$30 coffees, cookie bars and convenience stores: Welcome to the era of the concept cafe

The 21-year-old systems engineer behind the intriguing new FBR cafe in Sydney is trying to reinvent what it means to operate a successful hospitality business, and it could mean pouring $30 cups of siphon brewed coffee.

FBR cafe is a 15-seat specialty coffee shop in Chambers Arcade, designed, hand-built and computerised by founder Sebastian Cincotta. It is a clinical, alien-hued space, with deliberately angled seating, bunsen burner brewing equipment and the Orwellian glare of an old, wall-mounted television.

Like a growing number of cafes opening across Sydney, its distinctiveness is its drawcard and its key to attracting customers who are happy to spend more on its range of five specialty roasted coffee beans during a cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s not financially viable to come into such a saturated market and take the same approach everyone has always taken,” Cincotta says.

“It’s foolish to think I could compete in quality with the best, or offer the cheapest cup of coffee … so I have to deliver something different. It’s about reassessing the cafe from the ground up.”

From the innovation at FBR cafe, to commuter-friendly Japanese-style convenience at Domo Three Nine in St Peters, these are three Sydney newcomers going beyond the norm.

FBR cafe, Sydney

It’s an inquisitive customer who shows up at FBR after finding the cafe’s deliberately ambiguous Instagram profile, featuring young, bespectacled women wearing grey trench coats and studiously taking notes.

And it’s that same customer who is more likely to spend $30 on 200ml of siphoned specialty coffee to experience its unique clarity and taste, says founder Cincotta.

“Rather than pricing the coffee to bring in a lot of people, we’re able to price it appropriately for the number of people we’re serving,” Cincotta says. “It’s actually been quite profitable.”

FBR also offers batch brew and espresso shots of a rotating selection of specialty coffee from the likes of local roasters Diggy Doo and Block Coffee Company, price from $5.

Each grind and each shot are monitored on miniature computers programmed to record temperature and timing to achieve maximum efficiency and prevent unnecessary waste.

Baristas are also attempting to create an “immortal coffee” capable of maturing while maintaining its integrity. Cincotta hopes it could bring the value of coffee in line with wine, which employs a similarly labour-intensive growing and fermentation process.

There may be a lot of work going on behind the scenes, but Cincotta says the cafe itself is an “incredibly relaxing space”, designed to prevent customers from working on their laptops and encourage human connection.

Shop 9/370 Pitt Street, Sydney, instagram.com/fbr.cafe

Domo Three Nine

The team behind acclaimed Marrickville cafe Kurumac has teamed up with Matteo Pochintesta of Mapo Gelato in Newtown to create a cafe inspired by Japanese convenience stores.

“It’s quite different from anything we’ve done before,” says co-owner Eugene Leung.

Domo Three Nine is the fourth venture for Leung and business partner Dika Brianata, who have worked alongside executive chef Junichi Okamatsu for more than eight years.

“It’s not really like a cafe where we’re serving proper meals in bowls and plates, it’s more about food that’s easy to grab and go.”

The concept caters to the cafe’s location − beside St Peters railway station, and across the road from Sydney Park.

“We want to tap into that common [Japanese] ritual of people buying onigiri [stuffed rice balls] and bento [pre-packaged meals with protein and rice] on their way to and from work.”

Freshly made onigiri.

The onigiri (from $5.50) and bento (from $22) are made fresh daily, or to order for dine-in customers. They’re displayed neatly on backlit, refrigerated shelves alongside bottles of iced green tea and the team’s favourite non-perishable items, such as Kameda Happy Turn sweet and savoury rice crackers and instant cup noodles.

Like any good Japanese convenience store, Domo Three Nine also sells ice-cream. Pochintesta has developed a signature soft-serve flavour with toasted rice and plans to introduce a second weekly flavour special, beginning with matcha.

While the space is designed for takeaway, the window-side bench seating can accommodate about 20 people. Leung says he hopes it can become a meeting place for people wanting a coffee after 2pm − a rarity in Sydney.

“We’re going to try to trade until 6pm at night and hopefully we’ll serve coffee the whole way through,” he says.

“There’s been so many times I’ve wanted to go for a coffee with friends around 3 or 4pm, but can’t find anywhere.”

May Lane, St Peters,instagram.com/domothreenine

Happy Alley, Rockdale

When Rockdale cafe Happy Alley reopens in late April it will go from a hole-in-the-wall sandwich spot to a bright, minimalist cookie haven, six times its former size. “Welcome to your happy place” it says in a gold, embedded message on the floor.

“We’re trying to bring open something special, something that hasn’t been in Rockdale before,” says venue manager and co-owner Fatima Hussein.

While the sandwiches and bagels remain on the menu, the focus has shifted to co-owner and head baker Ali Barakat’s range of thick, filled cookies.

The baking process will be on display through two large glass windows to the kitchen, and there will be a dedicated cookie bar, featuring staple flavours such as peanut butter and red velvet, alongside a wide variety of weekly specials, perhaps black sesame, mochi and burnt butter.

For the first time, the cookies will be crumbled into thick shakes and served in ice-cream sundaes using house-made soft-serve ice-cream.

“The cookies are critical to our business, they’re what make Happy Alley what it is,” says Hussein.

“You have to provide something different to everyone else, something that will make people happy. And people might be able to find cookies elsewhere, but they come back for ours because they can tell it stems from [Barakat’s] passion.”

Grab-and-go remains an important element of the store, which will add focaccia slices and pizza slabs to its menu, and extend its opening hours to operate from Tuesday to Sunday.

“You’ve got to make things easily accessible for people. They want freshly made products at a good price point, and when there’s no shortage of competition you want to make sure you’re able to offer something for everyone.”

495 Princes Highway, Rockdale,happy-alley.square.site