The Little Marionette

A Sydney cafe's only American outpost could have coasted on the accent and the milk drinks; instead it put a roastery in Los Angeles and prints altitude on the bag as a range rather than a round number — the Kenya reads SL-28, washed, 1850 to 1883 MASL. The counter itself is a milk bar and makes no apology for being one.

• flat whites
• beans to take home
• a quick stop

Roasted in-house at the brand's own Los Angeles roastery on a restored vintage Probat, with varietal, altitude and process printed on the bag, though the origin write-ups stay at country level and no roast date is given.

The Motor Ave room is ground-floor retail in a new Culver City build: minimalist, a few tables, the espresso bar as the whole show. For a brand that began as a hole in the wall in Sydney's Inner West, the clean new shell is the plot twist.