Fifteen Years of Pressing.
For a moment in time, we considered moving to Fitzroy North.
I took Hana to Loafer’s Bread in the morning before childcare (remember when they had tables?), we shopped at Wild Things (the cheapest place to buy our preferred brand of cultured butter and on-the-spot squeezed organic orange juice), and finished with laksa and CKT at Malaymas. There’s Piedemonte, a library, and a playground with a skating ring. We were there every second day of the week. The suburb was almost perfect.
The lockdown killed any momentum we had and forced us to stay loyal to our own suburb.
Next thing we knew, Hana’s started prep and adjusted well to our local primary school, and we latched on to this ski-lift call ‘life’.
Fitzroy North was ‘almost perfect’ because there weren’t any heavyweight coffee players around.
Everyone’s roasting in Brunswick.
There’s Industry Beans in Collingwood, Supreme’s in Richmond, Small Batch’s in the north (west) ……
Fitzroy North (and come to think of it Carlton North) is this little pocket of ‘meh’ with small joints that look like cafes, walk and talk like cafes, with coffees that go ‘meh’.
When I saw the news that Tim Williams is moving Fieldwork (formerly Bureux Coffee) to FN, I did an Obama chin wag.
Finally.
The suburb is complete.
But what’s this? High interest rate, and crippling inflation?
*closes real estate browser page*
The last time I spoke to Tim was two years ago, as he is also the mastermind behind
The WAC I attended in 2021 was a little dystopian - surrogate baristas made Aeropress coffee based on recipes. The finals were live-streamed virtually.
This year it’s the 15th anniversary.
It’s going to be a proper party. Freebies, free samples, oat milk sponsor, coffee grinder. I still have my yellow beanie from the WAC.
On Friday, the 1st of December, it’ll be the Australian Championship with finalists from each state competing against each other.
The winner will then compete with the rest of the world on Saturday 2nd of December in the World Championship.
And then on Sunday 3rd December, there will be a secret cafe ‘take over’.
“This time, it’s not just three judges pointing to the cup they like. It’s going to be a multi-round, points-based battle. And *checks surrounding* they’re going to be making more than Aeropress coffee.”
Surely some people will get upset by that? It’s like expecting to swim at a 100m dash race.
“Yea, I think some people will be upset. But look, we’ve been running WAC for fifteen years now, it’s not bad to be different. And they are like the top seven baristas in the whole of Australia. Surely they’re up to the challenge.”
The plan is to finish up the lease in Richmond with a bang with WAC, which means they have two weeks to get the new shop running at St George’s Road.
To avoid the renovation noises we walked across the road to a cafe serving Supreme beans. I laughed because Fieldwork’s current place in Richmond is also next to the Supreme roaster.
Tim ordered tea.
I’ve already gotten what I needed about WAC, we just caught up and talked about coffee.
Tim told me how much the corner shop rent was going for, how much his new shop was renting for, and how much the whole renovation was going to cost. He could tell the beans were too dark by looking at the smoke from the chimney of his next-door neighbor.
We both vented on how everyone is applying for jobs, and no one wants to stay for more than six months.
I asked Tim why is he doing things the hard way. Surely there are easier ways to source beans, sell coffee, and retire.
“Of course there is. Look, I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I’ve set up shop, consulted, and sold businesses. I’m not in any way wealthy, but I have built enough to acquire the freedom to do whatever I want, the way I want.”
Fun fact: Tim consulted and helped set up Café Kitsuné in Paris. The owner told him the profile they wanted and he coordinated the roasting from London.
I said they looked like a fashion brand more than a coffee brand, only to be informed that Kitsuné started as a fashion brand, then music then coffee in that order.
Marketing is helluva drug.
We had an Event Horizon moment, in which he used a napkin to explain where Australia is in terms of coffee.
I showed him photos of all the little coffee shops in Fukuoka and asked if we could do it.
Could we start a coffee business in Japan? He has the know-how, I have (maybe) connections.
We both laughed nervously.
Tim had to go.
Someone from Sydney bought their combi oven, and the driver just loaded the oven without any harness or safety procedure.
Before we left, I asked him about the name change.
“Bureux was a collective roaster - different cafes come and roast their beans, so we were finding it hard to establish ourselves as our own retail brand,” Tim said.
“Also, people were having trouble spelling or pronouncing the name.”
The World Aeropress Championship tickets are currently on sale. I’ll be there because my coffee dealer Ken from Bench Coffee will be judging.
Tim is generous enough to offer two passes to my paid subscribed readers.
The thing is I don’t know who is in Melbourne, not in Melbourne, interested in coffee, uninterested in coffee.
So, reply to this email, I’ll verify if you’re indeed a sugar daddy.
First come first serve. Pun intended.