What does your personal coffee ritual look like? And what does it mean to you? Market Lane’s How Do You Brew? series features brilliant, unique, passionate and innovative people from our wider community – including creatives, entrepreneurs and changemakers – generously giving us a glimpse of their own special coffee moments, and sharing the rituals and meaning behind them.
Scott Larritt and Claire Larritt-Evans are a super dynamic creative duo. As Founder and Creative Director of design studio Swear Words, Scott has worked with Market Lane since before we opened our doors, helping create and maintain our brand identity over the last 14 years. As Founder and Creative Director of interior design and styling studio Larritt-Evans, Claire was instrumental in designing Market Lane’s Prahran Market shop in 2009 and our Therry St shop in 2011!
On top of their busy lives as small business owners and parents, Scott and Claire recently collaborated on their first home project together – a beautiful beach house in Rye, on the Mornington Peninsula, where the sound of Scott grinding the morning coffee is punctuated by kookaburra calls and rolling ocean waves. The couple welcomed us into their gorgeous home and talked to us about their daily coffee ritual, their favourite brewing gear, and their ideal way to spend a Sunday with their family at the beach.
Market Lane: How do you start your morning?
Scott: I roll out of bed and make a beeline for the espresso machine at about 7am. The familiar flick of the on-switch and whirr of the grinder are the unofficial household wake-up calls to begin the hustle of making breakfast and preparing school lunches. We’re all out the door by 8:30. If the weather is fine, I’ll ride my commuter bike into the studio – this quick 30 minutes along St Kilda Beach and cutting through Albert Park is my favourite way to start the day.
Claire: I stir when I hear the grinder going and I’m lucky that Scott brings a coffee in to me in bed every day. We all go about our mornings making breakfast, lunches, music playing, the dog running around – it’s organised chaos as we all get ready for the day. After walking our daughter to school, I take our dog Gypsy for a walk to our local park and, if I have time, on to the beach before starting my workday.
Tell us about your daily coffee ritual.
Scott: At home in Melbourne, my first task is to switch on our trusty Rancilio machine and make preparations while it warms up. I love the process of fine-tuning the grind to perfect the extraction, and I find it fascinating how much it can vary between different roasts and beans and even weather conditions. I use a Breville Smart Grinder and have found it to be consistently excellent for our needs. Once the machine is warmed, I’ll pull two double ristretto shots for two strong piccolos, one to be hand-delivered to Claire as her morning wake-up coffee. Upon arriving at the studio, I’ll have a cup of filter coffee waiting, courtesy of our Moccamaster, to get me fired up for the morning WIP.
Claire: I think we’ve established that Scott is the coffee maker in our home! I do enjoy making it and love surprising Scott with one on occasion, but he makes it better than me and so it’s his gig in the mornings.
What’s your favourite spot in the world (or in your home!) to enjoy a delicious coffee?
Scott: At our beach house (Nerissa) I love to pull back the curtains and stare at the gum tree on our southern boundary. Framed by the sky and our roofline, it is lit up with morning sun and becomes a beautiful focus point to contemplate, be present and start the day. At special moments a kookaburra, rosella or currawong will be greeting the morning or flailing about in the foliage.
Claire: Waking up at Nerissa on weekends with the kids piled into our bed, a coffee in hand. Now that our kids are getting older, we relish this time even more – the best thing is to linger together with nowhere to be, just to be together.
Describe your perfect Sunday.
Scott: Waking up at Nerissa and hearing nothing but the ocean and kookaburras. Out of bed early(ish), a quick breakfast, then walk down to Ocean Beach with the family. We’ll grab a second coffee for the day, a magic at our local 16 Beach General Store on the way, and trudge down to the shore to explore the rockpools, watch whales swim past or just simply admire the surf. Then it’s off to grab some local produce and treats from the market to prep a slow-cooked meal for friends and family. A quick lunch from the local bakery then back home to stock the firepit and fireplace ready for a cosy night ahead.
Claire: Having just finished building this home, our favourite thing to do is wake up there. Waking to the sounds of the waves crashing. The first part of our day is always coffee and an all-in in our bed with the kids. After that, we walk to 16 Beach – we love to have friends or family over for meals, our house is always full of people and we just love having people buzzing around, food being prepared. It’s loud and little chaotic but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
You both work in creative fields. What feeds your creativity/gets you inspired?
Scott: I find time alone in nature supremely energising. Whether it’s on my mountain bike or simply wandering on foot, the freedom to randomly associate thoughts and be present with no agenda or external pressure is liberating and deeply fulfilling.
Claire: I think that time is the ultimate freedom. So many seeds of creativity stem from observing the world around me, getting offline and having time just to wander around is the greatest luxury. We are inundated with so much imagery daily through our phones and computers and I love to take a break and really open my eyes to the world around me.
What projects do you have in the pipeline that you’re excited about right now?
Scott: I feel very fortunate to be involved in several projects that are really exciting. Unfortunately, these are brand identities and digital design projects for unique products and services that are yet to launch so I can’t say too much! However, it’s probably the diversity of these projects that I find the most stimulating. For example, one is a brand identity/web design project for a new Balinese design brand with a truly innovative sustainable business model, and another is a naming, brand identity and packaging design project for a disruptive pet food product. A third is a brand refresh for one of Australia’s largest building surveying companies and, finally, a naming, brand identity and app design project with a truly innovative memory-enrichment app targeting an international audience.
Claire: I am in construction on a substantial period home in Elsternwick. This project was first designed in 2019 and went on hold during Covid. Coming back to a design that has been completed a few years prior, it’s satisfying knowing we creatively didn’t want to make any alterations to its original concept. It’s so rewarding to now be in the final stages of construction, seeing our plans now being executed onsite. On a personal level, we’re excited to be opening Nerissa up to guests to stay on a short term basis, and we’re looking forward to welcoming guests this summer and onwards.
