get into it thinking it would make us millions. We wanted to work with these people.”

Free’s business partner, Aaron Maxwell, comes from a graphic design background and has a longstanding interest in typography. “We wanted to bring that all together in a new and different space,” Free says.

Everyday Coffee
225 Queensberry Street, Carlton

Hours:
Mon to Fri 7.30am–4pm

everyday-coffee.com