Nolan and Shari Hirte opened Proud Mary in Collingwood in 2009. A trip along the American west coast had shown him what specialty coffee could be and he returned to Melbourne determined to bring that approach to a country that was, at the time, an espresso nation. Nolan first attended Cup of Excellence in 2011; since then, Proud Mary staff have served on international juries for over a decade. Proud Mary became one of Melbourne's first roasters to champion filter coffee and single-origin brewing. The roastery categorizes its offerings along a Mild-to-Wild spectrum. Their Ghost Rider blend, a natural-processed combination of Brazilian and Ethiopian coffees, is award-winning. A second roasting operation now runs from Portland, Oregon, supplying American wholesale accounts and retail customers with locally roasted beans.