Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Roast! - Jay Freedman, Compa Coffee Roasters

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Roast! - Jay Freedman, Compa Coffee Roasters · Coffee People Podcast

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Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to season 4 episode. 12
0:48
of the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
0:51
I'm Ryan Walt and this is the show where I bring you the
0:53
stories of coffee professionals entrepreneurship and coffee
0:57
education. Today, I'm joined by J Friedman.
1:00
He is the coffee director of kulpa coffee roasters in the
1:03
Adams Avenue neighborhood of San Diego.
1:05
It took me like three times to get the name close to write my
1:08
badge. A I don't know why that breaks
1:11
my mouth Jay and I are going to get into his journey from
1:14
fighting fires to Coffee Shop. Work to being the coffee guy in
1:18
the neighborhood. If you've got a moment while
1:21
listening today, I'd appreciate it.
1:22
If you'd had to roast westcoast.com and subscribe to
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the newsletter, you'll find Shell Recaps, More Coffee News,
1:29
education and updates on what's happening with guests and
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partners of this show. The newsletter is always free.
1:35
But we don't mind if you decide to pay for a subscription or
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just buy us a cup of coffee. P.
1:40
Speaking of coffee, it's time to go fill up your coffee cup or
1:44
refill it or start the Brew, because it is time for this,
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week's roast West Coast coffee podcast, interview with big Jay
1:51
from Copa coffee. I'm drinking a single serving
1:54
momentum, roast from Maria coffee.
1:56
It's one of those little single-use T.
1:58
Bake-Off, he's Rob. Machado is staring at me from
2:00
the package. Using his good vibe smile to
2:03
inspire me to do a good job on the show today.
2:06
Starting now. But it's nice to nice to meet
2:19
you. Jay I'm Ryan obviously we can't
2:21
see each other today but I'm glad you're here on the roast
2:23
West Coast podcast. Thank you Madame.
2:25
Glad to be here, I want to get into a bunch of stuff but to get
2:30
started, if you could for the tape, just let us know your name
2:34
where you're working, what your job title is and your favorite
2:37
Ninja Turtle. Oh shit.
2:40
Okay, my name is j Friedman. I am the coffee director for
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compa coffee. Stirs.
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And therefore, Hawthorne coffee, my favorite Ninja Turtle.
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I'm going to go outside of the box here and say Master Splinter
2:54
because there would be no ninja turtles, have there be no Master
2:57
Splinter. Whoa that that's the first time
3:00
I've heard that. And so that's some that's some
3:03
big picture thinking right there.
3:05
You know, I wasn't like a huge Ninja Turtle, kid growing up.
3:08
I was more of like into the Power Rangers and stuff like
3:10
that. I really had like a special
3:12
embodiment with the black Power Ranger.
3:13
I thought that guy was so cool, but I respect a ninja.
3:16
Those man, Gamers by game. I hate to like make assumptions,
3:22
but I can guess someone's age based on what cartoons they
3:25
watched or what kid shows they watched growing up.
3:28
Yeah, I'm not going to do that on the air, but when I get
3:31
writer's, I think that's my brothers age, that's like his
3:33
demographic, and it could be a year.
3:35
We could be a year or two apart. We could have watched totally
3:38
different things, which I think hundred percent 100%.
3:41
Before we go too far, I want to clarify the relationship between
3:44
cop compa coffee. Oysters and Hawthorne.
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So we started as Hawthorne coffee is the name of our Cafe
3:53
on Adams Avenue. We've had that for six years.
3:56
Now about two years ago, man, more now with three or four
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years ago, we wanted to get our hand in a roasting, but we knew
4:06
that Hawthorne was kind of with all due respect and name that we
4:10
didn't want to move forward with.
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It didn't necessarily represent our brand or what we were trying
4:16
to. Achieve with our coffee.
4:19
Therefore, we started going bad Coffee Roasters.
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It's unfortunately, like changing your LLC and changing.
4:28
All of that information is so hard.
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We decided to keep Hawthorne coffee as a standalone Cafe, as
4:34
its own restaurant, that sells our coffee.
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And then moving forward, our cafes will be called Comba
4:40
coffee and so on. So you were with Hawthorne
4:43
before going became about and my son.
