Addict Food And Coffee
The bar pours five different roasters: an Axil blend for milk drinks, a Sir Charles roast for black, and filter beans from A Coffee, Dukes and Maker Fine Coffee.
Why go
Greg Brassil and Joe Ventura spent two years looking before they took the corner of Johnston and Gore Streets, and opened here in mid-2014 with two ex-St Ali chefs, Mark Boyd and Steve Hogan, in the kitchen (Concrete Playground). The Coffee Communications Culture Group, which also owns Sir Charles, Liar Liar and Loco Coffee, bought the business in 2015 and Brassil went off to open All Good Coffee in the CBD. What makes the room worth a line is the buying rather than the roasting: filter runs through a Moccamaster for batch, a pour-over for a single cup, or cold brew when it is warm (Broadsheet). The kitchen ran an all-day breakfast and lunch menu with real vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.
Order this / avoid
- Order: filter, since that is where the multi-roaster buying shows. The potato hash with mushroom duxelles and a poached egg. Corn fritters with kasundi and haloumi.
- Avoid: crossing town without checking it is trading, and looking for it in the CBD, because it is in Fitzroy.
What locals & experts say
- Amy Collins, Concrete Playground, August 2014:
When it comes to the food, a crowd favourite is the potato hash and mushroom duxelles with roasted field mushrooms, a poached egg and caramelised onions, plated up like a fine dining entree.
2 - Broadsheet, on the coffee:
The coffee here is a serious affair, with an Axil Coffee Roasters blend for milky cups and a Sir Charles roast for black. Filter coffee comes from A Coffee, Dukes Coffee Roasters and Maker Fine Coffee.
1 - The honest state of the evidence: both pieces above are from 2014, and no critic or guide has written about this cafe since. No award, no barista competition placing, and no chef in the 74-pick Melbourne corpus names it.
Good to know
- Where: 240-242 Johnston St, Fitzroy, on the corner of Gore Street. This database previously listed it in the CBD on A'Beckett Street, which was wrong and is corrected.
- Trading status: unconfirmed as of 1 August 2026. Both of the cafe's own domains fail to resolve, the Instagram fetch returned nothing, and the only recent traces are aggregator listings, which outlive the businesses on them. Call before you go.
- Timing: the last published hours are 7am to 4pm on weekdays and 8am to 4pm at weekends.
- Booking: walk-in.
- Diet: the menu carried vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. Nothing addresses cross-contamination, so the weaker gluten flag applies.
- Food safety: Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions, updated 21 July 2026, does not list this business or this address. Victoria publishes court convictions under s.53D of the Food Act, held for twelve months each, which is narrower than a UK hygiene rating.
Verdict
listed — Keep this one on the radar, with a warning attached. The interesting thing about Addict is that it roasts nothing and buys well: an Axil blend for milk drinks, a Sir Charles roast for black, and filter beans from A Coffee, Dukes and Maker Fine Coffee, run through a Moccamaster for batch, a pour-over for single cups and a cold brew in summer. Greg Brassil and Joe Ventura opened it on the corner of Johnston and Gore in mid-2014 with two ex-St Ali chefs in the kitchen, and the Coffee Communications Culture Group bought it a year later. The reason it sits at the bottom of the ladder is currency, not quality. Both of the cafe's own web domains stopped resolving before 1 August 2026, no critic or guide has written about it since 2014, and the only recent traces are aggregator pages, which this project has already learned outlive the businesses on them. Check it is open before you cross town, and note that this database previously had it in the CBD on A'Beckett Street, which is wrong.