Come for the Coffee, Stay for the Sweets: Next Door, Zita’s Sister Café in South Yarra

Tucked just around the corner from the yellow-and-white awning of Zita’s Focaccia on Toorak Road, Next Door Café has quietly become one of South Yarra’s most useful early-morning addresses. It is the sister café to the much-loved focacceria — a smaller, sweeter, earlier-opening companion that exists for espresso, cappuccino and a proper Italian pastry before the rest of the strip has fully woken up.

If Zita’s is the lunchtime crush of stuffed focaccia, spritzes and queues under the striped umbrellas, Next Door is the 6.30am ritual: a short walk down Ralston Street, a strong coffee, something sweet, and a little corner of Italy that does not ask you to wait until mid-morning.

A sister café with a clear job

Next Door opened in 2025 as Zita’s answer to a simple problem: the original shop on Toorak Road is built for focaccia, not for the first coffee of the day. Locals still wanted that Italian welcome at dawn — the “ciao”, the hiss of the machine, the smell of pastry — without waiting for the ovens to turn out Genovese slabs.

So the team opened Next Door at 142 Ralston Street, South Yarra, a short stroll from 16 Toorak Road. The precinct listing describes it as a sister spot serving fresh coffee and traditional Italian sweets in a welcoming corner setting. Opening hours are published as 6.30am to 2.00pm daily, which puts it among the earliest cafés in the Toorak Road pocket. That early start is the point. You can be in and out before work, or sit with a mid-morning treat, or duck in for a sugar hit on a lunch break.

The name is literal. It is next door — or as good as — to the venue that made Sara Pestarino and Riccardo Guglietti household names in South Yarra.

The family behind the coffee

Zita’s was born in 2023 when Sara and Riccardo, stuck in Melbourne and missing the street food of their hometowns, decided to bring Italy to South Yarra rather than wait for the next flight. Sara, from Genoa, is the creative hand in the kitchen. Riccardo, from Rome, is the one who greets you as if you already belong. The business is named after Nonna Zita — Sara’s grandmother, still living in Genoa and still, by the family’s account, a professional cook in retirement.

That story matters at Next Door as much as it does at the focacceria. The group’s whole pitch is old-school flavour with a Melbourne twist: hospitality first, then the product. At the original shop that means 48-hour fermented focaccia, Ligurian olive slices, and loaded sandwiches such as The Roman Empire (mortadella, artichoke sauce, stracciatella and pistachio) and Nonna’s Favourite. At Next Door it means the other half of an Italian morning — espresso that can stand up to milk, a cappuccino with a proper crema, and sweets that look as if they have come from a pasticceria rather than a generic bakery cabinet.

You do not need a reservation. You do not need a long lunch. You need a reason to start the day well.

What to order

Published descriptions of Next Door keep the offer tight on purpose: strong espresso, smooth cappuccinos, and an irresistible range of Italian sweets. That is the brief. It is not trying to be another South Yarra all-day brunch room with a twelve-item egg list. It is a café in the Italian sense — coffee first, pastry second, conversation if you have time.

Expect the classics of an Italian bar: espresso short and decisive; cappuccino for the morning; perhaps a latte if that is how you take it. The sweet side is the reason many people make the extra turn off Toorak Road — cannoli, filled pastries, and the kind of cabinet items that pair with coffee rather than compete with a full breakfast.

If you already know Zita’s, the logic is obvious. Have your focaccia later at 16 Toorak Road (open later in the day, typically from 10am). Have your first coffee and something sweet at Next Door from 6.30am. Same family, two different hours of the Italian day.

Menus and cabinet items change, as they should. Check the boards, ask the staff, and follow @zitas.focaccia on Instagram for what is coming out of the kitchen that week.

Why Ralston Street works

South Yarra’s café map is crowded: Two Birds One Stone on Claremont Street, Market Lane at Prahran Market, Maker and Campos on the Toorak Road strip, plus a rotating cast of specialist coffee rooms. Next Door is not trying to win a specialty-coffee shootout. It is trying to be the neighbourhood Italian café that opens when commuters, school runs and shop staff actually need it.

Ralston Street helps. It is close enough to Toorak Road to catch the passing trade, quiet enough to feel like a local secret, and near enough to Zita’s that regulars can treat the two venues as one small Italian precinct. Come for espresso at dawn. Come back later for focaccia. Or do both on the same day, which is exactly how the owners seem to have designed it.

The precinct site puts it neatly: good coffee, sweet treats, friendly service, and a simple but memorable addition to South Yarra’s café scene. That is the tone of the place — not a concept restaurant, a sister café.

A small corner of Italy

Melbourne has no shortage of Italian rooms. What Zita’s and Next Door share is a specific regional mix. Genoa gave Sara the focaccia tradition — high hydration, long ferment, a light crumb that does not sit heavy. Rome gave Riccardo the stuffed-bread instinct and the front-of-house warmth. Nonna Zita gave the name and the standard of hospitality.

Next Door translates that into the morning. It is the hour when an Italian bar is at its most honest: coffee, pastry, a greeting, and then you are on your way. South Yarra, for all its polish, still needs places like that — especially at 6.30am, when most of Toorak Road is still putting the chairs out.

Come for the coffee. Stay for the sweets. Make it part of the morning ritual.

VISIT NEXT DOOR CAFÉ

Next Door Café (sister café to Zita’s Focaccia) 142 Ralston Street South Yarra VIC 3141 Australia

Open: 6.30am – 2.00pm daily (published hours; please confirm before visiting) Sister venue: Zita’s Focaccia, 16 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141 Phone (Zita’s group): 03 9191 9092 Website: https://www.zitasfocaccia.com/ Instagram: @zitas.focaccia Zita’s hours (focaccia shop): typically Tuesday–Sunday 10.00am – 4.00pm; Monday closed (check current times)

No booking needed for coffee and sweets at Next Door.