It’s the latest venture to take over the space in Odger’s Lane, which runs between London Circuit and Alinga Street in the City, a spot previously holding Loading Zone and Meadow.

When the space became vacant mates Nicholas Mico and Brock Dunn, both 24, decided to take the leap and open their own venue.

“For us it was the next step,” says Mico. “We'd operated cafes for other people before and we sort of got to the point where we had our own ideas and wanted to do something with them.

Mico had been at Coffee Grounds at the University of Canberra and Dunn at Coffee Lab in the City.

“For me it was going back and finishing my degree or keep going on the hospitality front and hospitality was the most rewarding thing in my life at that point.”

For both young men, it’s all about the idea of proper hospitality, in the true definition of the word.

“As corny as it sounds there's something special about having someone come into your own space and making them feel welcome and giving them good products, giving them a good time,” says Mico.

The pair love how the coffee cultures of places such as Sydney and Melbourne are driven by the urban environment.

“So for us this space was perfect.”

On the day we visit there’s a work crew building a structure that will hold the wheelie bins of the businesses in Odger’s Lane. The ACT Government announced a plan last year to renew the city’s laneways, recognising their potential and it's actually happening.

“The guys have been great,” Mico says, “I think they feel bad so they’ve been buying up extra coffees and lunch.”

The menu is small, “but the kitchen is too”, says Mico.

Menu highlights include Loads of mushrooms, with leek, marsala and kewpie on sourdough and Broccolini, broadbeans, asparagus, baba ghanoush, harissa labneh, quinoa, lemon, sumac and macadamias. There’s breakfast staples avocado, bacon, eggs, french toast and a whipped ricotta compote on orange and raisin loaf. You can also takeaway.

“We throwing in rotating specials too, depending on what’s in season, what’s looking good.”

There are plans afoot too for pop-up dinners once the liquor license comes in, Mico keen to get guest chefs to come in and run the show.

There is a big coffee focus. The beans are sourced from Single O and there’s Canberra’s own Bellerophon Coffee cold brew on tap. The menu simply reads coffee as you like it. I like that.

The cold brew tap sits on a mobile concierge table which is wheeled into the outside area to open up the space, a nice welcome.

Indeed they’ve managed to make the little space - “it was smaller than we thought,” says Mico - quite versatile.

There’s indoor and outdoor seating, a large communal table takes pride of place under the awning. Inside high stools perch at the bar.

“We wanted to utilise a bit of indoor seating, an open bar, so we could talk to customers to give them that personal experience,” Mico says.

“We wanted to add in lots of wood, we wanted people to feel like they were coming into our living room.

“Make the space feel like it's not somewhere that's just been designed without giving actual people much thought.

“We're quite proud with that we've done with the space, it says a lot about us, it looks a lot like our living rooms to be honest.”

That’s if your living room is dotted by skateboards and clothing. The cafe kind of doubles as a retail space selling boards and skate branded clothing.

“We’re both skaters,” says Mico. “Brock’s much better than me though.”

And why the name Church?

“We did have some trouble coming up with a name,” says Dunn. “But we kind of like the idea of church, making people think about why we chose that name, rethinking the connotations of it.”

I admit I’m not a coffee drinker, not a skater, but the team at Church are so enthusiastic they might indeed convert me to their religions.

Church Neighbourhood Goods, 22 Odgers Lane, Canberra City. Open Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 3.30pm. Saturday and Sunday, 8.30am to 3pm.

churchneighbourhoodgoods.com