Reuben Hills

Overview

Russell Beard sold his Mosman micro-roastery The Source and opened Reuben Hills on New Year's Day 2012, building a roastery and cafe inside a former Surry Hills printing factory. Designed by Melbourne architects Herbert & Mason, the deep, narrow space puts a 30kg Probat and 6kg Giesen on the mezzanine — visible through semicircular cut-outs in the cafe ceiling below — and runs free public cuppings every week. The food menu draws from the South and Central American regions where the beans are grown.

Known for

• 30kg Probat + 6kg Giesen roasters on visible mezzanine
• Weekly public cuppings open to anyone
• Designed by Melbourne firm Herbert & Mason inside a former printing factory
• South American–inspired food menu tied to bean origins
• Direct producer relationships across Latin America, East Africa, and Asia

Why it matters

Reuben Hills is one of the three pillars of the Sydney specialty coffee scene alongside Single O and Mecca. Its open-ceiling roastery design and weekly cuppings made the production side of specialty coffee literally visible to customers — a transparency model that's now widely copied.

Production

head roaster

Nick Theodore

roaster machine

Probat 30kg + Giesen 6kg

cupping frequency

weekly public cuppings

roastery location

Mezzanine above the Surry Hills cafe

Café

61 Albion Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Sources

• https://www.reubenhills.com.au/
• https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/surry-hills/cafes/reuben-hills
• https://architectureau.com/articles/reuben-hills/
• https://gosstronomy.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/reuben-hills/