Calere Coffee
There is one single origin on at a time, and if you ask, whoever is behind the counter will tell you what it is doing.
Why go
Alicia Feng runs this out of a shop on Gertrude Street that Broadsheet describes as a tiny, seriously, it's minuscule, nook. Blink and you'll miss it
(Broadsheet). Her partner Mo Zhou runs the small fine-diner Gaea next door. Feng buys single origin only, from Australian roasters rather than roasting in-house, and Time Out named Ona as the supplier at the time of writing. The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops ranked it twenty-eighth in the world in 2025, on a list scored seventy per cent by a panel of eight hundred judges against coffee quality, barista skill, sustainability, innovation and consistency (Time Out). It did not make the 2026 list. There are pastries, beans by the bag, and a small run of handmade ceramic mugs. Calere comes from the Latin for warm.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever single origin is on, and take it as filter if you want to taste the buying rather than the milk. A pastry with it. Beans on the way out.
- Avoid: after 4pm, when it closes seven days a week, and any expectation of a table.
What locals & experts say
- Time Out Melbourne, on the claim and whether it stands up:
this tiny hole-in-the-wall smack-bang in the centre of heart of Gertrude Street dishes up some of Australia's best coffee. A huge claim to make, but one that's deserved.
1 - The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops 2025, at number 28. Time Out's report of that year's list puts Calere behind only Proud Mary at four and Veneziano at nineteen among Melbourne venues, and ahead of Vacation Coffee and Seven Seeds.2
- And the part a venue never puts on its window: the 2026 edition of the same list carries only two Melbourne cafes, Proud Mary at twenty-seven and Vacation Coffee at one hundred. Calere is not on it.3
- Broadsheet, on the buying:
Coffee is always single origin, and the team at Calere tend to source from Australia's best coffee roasters.
4
Good to know
- Where: Shop 1, 166 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, next door to Gaea.
- Timing: Monday to Friday 6.30am to 4pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7.30am to 4pm.
- Booking: walk-in, and there is barely anywhere to stand let alone sit.
- Take home: beans by the bag and handmade ceramic mugs in small runs.
- Diet: no allergen or dietary statement is published, so nothing is flagged.
- Hygiene: Victoria publishes no venue ratings, only Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions under s.53D of the Food Act 1984, and this venue is not on it.6
Verdict
should-visit — There is one single origin on at a time, and the staff will walk you through it if you ask. That is the whole buying policy and it is more discipline than most cafes with ten times the floor space manage. The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops put Calere twenty-eighth in the world in 2025, ahead of Vacation Coffee and Seven Seeds and behind only Proud Mary and Veneziano among Melbourne rooms, on a list scored seventy per cent by an eight-hundred-judge panel. It did not make the 2026 list, which the entry records rather than hides. Alicia Feng runs it out of a nook on Gertrude Street that Broadsheet calls minuscule twice in one sentence, with beans by the bag and handmade ceramic mugs on the counter. Time Out's line is that it serves some of Australia's best coffee and that the claim is deserved. Melbourne coffee is the city's defining food culture and this is one of its serious rooms, so go early, drink it standing up and take beans.