4:46
All right gompa? Yeah, it's supposed to be like
4:49
Compadre, but people just say compa like it's slang.
4:53
Got it. So you were with them before.
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What was your role before? And then how did you transition
4:58
into this new role of coffee director?
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Hawthorne hired me, I was working a seasonal job and my I
5:07
thought, my season ended, basically, I was a wildland
5:10
firefighter and often those jobs are seasonal and the season
5:15
doesn't Early have an end date, but they basically start cutting
5:20
you loose. I had to go find a job in 2016,
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Hawthorne hired me. I unfortunately, literally, I
5:29
think my first day of training, I got called to go back to a
5:33
fire. So, I showed up my first day at
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5:00 a.m. halfway through my shift.
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Hey, I'm sorry, this training has been so much fun, and I'm
5:40
learning so much, and you guys are awesome, but I have to go
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back to my old job. So I Worked fire for two more
5:48
months and then came back in December of 2016.
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Got hired like not even as a barista at that point.
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I think they were like really unsure obviously on what I could
6:00
even be doing or how serious I was taking my position there.
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Therefore they didn't want to initially, like make me briefs
6:08
like totally understand. I started, you know dishes,
6:12
let's food bar back, register kind of stuff.
6:16
Over the course of years. I watched what the person above
6:20
me did I was watching? What my managers did?
6:22
What my Baristas were doing on a day-to-day basis?
6:24
Learning their flow and learning why they did what they did.
6:28
So that when their positions opened up either because they
6:31
moved up or they moved out I moved up and I was like it a
6:36
managerial head Barista ish position when we started gompa
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in which case I tagged along the owner Dylan.
6:46
Is learning how to roast kind of as we were starting compa.
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Both on a taking classes at the California roasting Collective
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as the first to my understanding the first wholesale project for
7:01
them was us. So we were taking classes from
7:04
Elliot and we were also on a email basis with Scott Rao and
7:10
asking him a lot of information. And I think he was really
7:13
pivotal in a starting and us being Will gather that much
7:17
information. Interesting.
7:19
So you are, you still participating in Fire Relief?
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Now man, I wish I could unfortunately that takes
7:28
dedication that necessitates a lot more also unfortunately
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unless it's a really weird story but unbeknownst to me in those
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two months that I went back to the fire, I actually got hurt on
7:41
a fire and without throwing anybody under the bus posted
7:44
happening. I basically got told to To sleep
7:47
off my injury, it didn't get taken care of.
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It didn't get workers comp time. I got hired at Hawthorne they
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noticed me with a limp and said, hey man you should go get that
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checked out Hawthorne paid a full day's pay for me to go get
8:01
an MRI when the federal government told me to sleep it
8:03
off, which was amazing because I found out that I had a torn
8:06
meniscus, and I had all these issues, my hip was in balance,
8:10
and my spine was being affected and all these things that caused
8:14
me to spend a few years. Repairing it myself on a barista
8:19
salary, which, as we know is, you can't really pay for
8:22
physical therapy off of that. So I had to put fire on the back
8:26
burner because respectfully, I didn't want to show up as 50% of
8:29
a firefight, I want to show up with my knee rebuilt, and
8:32
everything that I could be. And I think in that time I kind
8:35
of fell in love with coffee and fell in love with hospitality
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and I, luckily enough I found a home at Hawthorne.
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So it's where I'm at now. And I'm going to get on a
8:45
soapbox here for anybody who's listening to this, excuse me for
8:48
anyone who's listening to this later and just say that I think
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Baristas should be get paid more in general.
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But also the way that we have these seasonal fire workers and
8:57
just send them home at the end of the summer without benefits
9:00
and all of that is insane. Even now in 2021 2022.
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I know there's been efforts to change that, but I mean, in a
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state like California, you'd think that we'd be taking care
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of people, who are dealing with fire, I mean, we can address so
9:15
many issues starting with the toxic masculinity of sleep it
9:19
off and not addressing or injuries and afraid to like
9:21
really speak up and say like, hey no, fuck you like I'm high
9:24
scuse my language. Hey I'm hurt.
9:27
I think this needs to be addressed.
