Specialty coffee roaster · South Melbourne · $ · Solid · should-visit · verified

Clement Coffee

The stall was the market's electrical substation. It now runs two espressos and two filters a day, which is the entire coffee offering, and the bags on the shelf carry the farm name and the variety.

Why go

Kris Wood started at St Ali in 2008, moved on to manage the bar and roastery at Proud Mary two years later, and opened this in 2012 when the South Melbourne Market space came free. The espresso machine is a customised Kees van der Westen Spirit brought in from Holland, one of the first in Melbourne, with two Mazzer Robur Autos beside it; filters go through V60s on Marco grinders and boilers. The green coffee comes through Melbourne Coffee Merchants, Silo and Sensory Lab, and Clement roasts its own at the St Ali roastworks nearby (Sprudge). The house blends are named for the neighbours: a Pony Blend for Pony Bikes, a Beaufort Blend for the bar. The venue's own position on why the offering keeps moving is a fruit argument: "Like all fruit, coffee is seasonal" (Clement).

Order this / avoid

Order: whichever of the two espressos is on, then come back for the filter. Beans to take home, and the Pony Blend if you brew on a stovetop. A Lune pastry if it is a weekday.
Avoid: the market's dark days. And do not come looking for breakfast; there is no egg on toast here.

What locals & experts say

Eileen P. Kenny, Sprudge: Clement "manages to be the rare Melbourne venues that balances the hallmarks of a super-nerdy specialty coffee set-up, filter brewing, bag labels displaying variety and farm, incredibly enthusiastic baristas, with a genuine and sincere customer experience." ref
Broadsheet Melbourne on the labelling: they "hope to educate; listing farm names, origin, varieties and expected flavours." ref
South Melbourne Market lists it plainly as "hole in the wall coffee" at Stall 89 on the Cecil Street side. ref
Both detailed accounts are old, from 2012 and 2013, and they disagree about whether Clement is an independent or part of the St Ali family. Neither version is asserted here.

Good to know

Where: Stall 89, Cecil Street side of South Melbourne Market.
Timing: market hours. The market's own trader information puts Clement on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8am; an older trade piece said seven days from 7am. Check before a special trip.
Booking: none. It is a window.
Near MCEC: yes, South Melbourne is a short tram ride from the convention centre.
Safety: Victoria publishes no per-venue hygiene rating. Safe Food Victoria's register of court convictions under the Food Act 1984 was read in full on 1 August 2026 and does not list this venue. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

Note: none. Melbourne has no saved-places export in the repo, so nothing here can be traced to Jeff's own words.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — The stall was the market's electrical substation before it was a coffee bar, which is about the right size for what it does: two espressos and two filters a day and nothing else. Kris Wood came out of St Ali in 2008, ran the bar and roastery at Proud Mary, and opened this in 2012 with a customised Kees van der Westen Spirit shipped from Holland, one of the first in the city. Filters go through V60s on Marco kit. The bags carry the farm name, the origin and the variety, which is the tell that somebody is buying green coffee rather than ordering a blend. Eileen P. Kenny, writing for the coffee trade, put her finger on why it works: all that gear and none of the attitude. There is no egg on toast. Weekdays there are Lune pastries. Take beans home.