Coffee kings' farm brew

The heart of this year's Melbourne Food & Wine Festival will be the Urban Coffee Farm & Brew Bar, beside the Yarra in Queensbridge Square. Coffee trees grown in New South Wales are being transported to Melbourne for the 17-day festival from March 1.

The food and drink offering at the ''farm'' will include a rotating roster of some of Melbourne's coffee kings. ''We want to look at the journey coffee takes from the earth to the cup, and Melbourne's a coffee city,'' festival chief executive Natalie O'Brien says.

Cafes that will take part in the project include Abbotsford's Three Bags Full, The Auction Rooms in North Melbourne, South Melbourne's Dead Man Espresso and Collingwood's Proud Mary. The farm will be open daily from 8am-10.30pm throughout the festival.