Just Open: Saint James, Malvern

Brit-themed cafe Saint James, which has opened on the sunny side of the street in Malvern Village, is just one piece of an ambitious masterplan – co-owner Phil Gijsbers (of Hard Pressed Coffee and From on High) is also about to open a pizza shop in Windsor, a coffee roastery in Collingwood and a cafe in Brooklyn, New York.

For this project he's partnered with Craig Tate and Rich Donovan, childhood friends from Newcastle (the UK variety), to bring a taste of the motherland to Malvern – the boys have named the cafe for St James' Park, home of the Newcastle United football team.

Head chef Nick Woolard (ex-Kid Boston) fronts an all-day menu with an English bent: the rhubarb's poached in London dry gin, there's a fish finger "butty" (sanger), black pudding and bubble and squeak topped with a fried egg and hollandaise.

They're not mucking around with the coffee – a Slayer Steam (the first in Australia, we're told) is on its way from Seattle with a promise to revolutionise Melbourne's flat white game – and beans are a house blend from Maker Fine Coffee but they'll switch to in-house production when Gijsbers' Collingwood coffee roastery, Yorkshire Brewhouse, is up and running in October.

Open Mon-Fri 7am-4pm, Sat-Sun 8am-4pm.

1376 Malvern Road, Malvern, 03 9078 8150, saintjamescafe.com.au