I don’t remember exactly where we heard about Industry Beans, but we heard it was good coffee, good food and a cool space, not to mention in the cool neighbourhood of Fitzroy, so we had to check it out.
(We also went to Kettle Black on our recent trip to Melbourne, if you’re interested!)
First up – coffees / drinks for the non-coffee drinks. DS had the Gold Mesh Filter Coffee ($6) which was really nice. I’m not a coffee connoisseur so I’m not sure what difference the gold mesh filter makes…but the presentation in a beaker reminded me of all that outrange around the ‘deconstructed’ coffee at another Melbourne cafe…serving it in the beaker seems kind of redundant if you’re just going to pour it into the mug next to you?! Who knows – maybe there’s a reason for it. I went for the Beetroot, carrot, celery, lemon and ginger fresh juice ($6.50) which was delicious and had quite a kick to it! 
On to the food! We’d had a massive brunch so we weren’t feeling particularly hungry. Luckily Industry Beans have a menu of small plates to share, and you can get Three Small Plates for $23 which we thought was quite good value! We picked the Heirloom tomatoes with cashew butter, thai basil jelly, soaked prunes ($8 if ordered individually), Salmon Remoulade with apple foam, puffed rice, palm heart ($10 if ordered individually) and the Medley of Vegetable Chips with green tea salt, coriander and lime aioli ($8 if ordered individually).
Is it embarrassing to admit that the only dish we really liked was the simplest of them all – the vegetable chips? The dish where you can’t really go wrong? I’m not sure if it was the flavour or texture combinations (basil jelly wasn’t really my thing…), or the fact it seemed a bit fine dining or experimental for a casual cafe that looked more hipster than anything, housed in an old warehouse with industrial lights and furniture…It just didn’t really sit well with us!
Oh well, maybe we ordered incorrectly and should’ve gone for something on the brunch menu. Since then we’ve actually had a friend tell us that it’s better place for coffee than food! Lesson learnt, but I’d be keen to hear if you had a different experience at Industry Beans!
Industry Beans
3/62 Rose Street
Fitzroy, Melbourne
http://industrybeans.com/
