Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
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E X I S T I N G S H A R E D S P A C E S E X I S T I N G S H A R E D S P A C E S Roasting, by tradition one of the most secretive and proprietary areas of the coffee supply chain, seemed an unlikely fi eld to open up to collaboration rather than compe- tition, but Joey and Cassy—and many other like-minded entrepreneurs in this fi eld—have directly challenged that notion, creating a kind of studio where different brands can do their work independently but within a collective spirit or environment. Think of it: a dance facility offering advanced ballet in the morning and hip-hop in the afternoon, or a yoga studio whose different instructors switch from Vin- yasa to Hatha to suit the practitioners' needs. Shared space, but separate. Like Buckman Coffee Factory, Bay Area CoRoasters in Oakland, Calif., can be consid- ered as much an incubator as simply a shared working space: Both provide roasters with equipment and the room to receive, roast, and package coffee under their own brands, and they have also fostered a feeling of camara- derie and community, either by design or by simple lucky happenstance. Both facilities also focus much energy on prioritizing educa- tion, hosting classes and events that aim to unify and empower their client base—though roasters are also welcome to opt out and focus instead on using the space solely for the preparation and marketing of their products. "Specialty coffee is paving the way in the marketplace in a similar way that wine has in the past—although I feel that people in the coffee industry tend to be very innovative and creative and interested in expressing their own personality, from a creative place rather than from a place of wanting to make the most money," says Floy Andrews, cofounder (along with Tim Hansen), of CoRo. "It's not a simple thing to make money in coffee, so people who are attracted to this fi eld are in it for reasons other than making money." Tony Strickett, cofounder and co-owner (with his wife, Celina Lazarus) of Maillard Atelier, a co-roasting facility just north of Melbourne, Australia, also mentions the fact that making money, while important, is not always the absolute fi nal word for many new companies. "The type of brands working out of MA are brands built on passion," he says. "So these are the businesses that are less driven by aggressive sales and tactics and more interested in showcasing their own ideals and personalities." Tony also believes that part of what makes the model work is the sheer diversity of the customer base and the variety of products each coffee company is seeking to create and sell—lots of fi sh in the proverbial sea. "Coffee is such a huge and diverse industry, there really is no right or wrong because the marketplace is so complex," he argues. "In Melbourne alone you have Italian, Greek, Lebanese, and Turkish infl uences and history in the coffee industry, coupled with third-wave, Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. infl uence, and it all has a marketplace." CoRo's Floy artistically agrees: "From a kind of visual-arts perspective, it's like each café or brand is a painting, and you can go into a gallery and have paintings from fi ve different painters." Steve Mierisch, founder and owner of Pulley Collective in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Oakland, Calif., sees co-roasting space as less of a collabora- tive force and more of a market niche: While access to shared roasting equipment reduces the barriers to entry some roasters might experience in starting up their own company, the point is not to communize, but democratize the process. "One of my goals for Pulley from the begin- ning was, if you became a member, you could feel like when you were here it was your space, and you didn't have to share anything with any- one if you didn't want to. To feel like it was your house when you were in here," he says. "I kind of want to leave it up to the member how much they want to share. Some members have a lot of experience, and they are in different places; the guys who are just learning, they love to talk to each other, love to ask questions." Competition is something Steve sees slight- ly differently: not necessarily as a negative, but as something that, in the end, drives progress and quality forward. "We live in, and I am a fan to some extent of, a capitalistic society. Competition makes products and services better. If you have two coffee shops across the street from each other, you're going to go to the one that treats you nicer, and hopefully that equates to a better product," Steve says. "If you're in a small town and you're both local roasters and you're going after the same cus- tomers, you're not going to share, of course there's going to be competition. "Yes, people help each other out, I think that's always been the case," Steve continues. "The dynamics between roasters is going to be the personality of the individual roast- er: Some are more open, and some aren't. Communication is easier, which defi nitely helps. You could equate that to being much less competitive, but when it comes down to it, if you're competing with the business across the street, you're going to be competitive with each other." "One of our biggest worries when we set up this facility was, 'Are these different roasters going to be worried about what kind of coffee they have or how they roast?'" says Joey of Buckman Coffee. "The thing that we found, which was totally amazing, was that as roasters, we spend most of our time alone. To see roasters interacting with each other and talking and having those daily conversations has been really fun." More and more of these seem to be opening up all the time, but here are a few of the en- velope-pushing shared or co-roasting facilities that have been leading the charge. Aspect Coffee Collective 3647 SE 21st Ave, Portland, OR 97202 971.407.3140 www.aspectcoffeecollective.com Bay Area CoRoasters 2322 Fifth Ave, Berkeley, CA 94710 510.542.2540 www.corocoffee.com The Beans On Fire 7 Rue du Général Blaise, Paris 7501 France +33.1.43.55.94.73 www.thebeansonfi re.com Buckman Coffee Factory 1105 SE Main St, Portland, OR 97214 503.970.5497 www.buckmancoffee.com Bureaux Collective 29A Gwynne St, Cremorne VIC 3121 Australia +61.3.9088.7511 www.bureaux.cc City of Saints 297 Meserole St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 929.900.5282 www.cityofsaintscoffee.com Glitch Coffee 1F 3-16 Kanda-Nishikicho Chiyoda-Ku Tokyo 101-0054 Japan +81.3.5244.5458 www.glitchcoffee.com Maillard Atelier 6 Allenby St, Coburg North VIC 3058 Australia +61.432.072.026 www.cillardatelier.com.au Pulley Collective New York: 175 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn, NY 11231 California: 2451 Peralta St, Oakland, CA 94607 www.pulleycollective.com EXISTING SHARED SPACES EXISTING SHARED SPACES 72 barista magazine