INI Studio

INI Studio opened its original Carlton cafe on Queensberry Street in 2021, a beautifully minimal room dedicated to specialty coffee and the craft of manual brewing. Started by barista Kiyong Jung, it has since grown to a second, equally all-white site at 62 Smith Street in Collingwood, both trading on the same tranquil, pared-back aesthetic.

The drink of note here is matcha: INI whisks a silky, frothy matcha that regulars and Melbourne food writers single out, poured hot as a matcha latte (around A$5.50) or over ice (around A$7.50). Beyond matcha the counter runs a hojicha latte (around A$5.50), carefully made pour-over and espresso coffee, and sweets including a cult tiramiu and seasonal Korean binsu shaved ice. There is no bar and no alcohol anywhere on the menu, making it a genuinely alcohol-free social space by design rather than by afterthought.

The room is the draw as much as the cup: an all-white, modern, minimalist interior that reads calm and gallery-like, a quiet place to sit and sip. It keeps daytime cafe hours (roughly 7am to 4pm on weekdays, shorter on weekends), so it works as a morning or afternoon third-space rather than an evening venue. Time Out's Melbourne matcha guide named it a genuine hot spot, and it has become a fixture of the city's matcha scene.