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Sofia de la Cruz

St Ali & The Queen elevates Melbourne’s coffee culture with modern brews and brutalism

St ali and the queen melbourne cafe cocktail bar fiona lynch office.

Brutalist yet homely, that’s just how interior design studio Fiona Lynch Office envisioned St Ali & The Queen, a newly opened hospitality concept within the Munro Site community hub, part of Melbourne’s revitalised Queen Victoria Market. This all-day local providore and café – also a cocktail bar by night – is the result of the collaboration between artisanal coffee roaster St Ali and award-winning mixologist Orlando Marzo.

St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office

(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)

Many storied cultural influences envelop St Ali & The Queen – the market and food hall’s heritage and vibrant sense of community, Melbourne’s modern edge and passionate coffee culture, the feeling of warm European hospitality and the client’s Italian roots among them. Taking a cue from these, the space features an inviting deli, a coffee window for takeaways, a sociable counter bar, relaxed café seating indoors, and tables spilling outside to the pavement.

(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)

The design elements that make up the space, which embrace flow for staff and diverse guest encounters, consist primarily of polished raw materials and detailed joinery. ‘We wanted to embrace the traditional food hall’s classic design language of box aluminium stalls and channel its raw, brutalist feel into our design while also creating a space that cultivates the spirit and warmth of European hospitality,’ shares Fiona Lynch.

(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)
(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)
(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)

Complementing the interior’s soaring arched industrial windows and exposed concrete floors by Six Degrees Architects are raw wood, stone and brass. The furniture was custom-designed by Lynch and crafted by Geelong-based Ross Thompson using sustainable Oregon timber, as seen across the face of the bar and for high-top tables, sofas, bar stools and portable low stools.

(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)

This tactility and inviting sense of community are further carried out throughout the open plan via European-style leather-upholstered benches overlooking the market and the feature lighting, such as the counter lamps designed by Fiona Lynch and made by Melbourne’s Volker Haug, and a wall lamp by Milanese architect Paolo Rizzatto for Flos.

(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)
(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)

Italian marble and blocks of travertine and Afrodite stone on the counter, along with honeyed wood shades, add sophistication to the bar and help transition the space from a modern coffee shop by day to a sleek neighbourhood bar by night.

(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)
(Image credit: Photography by Tom Blachford. Courtesy of St Ali & The Queen by Fiona Lynch Office)

fionalynch.com.au

stali.com.au

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