9:29
It could start there it could be as far as saying like health
9:32
benefits and workers comp and checking up on all of these
9:35
things on the health of our firefighters who are literally
9:38
fighting nature as it fights back on an annual basis on a
9:43
growing. Well, we're all just trying to
9:45
kind of ignore the whole thing, there's a lot to it.
9:49
That being said coming to Hawthorne and not even being
9:52
there a month and hearing hey why don't you go get this MRI?
9:56
I will pay for it like I because I wouldn't take the day off.
10:00
I was that stubborn. I was still that toxic with
10:02
myself and not giving myself the space and not giving myself the
10:05
money or the attention that I think that really needs a
10:08
necessitates. And luckily enough, I was simply
10:11
shown the love and that little It'll sentiment of like, hey,
10:16
man, here's a hundred bucks. It's a day's pay, go get an MRI,
10:21
just worse comes to worse, nothing's wrong or excuse me, I
10:25
guess the worst comes to worst as you're horribly injured.
10:27
So solving that question, and I don't, it in a sense bought my
10:31
loyalty for lack of better words because I mean I just felt
10:35
actually cared for for the first time it which is so ironic going
10:39
from the literal federal government.
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I was a u.s. forest Service employee to Being a small
10:45
business employing, getting like, way better attention,
10:47
affection consideration. I mean, it's been amazing.
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That's one of the things that make small business unique in
10:55
general is that a lot of small businesses start.
10:58
As family businesses, Hawthorne is was a father and son team,
11:01
kind of that. Got things going there, I grew
11:04
up in a family business and then as you add employees, they just
11:07
become part of the family especially in successful
11:10
businesses. You see very early on that.
11:13
Caring for people is good for both for your mental health, but
11:17
your bottom line. And so many more things you
11:20
mentioned, toxic masculinity, and the idea of sleeping it off,
11:24
and it just kind of brought back this whole wave of emotions and
11:28
memories from when I was a kid and being knocked unconscious
11:32
like during a sporting event, and then, you know, essentially
11:34
being told to walk it off and that idea to rub dirt on.
11:38
It was a big, you know, kind of stereotypical saying for so
11:40
long. And I'm curious to know how How
11:45
this generation that's coming up.
11:46
Now that is at least given a chance to not maybe have some of
11:50
those things ingrained into them from such a young age.
11:53
You mentioned that you were still feeling that way about
11:55
yourself, like you should do those things.
11:58
When you started at at Hawthorne, I'll be curious to
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see in 15, 20 years, 30 years, how these Generations are are
12:06
treating employees or coworkers, or how future small business.
12:10
Owners are either, not even Rising.
12:14
That was a thing at some point or are dealing with new issues
12:18
that we can't even predict it. I think that all businesses are
12:23
judged by their own metrics. You have your own metres to
12:26
success, and some success is the bottom line or the profit
12:30
margin. Some success is your employees,
12:33
happiness. And I think being empathetic
12:36
with your employees, is a big metric of success for me
12:39
personally, because that's how I was taught when I started at
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Hawthorne that This is what empathy can feel like when you
12:45
receive it. When somebody says, hey you're
12:48
going through something. And I want to help you out for
12:50
the sake of helping you out when I wrote my training menu.
12:53
Originally three years ago, I started three or four years ago.
12:56
I started training employees in my training manual.
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I like to say that, I don't care if you take these skills, quit
13:02
tomorrow, go somewhere else. That's none of my business.
13:05
The fact of the matter is, we're all here in the same room and I
13:10
want in the term of, you're only as strong as your weakest link,
13:13
Slink, there's no reason to have a weak link if you care about
13:17
each other. And there's no reason to not be
13:19
empathetic to each other and to not care and ask and learn about
13:24
each other. Because that is so much of a
13:27
metric of success. To me, a low turnover rate, a
13:30
this idea that your employees are going on bragging, like I
13:34
work at Hawthorne, the idea that if one of my employees for
13:38
whatever reason, it doesn't work out.
13:40
They put on their resume Hawthorne coffee and they go
13:43
somewhere. And somewhere, when the,
13:44
somebody else looks at that resume says, whoa, you worked at
13:47
Hawthorne coffee. You must have experience with
13:50
being empathetic, hospitable serving, great coffee, whatever
13:55
the that is, I think that's a huge metric of our success.
14:00
I want to take a step back. I normally start shows by
14:03
jumping into a little back story, and we went way past that
14:06
right away. Yeah, I'm wondering about you.
