For most of its existence, Brisbane has been regarded as the lesser caffeine city amongst Australia’s big three – mostly by those that don’t live here. That might be changing, if latest trends are anything to go by. There’s been a wave of interest in Southeast Queensland’s coffee scene in the wake of the pandemic, with a handful of interstate giants planting flags in Brisbane with the intent to capture a bigger portion of the burgeoning local market.

First Sydney roaster Seven Miles landed in Albion in 2021. This year Single O followed suit with an outpost of its own in Newstead. And then, just last week, renowned Melbourne-born coffee empire ST ALi lifted the roller-door entrance to its new roastery and espresso bar in a Morningside commercial park. ST ALi will likely be familiar to seasoned coffee drinkers – its sleek minimally branded bags of beans have become an increasingly familiar sight at top cafes around the city, including Public and Spencer Coffee Bar in The City, The Green on James Street, and Sippy Tom in Teneriffe, to name a few.

The ST ALi team has been plotting a northward jump for a little while, acquiring the Lytton Road site (formerly home to Dramanti Artisan Coffee Roasters) in the middle of 2022. It’s a move that ST ALi CEO Lachlan Ward says was prompted, in part, by the roaster’s booming popularity across the Sunshine State – its wholesale portfolio currently includes more than 50 cafes across Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

“Southeast Queensland is our fastest growing area for the business, which is something I’m really proud of and testament to the team we’ve got up here,” Lachlan tells us. “I think this time next year Queensland will be bigger for us than New South Wales. It’s pretty incredible, given the shorter time we’ve been operating up here.”

The Morningside warehouse gives the ST ALi team a solid base from which to carve out a bigger foothold in the Brisbane market, with a roasting set up, espresso bar and upstairs training room offering a perfect plug-and-play set-up to not only service its local wholesale clientele, but create an engaging touchpoint for Brisbane’s coffee-sipping community at large. “The cafes in Victoria are our billboard,” says Lachlan. “They’re like our showroom, where people come and decide if they like the brand and attach themselves to it. It’s a difficult thing interstate – you need to give your consumers and your wholesale customers a place to come and touch and feel.”

From a customer-facing standpoint, ST ALi Morningside has all the essentials covered. Phase one of the location’s transformation has focused on branding touches, with phase two likely to involve an overhaul of the coffee bar and the installation of a small kitchen. That said, the grungy warehouse space will intentionally boast a more streamlined offering. “This is obviously very different to our full-service cafes,” says Lachlan. “This is more of a cellar-door experience. I think this will focus more on coffee, and the education and support of our customers, than a full hospitality experience.”

Currently, ST ALi is serving its core blends (roasted in Melbourne and shipped up on a weekly basis) plus an ever-shifting array of single-origin sips (roasted on site) alongside a handful of pastries from Bulimba’s Darvella Patisserie. Once the coffee bar is redone the team will add manual brewing to the offering, alongside a range of simple sandwiches, salads and pastries.

ST. ALi aren’t playing coy about their long-term ambitions for Queensland, which involve engaging with the community on a larger scale and increasing the roaster’s presence north of the border. In the near future ST ALi’s roasting gear will be made accesibile to the community, giving local coffee heads the opportunity to utilise the gear for communal roasting. And, while no plans are set, the team is exploring the idea of opening a flagship hospitality venue in Brisbane further down the line.