Celebrating 15 years of Market Lane

Our coffee offering and approach were a bit different to others in Melbourne/Naarm (and even Australia) at the time. First and foremost, we wanted to put all the focus on the producers and farming communities who had grown and processed our coffees. We did this by sharing as much information about our coffees as possible, training our team to talk about them in-depth, and providing postcards with each cup or bag of beans, detailing where it was grown and what made it special. We also wanted to bring awareness to the seasonality of coffee. We celebrated the changes in our espresso blend throughout the year (people thought this was nuts!), and we rotated our coffee offering according to what was in season and what tasted fantastic.
 

From the get-go, single-origin filter coffee was an essential focus at Market Lane – we brewed it to order, by hand, right in the middle of our coffee bar. The filter bar took up as much space as the espresso machine, and it sat next to buckets of freshly roasted beans that we hand-scooped, weighed and bagged on demand. We wanted our customers to see and taste what made our coffees special, to encourage conversation and engagement; to light up their tastebuds and get them excited about each coffee we offered. We wanted to create the kind of ‘aha! moments’ that we’d experienced early in our coffee careers, when we tasted different coffees side by side and felt thrilled by the flavours and enthralled by the stories in each cup.

Because of our commitment to doing everything to the highest possible standard, we considered every detail of our business. For our milk-based drinks, we found the most delicious organic milk being produced in Australia. At the time, third-generation farmer Simon Schulz was only selling his milk at a farmer’s market, but happily, we convinced him to supply it to us. If we were going to add milk to our coffees, we knew we had to love it and believe in its production process as much as we did our coffees. Similarly, for those that wanted their coffee sweeter, we sourced and offered an unrefined ‘Dulce’ sugar from Costa Rica with rich caramel and molasses tones that complemented our coffee. There were lots of things we did, and other things we consciously chose not to do (like offering a skinny milk option, or smashed avo on toast – both ubiquitous café staples at the time). This felt a bit scary, but we were resolute in staying focused on doing one thing, really well: sharing beautiful, high quality coffees that shone in the cup.

Thankfully, the Melbourne community embraced us. They visited us, and drank and tasted and chatted about coffees, and they came back for more, oftentimes bringing friends. People tweeted and blogged (yes, that was a thing in 2009), and started to engage deeply with our coffees and what we were doing. And that kept us going. 

For the first two years of the business, we travelled to visit the producers we worked with, roasted batch after batch of their coffees, and held free tastings every morning at 10am in our shop’s cosy cupping room with an ever-expanding, enthusiastic group of curious customers and baristas from across Melbourne. Everyone was welcome and we almost always ran over time, answering questions and talking in-depth about roasting and terroir and flavour. We held fun, educational talks and latte art competitions and ran instructional brewing classes for those who wanted to improve their home coffee-making skills. 

In 2011, we opened our second shop, on Therry St opposite the Queen Victoria Market. Here, is where we first printed ‘We love to make coffee for the city that loves to drink it’ on the front window, and we wrote a manifesto on the shop wall, which still rings true to us today. 

In the years that followed, we slowly opened more shops, all attached to bustling markets and other vibrant food and community hubs. The growth was gradual and organic, informed by our excitement about serving coffees in the neighbourhoods we loved and, eventually, to create opportunities for our growing group of ambitious and talented team members.  

When we look at Market Lane in 2024, it’s a remarkably different business to the one we opened in 2009. Our coffee is now roasted on a beautiful 45kg Probat at our dedicated roastery and office space in Brunswick East. We now have nine shops dotted around Melbourne, and a team of nearly 100 people! This all blows us away. And, while Market Lane has grown up in many ways, at our essence, the focus and the fundamentals remain the same, including our commitment to exceptional quality, transparency, sustainability and community – the core values that still inform every decision we make. 

15 years in, we’re also still extremely excited about coffee! We still have those ‘aha! moments’ while tasting and selecting lots, and we feel moved and gratified by the way that good coffee brings people together. We still strive to provide the best coffee there is and to celebrate each lot’s unique and inspiring backstory. And we do everything we can to contribute positively to our industry, and to help ensure a sustainable and viable future for specialty coffee, and especially for the communities that work hard to produce it. 

Our relationships and all the communities we’re connected to through Market Lane are what get us out of bed each morning; they motivate us and inspire our creative thinking and our growth. Turning 15 feels like a great opportunity to step back and reflect with gratitude on the people who’ve helped shape who we are as a business. This includes all the extraordinary people who have worked with us over the years; the team members who have so beautifully connected with and articulated our values and our vision, and who have generously and enthusiastically contributed to Market Lane’s incredibly special, positive and supportive culture. Some of our team members have been with us since the very beginning, others for a whole decade. We’re deeply grateful to all our team members, past and present, new and longstanding, for putting so much heart, care and passion into what they do. They are the fabric of Market Lane.

It also fills us with joy to see long-time Market Lane team members go on to other exciting pursuits, including those who have opened up their own brilliant hospitality businesses – like Wild Life Bakery, Shortstop Coffee & Donuts, Altius, Bloom Coffee, Masses Bagels, Goodies Coffee, Pizzeria Magma, Panco, Better Together, A Coffee and Holy Belly – all businesses we love and deeply admire. 

Our relationships with our coffee-producing partners have also blossomed and deepened over the last 15 years; they continue to inspire us and reinforce why we do what we do. We’ve been lucky to host some of these producers here in Australia, and we still visit them annually and continue to admire their dedication, hard work, innovation and unwavering commitment to quality, and to supporting their local communities. As always, we work hard to build a market for their beautiful coffees in Australia, and take great pride in sharing their beans and their stories with coffee lovers at home.  

In the last decade and a half, we’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to work with quality-focused producers and talented creative people in Australia, as well. We’ve also had the pleasure of supplying our coffee to some of the best cafes, grocers and restaurants in the country and the world, all of which have teams that share our values and approach to business. And we’ve built meaningful, ongoing relationships with visionary non-profit organisations that do crucial work to make the world more just and equitable for future generations.

And then there are our amazing customers. Since 2009, we’ve made thousands of coffees for thousands of people, and roasted and posted bags of fresh beans to members of our community near and far. We’ve had the privilege of forming relationships with regular customers in all our shops, and we’ve formed a community of engaged and passionate subscribers who brew and enjoy the coffees we send out to them each fortnight in those iconic blue boxes. It means the world to us to be part of people’s daily coffee ritual, whether in our shops or in their homes. What a privilege!

Earlier this year, we renovated our shop on Market Lane in Prahran. In a full-circle moment, we reinstalled the small roaster under the stairs and we started running weekly tastings again. (We even started offering Annie Smithers’ delicious jam on bread, just like we did 15 years ago). And, best of all, we welcomed customers into the updated space, some of whom have been visiting us for well over a decade, and some who are brand new to Market Lane, or even specialty coffee, and are curious to taste and chat and discover what we’re doing. These kinds of engaged interactions and connections and relationships are what fuel us, drive us and feed us – they truly never get old.   

It’s a huge honour to be part of, and to contribute to, the special ecosystem that exists around specialty coffee, and it’s impossible not to feel incredibly proud of what we’ve all created together at Market Lane. Thank you for being a special part of this journey! There’s so much coming up that we’re excited for, and we can’t wait to enter this next chapter together.
 

Fleur, Jenni and Jason 

Market Lane co-owners