14:09
Where are you from? Where did you grow up?
14:11
Did you have a first experience with coffee?
14:13
That made you think, you know, this is interesting or was was
14:17
that something that happened after you started at Hawthorne?
14:20
Honestly coffee was never like a thing for me growing up.
14:24
I grew up only child, not rich, but we had a, we had dinner on
14:30
our plate. Every night.
14:32
My parents worked full-time. Both of them.
14:35
I spent a lot of time either by myself or learning how to make
14:39
friends. And I think that kind of taught
14:40
me that relationships. What's the I'd like when you're
14:45
friends with your dog but it's on you know I'm talking about
14:49
but it's unrequited. Yeah.
14:51
Something like that. Where like you can't fuck it up
14:54
and they love you, no matter what.
14:55
I always hated that idea, I always thought that like every
14:59
day we show up empathetic and caring about each other and and
15:04
that taught me growing up that like if I am a, you know,
15:08
dickhead if I walk around like a jerk to people they're not going
15:10
to like me like nobody has to like me.
15:13
Nobody has to care about me, nothing like that, unlike my
15:16
parents do. But so I try to walk around as a
15:19
caring person and that brought me through the restaurant
15:23
industry, working, random weird, retail jobs, dishwashing until I
15:29
started at a Southern Restaurant in North Park where I was front
15:34
of house and it was my first time like being hospitable and
15:39
taking people's orders and asking how people are doing and
15:42
just having a casual conversation.
15:44
And I loved it. But as soon as we, we were one
15:48
of the first restaurants in San Diego, that hit like the Fried
15:51
Chicken craze like the Nashville chicken BS.
15:54
And I was working at this weird restaurant that was coffee
15:58
donuts and fried chicken which is like a really fucking just
16:02
eclectic mess and I was just front of house and as time went
16:07
on I gravitated towards the coffee machine because it was
16:11
quick and easy and people. After coffee versus hungry,
16:15
people, we know which one we're picking their.
16:17
So excuse me. I was on coffee for a while,
16:20
having a great time. And then I was starting to hear
16:26
things about my wages and noticing, my tips were kind of
16:30
missing and things weren't adding up.
16:33
When I inquired about it, I was met with full resistance
16:38
non-transparency and like a lot of just like shadiness Had a few
16:44
conversations when interviewed with ironsmith coffee up in
16:47
Encinitas. And I walked in there with like
16:51
no experience other than hospitality and just saying
16:54
like, hey man, I heard you treat your employees.
16:56
Well I'm being treated like shit and I would love to work for you
17:00
and he hired me on the spot. Matt, from ironsmith would
17:04
invite me. And during the time I was in
17:06
fire academy. So I would, you know, show the
17:10
fire academy at the border 8 a.m. get out.
17:13
Of five drive all the way up to Encinitas.
17:16
Matt. After closing would bring in
17:18
chips and salsa and beers and him.
17:21
And I would be in the shop alone and he taught me menu, he taught
17:24
me espresso, he taught me. This is where we do small batch,
17:27
tell me all these things and it was the single handedly.
17:31
The best environment for me to learn and it was equally
17:35
Hands-On, as writing stuff down as hearing it from the man
17:41
himself, like the guy that roasted the coffee himself, He
17:43
was so confident and chill and took his time.
17:47
And it was so again, caring and empathetic this theme that just
17:51
kept following me. And I thought that was so cool
17:54
that he invested the time in me, let alone buying the beers and
17:58
the chips and salsa. And I don't even know if I was
18:00
getting paid for that. But just the idea of coming and
18:03
shooting the shit with you, you know, so I worked at ironsmith
18:07
work there for a few months had a fantastic time.
18:10
Got picked up with the forest service after I graduate.
18:13
Actually, before I graduated fire academy, got picked up and
18:17
that was an on-call job. So I was, I would be working at
18:20
ironsmith one day and then get the call.
18:23
And hey, guys, I can someone to cover my shift because there's,
18:26
you know, because Ellie is on fire and I got to go up to LA,
18:30
and I think it was like a month or two of that before.
18:34
Ironsmith was like, Hey, man, so you're gone for two weeks and
18:38
then you're back for two days and then you're gone for two
18:41
weeks is not really working out for us.
