St Ali Coffee Roasters
Mark Dundon opened this warehouse in 2005 and roasted on site, which is where the Melbourne cafe-roastery came from. He sold it in 2008 and started Seven Seeds.
Why go
The roaster is in the room. St Ali has been buying direct from farmers and roasting in house since 2005 by its own account (ST. ALi), and Time Out's reviewer calls it one of the original cafe-roasteries, from before everyone was doing it (Time Out). Broadsheet records the handover: Dundon sold in 2008 to Salvatore Malatesta, who made it the flagship of a cafe group, and Dundon went on to open Seven Seeds (Broadsheet). Andrew Gale, who owned and cooked at Duchess of Spotswood, took over the kitchen and kept the corn fritters. The General Store sells the beans to take home. There are now nine St Ali venues; this is the first one.
Order this / avoid
- Order: a magic, which is the local order and a double ristretto in a small flat white. The corn fritters. The house-cured salmon with horseradish and dill yoghurt and the fried potato gnocchi.
- Avoid: the back half of the afternoon. The kitchen stops at 3pm on weekdays and the doors close at 5pm.
What locals & experts say
- Emily Lloyd-Tait, Time Out Melbourne, on what the place actually is:
St Ali on Yarra Place was one of the original café-roasteries back before everyone was taking the DIY approach to coffee beans.
She describes 9am on a Tuesday,the espresso machine, roaster and kitchen cacophony
, and a room holdinga full Melbourne cross-section
.4 - Time Out Melbourne Food Awards: People's Choice, Best Takeaway Coffee, 2016. That is the most recent accolade found.4
- No Melbourne chef names it. Across 44 voters and 74 picks in Broadsheet's Where Chefs Eat series, and all 89 articles on the index, St Ali does not come up.6
- Who owns it is unclear from its own site. The About page says
ST. ALi is wholly owned by its employees
. The Salvatore Malatesta page on the same site says heis the owner of ST ALi coffee
. Broadsheet has him buying it in 2008. All three are recorded here, and no source settles it.3
Good to know
- Where: 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne, in the back streets rather than on a main road.
- Timing: 7am to 5pm every day. The kitchen runs to 3pm on weekdays and 4pm at weekends.
- Booking: walk-in.
- Sites: nine St Ali venues exist, including Port Melbourne, a Collins Street canteen, Brisbane, Bali, Manila and both Melbourne Airport terminals. This entry is the South Melbourne roastery and none of the evidence here applies to the others.
- City signature: this is a Melbourne coffee venue in the sense the city means it, a roaster rather than a chain, roasting on the premises since 2005.
- Diet: no dietary or allergen statement is published, so nothing is flagged.
- Food safety: Victoria publishes no venue hygiene ratings. Safe Food Victoria's section 53D register of convictions, as at 21 July 2026, carries fifteen entries and no St Ali premises appears on it.7
Verdict
should-visit — Mark Dundon opened this in a South Melbourne warehouse in 2005 and started roasting on site to supply the cafe, which is where the Melbourne cafe-roastery model came from. He sold it in 2008 and went off to found Seven Seeds. Emily Lloyd-Tait's Time Out review puts it plainly: St Ali on Yarra Place 'was one of the original café-roasteries back before everyone was taking the DIY approach to coffee beans'. Andrew Gale came over from Duchess of Spotswood and kept the corn fritters, which tells you what the regulars care about. Order a magic. The awkward facts are that no working Melbourne chef names it in a 44-chef survey, that the last accolade found is Time Out's People's Choice Best Takeaway Coffee from 2016, and that there are now nine St Ali venues including two airport terminals, so a group is being run alongside the roastery. Go for the coffee and the history, before 3pm.