We took over a laundromat and kept the tiles.
Nook started as a two-machine laundromat on Ashgrove Lane before Rosa Feld and Dan gutted everything but the floor. Six years later, we're still the kind of place where the regulars get their order started before they've said hello.
Weekday mornings, before the rush.
The first year, more or less
Rosa had spent a decade pulling shots at cafes across Melbourne's inner north and wanted a room of her own. Dan knew how to fix an espresso machine better than anyone she'd met — useful, since the secondhand machine they bought needed fixing weekly at first.
They kept the laundromat's original floor tiles, built the counter from a bowling alley lane they found secondhand, and opened quietly on a Tuesday in March 2019 without telling anyone. The regulars found it anyway.
“A cafe is just a room where someone has decided to be careful about small things.”
Rosa Feld · co-owner
Where the coffee comes from
Ridge & Fold, Brunswick
Our house blend has come from the same Brunswick roaster since week one — a medium roast built for milk drinks, not for showing off.
A single-origin rotation
We added a rotating filter option for people who wanted to taste what the coffee actually tasted like. Ask whoever's on bar what's pouring.
The bakery moved in-house
Sofia joined as our first baker in 2024, and the croissants stopped arriving in a van.