18:44
And I think initially I was like all like just disappointed that
18:48
I couldn't do both. Obviously they're not going to
18:51
staff me. I was that was my schedule, you
18:54
work, 14 days straight. You come home, you have two days
18:56
and then you're back on for another 14.
18:58
So, that kind of took over my 2016 until I came back to
19:02
Hawthorne at such a wild Balancing Act.
19:06
Matt, from ironsmith has been on this show, and we've talked a
19:08
lot about his strategies and it sounds like you learned quite a
19:12
bit even in a short Time there. Now that you're in the role of
19:16
coffee director, what lessons have you taken as far as things
19:20
like sourcing? I'm it's the first thing that
19:22
you've mentioned or that is mentioned in the in the roasters
19:25
mission statement on the website there what is your ethos around
19:29
sourcing and how do you put that into practice as a small
19:31
Roastery and I'm really interested in it because of just
19:35
in the last 15 minutes we've been talking about empathy and
19:38
your experiences on these other jobs how has that impacted your
19:42
decision-making process? Is now that you're in the
19:44
position they were when you started working for them.
19:49
Obviously, as a small roaster were somewhat limited by what we
19:53
can order, how much we can order.
19:55
There's shipping prices, be considered in all of these
19:58
things. All of that being said, we
20:00
usually have to go through bigger Distributors like a
20:03
royal, a red fox and Ally and Onyx companies.
20:08
Like these were luckily enough now that these companies are
20:12
promoting so weird, I'm looking for empathy forward coffee, I
20:16
guess whether it be a a woman's Co-op, whether it be small
20:21
farmers co-op, like whatever we can do to order copies along
20:26
those lines for now to build those relationships.
20:30
I mean, there's women-owned firms in South America that are
20:33
the best they've ever been. And the only way to further
20:36
support them is to order their coffee.
20:39
So we try to make sure that if we order for coffees on her
20:42
cupping, sample table, that one of those samples is from again,
20:47
either. Woman's car.
20:48
Or maybe they're helping drug rehabilitation in South America.
20:52
We've had of a crop recently that took actual trafficked own
20:58
drug Farms by the cartels in Colombia.
21:00
They just made it into coffee farms and they're just trying to
21:03
get all of that bad stuff off the mountain and the idea that
21:07
buying coffee rehabilitates the neighborhood in a sense, was a
21:11
promotional idea to me that I was like, hey man, that's
21:14
awesome. Because one day, I know that
21:16
we're going to visit one of These Farms.
21:18
Hopefully, if we build a great enough relationship and the idea
21:22
that these Farms were using empathy and using all of these
21:26
things that coincide with what we do here, I think is just a
21:30
fantastic relationship and we had a minute of technical
21:34
difficulties buffering buffering, and we're back, and
21:40
we'll just acknowledge it. Because sometimes when you're
21:42
doing stuff virtually and last two years ago, covid there's
21:45
technical difficulties. So we launched J for a They're
21:49
so I'm gonna ask him a question that I had already asked him and
21:53
we're going to just work our way through it, which is
21:55
essentially, Hawthorne and Copa, Coffee Roasters are in Adams
22:03
Avenue in San Diego and for anyone who doesn't know that
22:05
area, there's all these neighborhoods that are kind of
22:08
connected to each other, what North Park, Hillcrest Bankers
22:11
Hill University Heights. You know, you walk two, three
22:14
blocks and you're in a different neighborhood that has its own
22:17
really truly unique. Vibe, you were only roasting for
22:21
a short period before covid hit. How has the relationship with
22:25
the community? Either helped or hurt you?
22:27
Or how did you guys adapt to covid-19 came along and then now
22:31
that we're two years into it, where are things now?
22:35
Well, when covid hit, we had no idea how severe it was going to
22:40
be how long it was going to last, what a Temptations were
22:44
going to be made. So everything was kind of on the
22:46
Fly, which included setting up an online menu for our Cafe and
22:52
making sure that everybody could put in their orders online,
22:54
touch-free, and handling, all that we had to move our bar to
22:58
the window physically, move our entire register up to the
23:01
window. Not allow people in the cafe,
23:03
all of that kind of thing. Moving a retail store online.
