6/914 Military Road, Mosman NSW
(02) 9969 1368

Mosman is not necessarily one of those suburbs I frequent regularly, as it’s kind of at the end of the road with no through traffic – which positively gives it a lovely village feel, even though it’s still close to the city. However, I recently ventured down Military Road to visit The Source Espresso Bar, as its reputation had filtered out of the village, and I needed to see why.
The 50 seat café was first opened in 2007 by Russell Beard, owner of Reubin Hills in Surry Hills. Back then they used Allpress coffee and then transitioned to their own in house roasting. Beans were sourced from all over the world both directly and through brokers, and this chain of sourcing specialty coffees is still in the loop today. In 2011 Allan Simpson and Peter Friedman took over the café, and BJ has been the manager since mid 2012. BJ has introduced single origin coffees along with Aero Press and V60 brewing styles to ensure they stay abreast of current trends for their customers.
The unique thing about the café in Mosman is that they are one of the early pioneers for roasting in house, and it gives them a real point of difference. This means they know the date the coffee is roasted and exactly what’s in it. The smell of the coffee being roasted early in the mornings brings inquisitive customers to their door.
In addition to their coffee offerings, BJ makes his own delicious range of jams and bakes most things in-house, including the home made muffins, which are to die for. Everyone in Mosman knows about them – freshly made, light and really good. Come in and try them once; you won’t stop there.
BJ and his team recognise the current trends in cafés as being in house roasting, a trendy fitout and an interesting range of coffees and brewing methods. Competition can be pretty fierce. This, however, results in improvements in coffee quality and new experiments to the coffee production, and that’s a good result for everyone. “People still need to know the difference between good coffees and bad coffees,” BJ says, “however, once they know what specialty coffee is and what it’s worth, they appreciate what we are doing.”
Open weekdays: 6am – 2:30pm; weekends: 6am – 3pm.