Coffee complex: Allpress Roastery & Cafe unveils new Dalston hub

Established in New Zealand in 1986, the Allpress Roastery & Cafe is one of the ultimate authorities on third wave coffee (that is, the contemporary repositioning of coffee as an artisan product or a specialist foodstuff). It set up an outpost on east London's Redchurch Street in 2010, and is now moving up the road to Dalston, with a new cafe-cum-factory hub in a beautifully renovated 1920s joiners' factory split over two floors.
While the cafe itself is as minimalist and aesthetically light as one would expect from an Antipodean coffee chain, the centre-piece of the roastery itself is a custom-built bean-roaster, the MK III, designed by Michael Allpress and engineer Mike Scobie. The airy complex also features a visible 'cupping lab' where flavour and aroma is evaluated, a training area for coffee classes and an outdoor area.
The founding principles of the coffee house will be preserved in its new home. The company scours the globe for only the finest Arabica beans from small, sustainable farms, estates and co-ops, fostering direct relationships with growers. This provides the cafe with ongoing knowledge about the coffee-making process, giving it the opportunity to taste the annual crops for flavour, body and aroma. Then, they control the roasting process on site, so that there's no delay in delivering those heady flavours to the palates of their customers.
Aromatic Arabica beans are carefully sourced from across the globe, producing the finest coffee, full of body and flavour
Ham and cheese toasties feature on the cafe's food menu, that also includes breakfast plates and canteen dishes
The centrepiece of the cafe is the custom-built MK III roaster, designed by Michael Allpress and engineer Mike Scobie
The airy interior befits the small chain's ethos: modern, simple and unpretentious
ADDRESS
Allpress Roastery & Café
55 Dalston Lane
London, E8 2NG
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Meet Kotchakorn Voraakhom, a Thai landscape architect on a mission
Thai landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, her studio Landprocess and network Porous City, are on a mission to make Bangkok a model of climate resilience
-
Eversolo’s all-in-one streaming amp takes care of CDs as well as almost every online service
Designed for space-saving sonic flexibility, the Eversolo Play will connect to almost anything, even accommodating your old compact discs
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'
Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
-
Celebrate Lunar New Year with tiger claw buns and coin-shaped dumplings
London restaurant Bao is celebrating Lunar New Year with festive treats, plus seasonal gifts from its online store, and the chance to win a year’s supply of bao buns
-
Vincent Darré reimagines the Cointreau bottle
Cointreau celebrates 170 years of the Art of The Mix with a limited edition bottle designed by Vincent Darré
-
Artist Michael Rakowitz celebrates the humble date in sweet and sticky cookbook
-
Sharjah’s new lagoon-side bookstore weaves literary references into its interior design
-
Wonka meets Gatsby at Compartes’ new Los Angeles outpost
-
Ham-mer time: a slice of Berkel's history goes under the gavel
-
Still life: brandy distiller Christoph Keller explains how art influences his business
-
Against the grain: Brooklyn Bread Lab's experimental baking is a real raising agent