After a week of voting and nearly 3000 responses, it’s time to announce the results of our Best Coffee in Bendigo poll.
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Among those top make the top 20 include drive through cafes, inner city haunts and even an indoor play centre.
But on the whole, major chains missed out in favour of homegrown baristas who delighted customers with both their brew and their hospitality.
In the end, Get Naked Espresso Bar won out, with its three stores scoring seven per cent of votes.
They were a whole 30 votes ahead of runner-up Old Green Bean, and another two votes up on third place-getter, Hargreaves Street cafe Sim’R.
Naked truth of winning formula
Get Naked owner Jesse Gollan was proud his cafe was the pick of Bendigo.
He said the key to a great coffee was consistency, as customers expected the same quality of drink every visit.
“Coffee is one of these things that has a million different steps you can perfect, one at a time,” Mr Gollan said.
“Everyone here cares about it (coffee) and are just as passionate, if not more passionate, about it than I am.”
He first began operating the Mitchell Street cafe four years ago and has since opened shops on View Street and in White Hills. Every store attracted a different clientele, depending on the precinct.
Bendigonians today were more coffee-literate than ever before as the number of places to get their caffeine fix multiplied in recent years, Mr Gollan said.
But he believed there was still room to grow in the busy marketplace.
“A lot of people in Bendigo are still not addicted to coffee,” he said, with a laugh.
Two of the Top 20 cafes might not be accessible to most Bendigonians, but they certainly proved popular among their clientele of university students.
Mug Shot and Sweeney’s, two cafes at La Trobe’s Bendigo campus, took out spots seven and 17 respectively.
Other winners included mobile service Coffee Man at the Lake, which came in fifth.