23:07
We had next to no online presence, pre covid and now
23:11
we're rapidly focusing on that growing on that as much as one
23:16
can. Unfortunately, covid brats staff
23:19
changes and changed our entire industry mentality about what it
23:25
means, not only minimum wage, but what it means to be an
23:27
employee in the hospitality service, I think we had a real
23:31
Awakening of that as far as how to treat one another and all of
23:37
those kinds of things. I will say, as far as the
23:40
neighborhood's go, our neighborhood did not hurt us in
23:44
the slightest, in any way next to covid.
23:47
I think it only helped us San Diego is very geographically
23:52
split into Hills and Valleys. I grew up in the valley.
23:56
And I think it's very not very community-oriented in the
24:01
valley, its kind of split and you live there and I live here
24:03
and we go about our days and we'll I have to wherever but as
24:06
soon as I moved up here I probably worked at Hawthorne for
24:11
three years and then I moved on to Adams Avenue genuinely
24:15
because I loved it so much and I didn't want to drive to work
24:18
anymore. When I moved up here, I really
24:21
noticed how actually community-oriented it is, how
24:25
many festivals are on this street.
24:27
How many had just how much the community loves itself?
24:31
And as you were kind of mentioning all of these are the
24:33
communities are physically connected.
24:35
Connected to each other, whether it be normal, Heights, North
24:38
Park University, Heights, City Heights.
24:41
And there is no wall that stops one neighborhood to the next
24:46
we're all one, we are all San Diego.
24:49
And I think when covid happened the one thing that everybody
24:53
kept doing, you stop seeing your Barber, you stopped going out to
24:58
the bars. You might not go to any
25:00
restaurants, but damn this neighborhood.
25:03
It was still drinking their coffee and there were still And
25:05
it for me and it was a great experience for me to dislodge
25:11
from Facebook, from any major new source I stopped going on
25:15
all those and I just listened to what the people said in the
25:19
community. It was beautiful in the sense
25:22
that we had existential dread and we had naive optimism.
25:28
We had ultimate hope we have whatever it was.
25:32
It felt natural and I felt organic and it felt like this
25:35
Hood and still to this day I brag that at 6 a.m.
25:40
I'm they're serving your coffee and then at 3:00 p.m. we're
25:43
going to bump into each other at the grocery store and we're
25:45
going to see each other at the gas station.
25:47
And when I walk my dog down the street, you're going to be big
25:49
and say what's up, because this is our community.
25:52
And I'm the fucking Coffee Guy of this community.
25:56
You know what I mean? Like, I live three blocks from.
25:58
Where I work. My I ride my skateboard to work.
26:01
It takes me under a minute. I love this neighborhood.
26:05
I love San Diego and the love that I get back from this
26:08
neighborhood in from San Diego. Is so genuinely beautiful, it's
26:12
therapeutic and obviously it's hard not to love San Diego.
26:18
But once you're here and once you start showing love to it and
26:21
start being a member of the community.
26:23
I think it really sends itself back, that's really interesting.
26:28
You and I took drastically different approaches to the
26:32
internet during covid. I went down the rabbit hole.
26:35
Whole really far, just staying on top of every piece of news
26:39
and to the point where it wouldn't have been healthy even
26:43
during a non pandemic time but I have a little bit of a
26:48
compulsive compulsivity in my personality so I definitely do
26:51
that and I had to kind of pull myself back out.
26:55
I do think part of that though was I didn't feel as engaged
26:59
with my neighbors. And with my neighborhood, the
27:01
way that you did you were having those experiences.
27:05
Day. And I've been repeating this on
27:08
the show all season. Just about how valuable seeing
27:12
that person at the coffee shop is or how valuable those what we
27:16
used to think of as throwaway interactions with the person at
27:18
the grocery store with the person in the Drive-Thru at the
27:22
coffee shop. How much value those brought to
27:25
our lives every day without even realizing it.
27:28
And that's something that I definitely have taken away from.
27:30
From this experience, you mentioned a little bit earlier
27:34
your It's to really focus on line and to get that going, how
27:38
you didn't have an online presence presence for the shop,
27:42
previous to covid. And now it's becoming more of a
27:45
focus. Do you think that's true for the
27:48
craft coffee community in general?
