Common ground at Hawthorn coffee hotspot

Is Burwood Road, Hawthorn the next coffee precinct? The 100-seater Hawthorn Common opens at 302 Burwood Road next week in the space formerly known as Orto, right next door to the uber popular Axil Coffee Roasters at 322.

Joining forces are operator and entrepreneur George Sykiotis (the Press Club, Jimmy Grants, Gazi and more) and Danny Colls, who founded St Kilda's iconic Cafe Racer and was most recently at Silo by Joost in the city with Joost Bakker.

Colls has a long-term connection with Genovese coffee and will be offering "two Hawthorn Common seasonal blends", one for milk coffee, the other for black. He'll work with Genovese roaster Ben Toovey to create the right blends for espresso, pour-over and siphon coffee. Hawthorn Common will also make its own breads, pastries and pickles, says Colls.