Cafeography
Adelaide

Specialty coffee cafés in Adelaide

Roasters with their own cafés, from air-roasted Pogo to warehouse bars in the CBD and Hindmarsh.

Photo: Tim Douglas, Pexels License

Specialty coffee in Adelaide is mostly a roaster's business. The cafés that set the standard either roast their own beans, often within sight of the counter, or name the roaster they buy from, and more than a dozen local specialty roasters were working across South Australia by 2022.1

Bar 9, the café credited with introducing the city to specialty coffee back when it was barely a category, has closed its Parkside flagship, and the site at 96 Glen Osmond Road has served coffee as East Borough since 2017.23 In the center the specialty bars keep office hours: SOHO Coffee Roasters in Addie Place serves 08:00–14:30, Monday to Friday, and Cherry Specialty Coffee is at 29 King William Street.

Local tip: Ask for the reserve list: Whyld in Prospect snap-freezes high-end coffees from around Australia to keep them fresh.12

Where these cafés are: Western suburbs (7), CBD (3), Unley & Hyde Park (2), North Adelaide (1), Burnside, Kensington & Rose Park (1), Inner south (1), Bowden & Hindmarsh (1), East End (1), Goodwood & Wayville (1), Kent Town (1).

At a glance

19Cafés listed
4With opening hours
07:00Earliest opening
16:00Latest closing
  • Opens earliest: Cirelli Cafe and Roastery, from 07:00 (Mon–Sat 07:00–14:30).
  • Closes latest: Altura Coffee, until 16:00 (Mon–Fri 07:30–16:00 · Sat 07:30–13:00).
  • Most listed streets: Port Rd (2), King William St (2), Unley Rd (2).
  • Most common features: outdoor seating (11%), takeaway (5%), wi-fi (5%).

Nothing matches those filters here. See all cafés in Adelaide.

Roasters you can drink at

Brad Nixon opened Elementary Coffee's roastery and café on Young Street in 2016, after years roasting for large Melbourne companies, and added a second roastery and café at 2 Jervois Street in Torrensville in 2022, with frozen bean storage and a reserve list.14 Pogo Coffee Roasters air-roasts in a fluid bed in Magill, a method that was rare in Adelaide when it opened at 82 Ifould Street in March 2020; its second bar is in Kent Town.56

Cirelli moved its roastery and café in January 2022 into a former squash center on Port Road at Allenby Gardens, where the old spectators' platform now looks down on the roaster. Gianni Cirelli started roasting at home in 2011, and his mother, known as Nonna Zeppole, fries zeppole on Saturday mornings.7 It opens Monday to Saturday, 07:00–14:30.

Pour-over, filter and what they cost

Ember Specialty Coffee Lab, on Ebenezer Place since March 2026, built its menu around pour-over and offers a barista-seat tasting: several coffees in a row, sometimes one bean brewed different ways.8 Coffee in Common in Hindmarsh keeps a reserve list of direct-from-farm coffees for pour-over alongside its house blends.4

Filter can cost more than a milk coffee: Bloom in Thebarton charged A$8 for its batch brew in 2026.4 In the city's 5000 postcode, flat whites ranged from A$2.50 to A$6.80 in October 2026, with most between A$4.50 and A$5.50.9

Who roasts for whom

Many cafés buy their beans and say where from. Exchange has used Melbourne's Market Lane since 2013, Tell Henry in Kent Town pours Industry Beans, and A PLACE coffee in Bowden pairs a Market Lane blend with guest roasters such as Kindred from South Australia.10114 Local roasters supply the rest: Peter Rabbit and Bloom use 1645, and East Borough uses D'Angelo.43

Monastery Coffee, started in 2013 by Adam Marley and Daniel Milky, roasts for other cafés; its plan for a Windsor Gardens warehouse included a collective roasting space meant to lower the cost of starting a coffee business.1

Roasteries on the western roads

Outside the center, roasters with cafés line the arterial roads west of the city. Rival Brothers Coffee Roasters is at 953 Port Road, Patio Coffee Roasters at 217–219 Richmond Road, and Altura Coffee has two sites on Grange Road, at 163 and 253; the second opens weekdays 07:30–16:00 and Saturday until 13:00.

To the east and south, 1645 Coffee Roasters is at 30 Sunbeam Road and Bray St Coffee Roasters at 59A Bray Street. In College Park, FIX. Specialty Coffee on Torrens Street opens on Sunday too, 08:00–14:00.

Sources

  1. Adelaide coffee roasters are levelling up, CityMag, InDaily (October 13, 2022), accessed October 2026
  2. Bar 9 Whitmore, Broadsheet (updated October 5, 2018), accessed October 2026
  3. Introducing East Borough, CityMag, InDaily (March 28, 2017), accessed October 2026
  4. Where to find the best coffee in Adelaide, South Australian Tourism Commission (August 3, 2026), accessed October 2026
  5. Pogo Coffee Roasters is opening on Ifould Street, CityMag, InDaily (March 5, 2020), accessed October 2026
  6. Pogo Coffee Roasters, Kent Town, Broadsheet (updated March 15, 2023), accessed October 2026
  7. Cirelli Coffee opens roastery and cafe in refurbished squash courts, InDaily (Ben Kelly, February 9, 2022), accessed October 2026
  8. First look: Ember lands in the East End, bringing coffee lovers single-origin beans and different brewing styles, Glam Adelaide (Daniel Heggie, March 6, 2026), accessed October 2026
  9. Flat white prices in Adelaide, SA 5000 (updated 25 October 2026), Small Flat White, accessed October 2026
  10. Exchange Coffee, Broadsheet (updated March 26, 2026), accessed October 2026
  11. The best cafes in Adelaide, Broadsheet (updated December 24, 2025), accessed October 2026
  12. 5 places for coffee, SALIFE, InDaily (Lisa Woolford, May 28, 2025), accessed October 2026
Keep exploring

Other ways to browse Adelaide

Outdoor seating

87 cafés

Vegetarian options

20 cafés

Bakery cafés

14 cafés

Brunch

11 cafés

By area: East End CBD North Adelaide Kent Town Unley & Hyde Park Bowden & Hindmarsh

FAQ

Specialty coffee in Adelaide: questions

Which Adelaide cafés roast their own coffee?

Elementary Coffee roasts on Young Street in the Adelaide CBD and in Torrensville, Pogo Coffee Roasters air-roasts in Magill for its bars on Ifould Street and in Kent Town, and Cirelli roasts in a former squash center on Port Road at Allenby Gardens. Coffee in Common in Hindmarsh also roasts most of its coffee behind the café.

Where can you drink pour-over coffee in Adelaide?

Ember Specialty Coffee Lab on Ebenezer Place, open since March 2026, built its menu around pour-over and offers a barista-seat tasting of several coffees. Coffee in Common in Hindmarsh keeps a reserve list of direct-from-farm coffees for pour-over.

What was Bar 9 in the Adelaide specialty coffee scene?

Bar 9 is credited with introducing Adelaide to specialty coffee. Its flagship café in Parkside has closed, and the site at 96 Glen Osmond Road reopened in 2017 as East Borough, which uses beans from the Adelaide roaster D'Angelo.

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