27:49
Or I mean I think it's true for a lot of small businesses
27:52
because of covid. But now that we're entering this
27:55
phase where they're telling us, we don't need masks or where we
27:59
are going to covid is going to become something we just live
28:01
with as if it's a thing that is in the world, do you?
28:05
It'll stay that way. Or where do you see the craft
28:07
coffee Community going? I think pre covid the companies
28:13
that were online or had a big online presence.
28:16
Were simply the big ones that and uh, no, I don't know this
28:22
for sure. It seems like they were paying a
28:23
third party to do their online Source or maybe they had an
28:27
employee, who was like a tech whiz.
28:29
We are respectfully. Not that we are bartenders and
28:34
firefighters. You know, we were trying to
28:36
piece this online store stuff together as we figure it out.
28:40
And thankfully, the owner of combine, Hawthorne Dylan, he
28:44
will sit there and read about it and he will figure it out.
28:47
And here, we are with an online store and an online ordering up
28:51
at toast have.com, and all of those kinds of things, we will
28:55
figure it out. It seemed like again before, it
28:58
was just the big, like, the four barrel, and Onyx and these other
29:04
huge companies that Online. And I think we really saw
29:07
benefit from companies like cat and Cloud who would have a
29:11
community online and I always took notice of that and thought
29:15
that was really cool, and I grew up skateboarding and I saw like
29:19
what an online community can do for you through in
29:21
skateboarding. So now that we hit covid, it
29:25
really promoted me. Okay.
29:27
I'll start a YouTube. I'll start taking photos every
29:30
week for the social medias. I'll start making sure the
29:33
online store is updated and All of those things.
29:35
And as we move out of the hyper-focused covid, where you
29:40
want to call that period, we've had in the past two years.
29:43
I think, as we move out of that, I'm not going to stop doing any
29:48
of those things. Or I don't think craft coffee
29:50
will stop doing any of those things.
29:51
I think we're all going to have to live with that now, but I
29:56
think that those bigger companies don't have that leg up
30:00
anymore on us. I think before it was genuinely
30:03
a leg up on us, they had an Online presence.
30:05
We had no presence but now that we're all there it, somewhat
30:10
saturated the market and maybe it made it even better.
30:14
You have guys like Lance, Hedrick that who preached covid
30:18
he was at La Tierra competitions.
30:20
Through covid started his online YouTube series and now he's
30:24
killing again, thousands of use a week.
30:27
So maybe that's better for the whole industry in that sense,
30:33
Yeah, that's really interesting. I noticed that you did
30:35
photography is that what got you into it in the first place?
30:39
Or was that something you were doing?
30:40
You know, just on your own outside of coffee.
30:44
I've always been a photographer as just my own Hobbies.
30:48
I've shot for skateboard companies in and out of modeling
30:52
and all those kinds of things. When I started at Hawthorne, I
30:55
would I love to do product photos, just because we had an
30:59
Instagram and after a while, I kind of started running the
31:02
Instagram through covid, it brought that all back for me and
31:07
once I kind of had this idea like how should I start a
31:10
YouTube and like maybe I'll make tutorial videos I got A lot of
31:14
support from my friends and from the staff at Hawthorne and it
31:17
was like a, why aren't you already kind of conversation?
31:21
And so I really got to combine my passion and love for
31:25
photography and use the knowledge that I have and you
31:30
know that brought on the podcast and I'm just been having a lot
31:33
of fun with it. Well, you just brought a
31:36
podcast. You do a lot of different
31:37
things, besides your job, which is commendable, but you also
31:41
hosts a podcast for the Roasterie and you used to host a
31:44
podcast, which I, I don't know. I think it's still around.
31:48
Spro cast. How did you get started in the
31:50
podcast space? And then, what are you hoping to
31:53
accomplish with your new podcast?
31:56
Originally spoke house was started in 2018, I was invited
32:02
on. We had four host one, being
32:05
serious Ember and is the restaurant lofty coffee still.
32:07
She's the coffee director. There she is an absolute genius
32:11
when it comes to everything coffee and Hospitality.
32:15
Also, somebody that through this whole experience has taught me
32:17
genuinely so much about empathy. What it means to be empathetic
32:21
to one another, she is a coffee professional that I look up to.
