The Final Step

A young NZ man bred from a family cafe business takes it to the next level in this off the main street mini haunt in South Yarra.

The first thing you experience when arriving at Final Step is the feel of the venue. Low outdoor seating, relaxed seating, the full wall mural that adds to the realaxed cafe vibe and the vintage piano, that was purchased with customers generous tips!

Ben's manner and demeanour is equally as relaxed and welcoming. AS the space is small, it seems very natural that he works on building a rapport with his regulars, remembering their names, and orders, and engaging in coversation. It is a level of service, comfort and professionalism rarely experienced.

To the coffee: using the blends brought to him from St Ali, Ben works on perfection from each cup. If this review seems glowing on both the service and atmosphere of Final Step, let me say this: Final Step is about the coffee. Even under pressure, the coffee comes out well extracted, with milk blended and textured perfectly. I have to say, this is my favourite venue for drinking St Ali's coffee; Ben hits it on the head every time.

Final Step is a venue you want to go to. A place that you must stop in at if you are in the area, and a place that, if you are a coffee fan, are likely to frequent as often as you can.

Love this spot. Keep up the good work Ben.

The Final Step is the last step in the epic journey that is coffee; simply putting it in a cup and serving it. Now many cafes around Melbourne would claim to do this well but in fact hardly any do this final process very well at all, that is until you step inside this cosy little coffee shop. Ben who I only just met today runs the place and makes you feel at home straight away. As I talked with him I learnt how he moved to Melbourne from New Zealand and decided to open up a little coffee shop that purely specialises in great coffee, nothing else, oh except some little chocolate brownies that I haven’t sampled yet. This is not an issue though as The Final Step is all about that amazing dark bean we all love so much & nothing else.

Firstly I am struck by how warm and inviting this place feels, being small with earthy green walls, a few small tables & a window bench, magazines to read and the centrepiece being a shiny new La Marzocco Linear Pedal machine & Mazzer grinder. The whole place just works really well together and I could easily spend time just reading a magazine sipping on a coffee during these cold winter days.

Enough banter… What’s the coffee like? Well to start with they are using St Ali’s house blend. Nice! I order a Flat White and am quickly served a beautiful looking coffee in a nice sized brown cup; it’s sweet and smooth with not a hint of bitterness but still a nice earthy coffee flavour that lingers for a short time and quickly disappears making this flatty very easy to down. I was really impressed and after more talking with Ben he served me a ristretto which was pure gold! Nice and sweet, short and just a very pleasant balanced coffee, just amazing!

If you don’t want to put up with mediocre coffee served up in most of the cafes in this area then simply grab a sandwich on the run and bring it here and enjoy lunch with a decent coffee! Don’t worry I already asked and yes you can BYO lunch. I really love this tiny place and I will definitely be coming back for more.