Barista Magazine

DEC 2012-JAN 2013

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didn't think I'd stick it out, but he gave me a chance anyway. I used to get up at 4:50 a.m. and drive across the city to collect the van and then set up [to serve espresso from the van] in the city center. It was cold, wet, and hard work but Karl gave me excellent schooling." Colin calls Dublin, "London's little sister in terms of what's happening" in specialty coffee. He modestly says his successful entry into Dublin's now quite notable coffee scene was just "good timing." But Colin and Third Floor Espresso—which he opened when nightclub manager Trevor O'Shea, himself a fan of the beautiful coffee Colin served him on a visit to Colin's third floor apartment, offered to let Colin set up shop in the nightclub during the day—make up an enormous part of Dublin's specialty-coffee landscape. In addition to the nightclub location, 3FE now has a separate stand-alone café and a booming wholesale business, as distributor for 3FE partner Steve Leighton's Has Bean. Colin and Steve have worked as a team in other capacities, most notably for their internationally popular podcast and lecture series, "Tamper Tantrum", which they started on a lark after the WBC in Atlanta in 2009. But their firm footprint on Dublin's café culture has been their most dramatic success. "There was a time when you really had to go out of your way to find anything drinkable [in Dublin]," says Colin. "But the last two years has seen a number of really great places pop up. 3FE works closely with places like Cup, Fallon & Byrne, Roasted Brown, and Brother Hubbard to make sure they're getting the best out of the coffee we're selling them… Places like Coffee Angel, Clement & Pekoe, and Art of Coffee are really doing a great job, and [their presence] means the city has more diversity in terms of coffee offerings. "The community is really growing as a result, and there's now a serious number of really excellent baristas working in Dublin. We're not as big a city as London, San Francisco, or Melbourne [Australia], but for a city of half a million people we're right up there in terms of quality. It's getting to the stage where Dublin could become the place to go to for a coffee trip. It's easily navigable, has 10 to 20 great offerings, and a lot of diversity therein. It also has a really great culinary scene emerging so it's the ideal destination for weekenders." The success of a local café scene doesn't rest on the blogs or Facebook updates of the coffee geek community, however. With 3FE, as well as his involvement with other independent cafés in Dublin, Colin has helped the public to embrace specialty coffee comfortably, without intimidation. "When we opened, we had filter coffee on the menu but the only people that ever drank it were myself, David Walsh [of equipment manufacturer Marco, also located in the area], and the other baristas in the city," Colin says. "The shop was opened in the lobby of a nightclub, three doors down from a drop-in [drug-treatment] center on the wrong side of the city, but we tried to engage people and help them appreciate great coffee without being preachy or intimidating. "I really believe that great coffee can be appreciated anywhere and if your customers aren't getting it, then you're doing something wrong. It might be that you're giving them something really acidic and fruity but not communicating that effectively. If you're taking time to make a hand-poured Chemex, let them know it will take a while. There are so many things that we do that regular customers don't get, but 99 percent of the problems we have can be overcome through effective communication. I've been told in the past that we have it easy because our customers like great coffee, but that's taken so much hard work to get to that point. Great coffee is great coffee; blaming your customers is just an easy way out of blaming yourself." THE BEST BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS BEGIN IN PERSON SHOW HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE 200 EXHIBITION BOOTHS OVER 75 CLASSES & WORKSHOPS AMERICA'S BEST COFFEEHOUSE EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP AMERICA'S BEST ESPRESSO EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP LATTE ART WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OPEN TEST DRIVE THURSDAY FRESHMAN CLASS – 1 ST TIME ATTENDEE PROGRAM SOURCE NEW PRODUCTS REGISTER TO ATTEND, COMPETE OR EXHIBIT @ COFFEEFEST.COM OR CALL 800-232-0083 www.baristamagazine.com 69

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