Tired of same-same cafes still circulating Melbourne’s hospitality scene? Enter the new hospitality culture, heralded by the recently opened Staple café at the leafier end of St Kilda.

At Staple, occupying a narrow-but-long 100sq m space at the leafier end of Fitzroy Street, patrons can not only perch or sit inside or out for coffee and food, but also stop by the café’s temporary or fixed retail stations for a box of toilet paper, milk and eggs from the fridge or fancy anchovies and tins of tomatoes from the providore.

“We’re trying to give power back to the customer again,” the designer, Samantha Eades says. “It’s about the experience and service, which Melbourne’s just lacking a bit these days.”

It’s an example of designers today responding to a new culture of hospitality, where retail, dining and curated interactive experiences are thrown into the mix, providing new ways to engage with space and staff beyond a typical café transaction.

Will it work in Melbourne’s already saturated café market? And how are patrons responding to the ‘back to basics’ philosophy?

Read the full story in the latest edition of Indesign Magazine, #69 – the ‘Think Big’ issue.

Original Photography by Melbourne-based photographer Michael Gazzola.