Bowen Holden and Pip Heath’s Hot Listed Little Bourke Street coffee shop Patricia has been a pillar of Melbourne’s coffee scene for 15 years, pulling 1200 shots for what Holden estimates to be 700 people every day. But while other Melbourne-born coffee favourites have been opening stores from Jakarta to Portland, Oregon, Patricia has happily stayed a one-shop operation.

That will change this autumn, when Holden and Heath open a second Patricia at the opposite end of the city, about a 20-minute walk from the original, at 44 Lonsdale Street. “Places that do multiple venues – hats off to them. It’s really hard and I’ve always recognised that. We have always wanted to be really careful if we ever did anything else. We wanted to make sure it would be as good as what we’re doing here at [the original] Patricia,” Holden says. 

“Before, we didn’t really think we could [expand] and keep delivering that hospitality to people,” he adds. But now the founders are confident in their systems and their team. They see the new store as a way to provide more opportunities for staff, which will ultimately mean they’re able to continue to provide the hospitality and care for customers that lies at the heart of Patricia. “One of the things we kind of realised, in order to kind of stay small and just focus on what we want to do, we had to be a little bit bigger.”

The Lonsdale Street location will be in the heritage-listed site formerly occupied by the Black Eagle Hotel. The space is roughly the same size as the original location, though it’s divided into two rooms. In the main room, there’ll be the usual espresso bar and pastry cabinet filled with the same Mork Chocolate cinnamon buns, Sucette canelés and other baked goods Patricia regulars will be familiar with.

In the centre of the smaller room, there’ll be a standing filter bar, allowing Patricia to showcase a wider range of coffees the team produces at its Coburg roastery. 

Currently “a shell”, Holden and Heath have just spent six months working with architects and Heritage Victoria on a design regulars will “quickly recognise [as] another Patricia,” Holden says. “Our goal is to basically feel like it’s the one place. You just have to walk.”

Patricia is expected to open at 44 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne this Autumn.