OlMates Southbank: Reverence Coffee toasts to sandwich shop era

They’re known for making knockout lattes, but the Reverence Coffee team has also brewed a new lunch project in Southbank.

OlMates is a new Southbank sandwich shop by Reverence Coffee Roasters; with Martin McEvoy, chef Pranav Walimbe, Annie and Andreas Martinu running the show. Picture: Mark Stewart.

What started as a way to break up boring warehouse lunches has become a bustling business move for this Melbourne roastery.

It may look like the Reverence Coffee crew jumped on the city’s sanger bandwagon by opening OlMates, yet the idea was brewing many months before the craze took hold.

“We started Toastie Mondays while working at our Campbellfield roastery,” co-owner Annie Martinu said.

“Given it’s not close to another takeaway, we thought we’d bring in something nice on Mondays and it’d give us the weekend to prepare what we’d like to make the team.”

But it wasn’t until Annie and her brother Andreas were approached by hospo players Martin McEvoy and Nicholas Tan to open a shop in Southbank that the dream became a reality.

“We were already playing around with sandwiches and now a few other (shops) have opened, it seems like we’re on to a good thing. There’s nothing like having a sanger at lunchtime in Australia,” she said.

Palermo head chef Mikey Dalton coined OlMates menu, but the day to day is run by former All Are Welcome baker Pranav Walimbe.

Expect tuna melts, spice-crusted roast beef with a coriander chutney and gooey provolone dunked in a rogan josh sauce and roasted cauliflower, date and tamarind chutney on ciabatta.

Annie said fewer people were eating dinner out due to the cost-of-living pinch, but the coffee and office lunches were still a roaring trade.

“In Europe, restaurant dinners are still the main wow-factor element in hospitality, yet in Melbourne it doesn’t matter if you’re a cafe or takeaway shop – if you have the right flavours it can really take off,” she said.

“We’ve tried to make our sandwiches pocket-friendly, so spending $20 on a coffee and a sanger won’t hurt as much as going out for dinner.”

OlMates, 20 Kavanagh Street, Southbank. Open weekdays 7am – 2.30pm, Saturdays from 8am.