Swathed in thick clothes against the cold, lost in the thick fog of being awake far too early, they wander through Melbourne's streets to Sbriga, on King Street, guided by the soft glow from within the espresso bar.

"Officially, we open at 6.30am , but we have quite a few customers knocking on the door at 6," says Sbriga's owner, Mario Simeone.

Mr Simeone's baristas extract from the gleaming stainless steel of the espresso machine a cup of caffeine sharp enough to cut through the early-morning mist.

Outside, charcoal-suited lawyers mingle with the garish fluoros of construction workers. Here, everybody is equal, and they all worship before the altar of the espresso machine.

Mr Simeone opens his cafe early in an attempt to corner a booming market – early-morning workers who are seeking quality, not just carbohydrates.

"Fundamentally because we're becoming more and more known, and there are so few places in the city that offer the service," he says.

The Restaurant and Catering Industry Association says its best information suggests the number of people looking for a pre-dawn breakfast or coffee is growing, and more cafes and restaurants are opening early to meet the demand.

The organisation has recently commissioned research to find out just how many places are opening early.

"It's part of an overall trend of more people eating breakfast out," chief executive John Hart says . "That's one of the really significant trends in dining out – more people are eating breakfast. We can also see that there is a much larger amount eating an earlier breakfast."

Despite this, few places are open while it is still dark. According to hipster bible Broadsheet, there are only six places selling quality coffee in the CBD at the start of the day.

Mr Simeone describes his mornings as calm, with the hot coffee slowly warming a spirit of light banter among the huddled caffeine addicts.

His customers – "a classic mix of construction workers, barristers, and everything in between" – order with plenty of variety.

He says barristers tend to favour a more European gulp like a machiatto or a strong flat white. Construction workers, meanwhile, prefer a large coffee with a lot of sugar poured in.

"There's a lot of banter. Even though we have got a bit of a broad range of people, everything seems to connect because we're essentially a standing espresso bar – it drops the formality a bit."