Behind the bar

Our story.

How a basement roaster on Hastings turned into three cafés and a wholesale shop.

2017 - 2019

Started in a basement.

Marisol and Theo had both worked at coffee shops they did not love, and at one roaster they did. In 2017 they pooled their tip money and a small loan from Marisol's aunt, bought a used Probat in Portland, and dragged it back to a basement in Strathcona.

For two years they roasted three days a week and sold beans at the Saturday market. Mornings, they pulled shots at other people's cafés to keep the lights on. The first café opened in 2019, the week before pandemic lockdowns. It nearly killed the business.

Roasting beans on the Probat
Inside the Strathcona café
2020 - now

Then we doubled, slowly.

The Strathcona café reopened in mid-2020 on takeaway. People came for the coffee but stayed for the cardamom buns. We hired the bakery next door's pastry chef part-time. We learned to make a soup.

In 2023 we opened West End - kitchen and all. The Mount Pleasant walk-up came last year, when the owners of the old hardware store next door retired and offered us their corner.

We will not be opening a fourth.

Sourcing

Beans from named farms only.

We work with two importers we have visited in person. Every bag of beans on our shelf is traceable to the lot - farm, varietal, process, harvest year. If we cannot tell you those, we will not roast it.

Most of our coffees come from Colombia, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, and Honduras. We rotate single origins monthly and keep two house blends always on bar.