Barista Magazine

AUG-SEP 2017

Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005

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S O M E C O M M O N T Y P E S O F S H A R E D S P A C E S S P A C E S SPACES S O M E C O M M O N T Y P E S O F S H A R E D S P A C E S Floy has seen the same thing at Bay Area CoRo: "The folks at CoRo are very collaborative. It doesn't feel like each company is being secretive about their processes, or overly protective of their market, or worried about their price point compared to the other roasters' price points. It feels like everybody here is looking to put their brand into the world the way that they do it, and it's amazing how they support the other brands." Steve maintains that being competitive and being good-natured don't cancel each other out: "I think you can be friendly and be competitive. I had friends that worked for other roasting companies when I worked for a roasting company, but you're always going to hold some cards close to your chest. It will depend on the type of person you are, whether you can collaborate and still be competitive. The better you are at your craft, the more confi dent you are in your product, the more likely you'll be to collaborate with people because you won't be afraid of sharing that information if you know that you can consistently deliver on your product and service." While shared roasting spaces have gotten most of the attention in this regard, what about the "shared" café? While the multiroaster model does fi t into this conversation to some extent—especially judging from the number of unsolicited coffee samples they typically receive—the more literal shared space of the La Marzocco Café inside Seattle's KEXP studio lobby is really pushing the boundary between "competition" and "collaboration." At the showcase shop, month-long "residencies" are open to applicants from coffee roasters around the world, whose brands are then given some- thing pretty darned close to carte blanche in taking over the menu, pre- sentation, and approach to their coffee—even down to the dishware. While the fi rst year's resident schedule was "carved out" and offered by invitation, the second year saw the fl oor open to applications, which, according to La Marzocco USA's KEXP project manager Amy Hattemer, has really been the only form of competition they've seen so far. "It became a competition only because we had a limited number of spots, but there's not enough room or energy to feel the competition side of things" Amy says, because the day-to-day of the café is so busy. "It's perfect, because we're with KEXP, which exposes people to new music, and we're exposing people to new coffee," she says. "We have more regular and more returning customers than new, and they're jazzed. They're always asking, 'What's next?'" If the co-roasting idea is like a gallery full of different paintings, then the La Marzocco café is something like a blank canvas: "We're doing our best to say to our [residency] partners, this is a platform for you to ex- press what you do. We're really able to share that this is what coffee can be, not what coffee is supposed to be, and that's a really exciting thing that I think is what makes us able to steer away from competition." With- out the need or even the drive to say "this is right," or, "this is wrong," Amy says that her customers, the shop's team, and even the resident roasters themselves are open to sharing the space and resources, because the end goal is the same. "I'm exposed to the fact that we [at La Marzocco] have competition around the world [with other equipment companies]," she says. "But all we have to do is be awesome at our jobs, to be super great hosts and trans- lators and hospitaliterians. I personally love that we're some of the best salespeople for La Marzocco but we don't even have to think about it." In specialty coffee in general, of course, we can often be accused of overthinking it: How to make that sale, how to convince someone to kick the K-cup and spend $4 on a delicate single-origin pourover. After all, a football team with a great quarterback still isn't going to win if there aren't strong linemen and receivers: Not one of us in this industry sells coffee as well alone as we do together. "I feel like the people who work in coffee and stay in coffee—sure there are divas, and there are people who want everyone to know their name," Amy says with a shrug and a smile. "Most people don't know my name, which is awesome. I'm not at all interested in getting my name out there, because this isn't cool unless we actually do what we say we're gonna do, and that involves work. My team can do that." In part 2 of "Share + Share Alike," we'll be turning our gaze toward some of the less tangible forms of sharing by exploring open-source edu- cation, the quote-unquote "coffee community," and other collaborations that we literally can't quite put a fi nger on. There is no "I" in "coffee," either, but does that mean that a shared space or splitting equipment with another company or several other companies is the right fi t for your business? There are no real rules when it comes to the co-roasting or even co-café setup, and defi nitely no one-size-fi ts-all model out there. Here are some of the common ways that companies will team up or pool resources, so that you can consider which, if any, might be right for you. Membership Based or Basis Rental: The space and equipment is privately owned and operated, and clients are invited to pay for use of the shared facility and equipment. Co-Op: Each company who uses the business owns a share and shares responsibility equally or by percentages established democratically by the members based on use and involvement, perhaps even based on a sliding scale. Residencies and Pop-Ups: Space is given over for a tempo- rary or recurring period of time based on mutual agreement and compensation. Private Arrangement: Two or more companies will enter into a relationship that allows for some form of shared resources. Ex- amples might be a roasting company that allows another entity to rent time on the equipment when the primary company is not using it, or two companies that pool their capital in order to jointly open, own, and operate a space for both companies to use. ("Tenants in Common" is a type of business structure that allows two or more people to retain separate identities within the same business, for asset and liability purposes.) SOME COMMON TYPES OF SHARED SPACES SOME COMMON TYPES OF SHARED SPACES 73 www.baristamagazine.com

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