32:25
Enclose to every single way. She has the cleanest bar in the
32:29
city and smiling employees. And that is something to really
32:33
look up to. And I'm going to interrupt just
32:36
real quick to say that for people that listen to my show,
32:39
they know Syria. Because she's done maybe 20
32:41
episodes with me as one of our coffee smarter experts and she
32:45
will never like self promote herself.
32:48
And so I'm glad that you said all those nice things about her
32:51
just now it's insane. How humble she is.
32:55
For how much knowledge she genuinely, like, genuinely has,
33:00
and she's so willing to share it.
33:02
And I really think of their more people like Siri in this world,
33:05
in this industry, we would be so much better off.
33:07
She's seriously somebody to learn from.
33:09
So when she ASA is Source, Prometheus on YouTube and my
33:15
other, our other friend, Troy, who was at the time, a barista
33:19
in the city they'ii, came to me and said, hey, we're gonna be
33:23
doing this podcast. Would you be down to sit with
33:25
us? Us.
33:25
Once a week, have a conversation?
33:28
And to me I thought if I was in a room at least listening to the
33:32
conversation that you three were having, I would learn something.
33:36
I would take away something. So I made it a thing for myself
33:41
that every Monday, I'm going to go get a meal.
33:43
I really like and I'm going to go sit down with my friends and
33:46
we're going to hang out together.
33:47
We're gonna have this great conversation and they're going
33:49
to go and every week, that's exactly what it was.
33:53
It got better and better as time went on.
33:55
We Came closer and closer. We had so many guests on from
34:00
all these various different walks of life because we had
34:02
four hosts, it may have been a little chaotic at times both
34:08
audio wise and organizationally like, coming together and, you
34:13
know, for you and I to get together on this was way easier
34:17
than getting the four of us, plus, guess into her room.
34:20
But the idea that every Monday, we somehow worked out our Jules
34:25
all come together and every week found other ways found ways to
34:29
see each other, regardless of, even this broke-ass meeting.
34:33
It was so beautiful. I think that covid and time we
34:38
fizzled out, we grew apart and we all had to focus on our own
34:41
businesses. And I think that we wanted to
34:46
bring spro cows back in a really serious light, but we all have
34:50
full-time jobs that we needed to focus on and we wanted to
34:53
respect. Those jobs, I think, sure.
34:59
And I think that for people who listen to podcasts, I mean, I
35:03
actually listened to spro cast before I started this show.
35:06
There's a lot more that goes into it than just the 40 minutes
35:10
that you're recording a show or an hour that you're recording a
35:13
show. And and a lot of it is just
35:15
time, you know, for every minute of recording, I spend between
35:19
five and ten minutes. You know, on the other side of
35:21
it doing something else, whether it's editing or posting online
35:25
or whatever. It is and so that all adds up
35:28
and when it's not your it's what it's not your job or when you're
35:31
not getting paid for it, it really is just kind of a labor
35:35
of passion which is what it sounds like that was.
35:37
But maybe now that we are kind of, we've all been moving
35:41
forward to the world. I think, I think we've been
35:44
moving forward. It's hard to tell sometimes.
35:46
Yeah, it really is but maybe they'll be aspro cast reunions,
35:50
maybe that becomes like, the thing every years broke ass gets
35:53
together for one big blowout. You know, I would love that so
35:58
much and I'm so lucky that when we did spro cast, I love the
36:02
idea of like, writing down questions and getting guests
36:04
together and doing that whole thing, and I hate editing and I
36:11
doubt I edited two minutes of that entire podcast.
36:14
If series simmered in a sedan edit that podcast, it wouldn't
36:16
have been edited. So, God forbid, the tax that was
36:20
put on them through that which now I'm learning by doing my own
36:23
podcast, like, Editing is a real.
36:28
It's fun is what it is. And, you know, like, getting
36:33
your mics right and getting everything set up so that you
36:36
have to spend the least amount of time editing.
36:38
It's so tough and I really respect Syrian ASA, both for
36:42
putting their time and energy into that.
36:43
And I imagine that's another reason why it fizzled out over
36:46
time. All of that being said, as far
36:49
as spoke us getting together, when you're for a blowout, I
36:52
couldn't imagine anything more fun.
36:53
I would love to have a all Have all of our guests back on as
36:57
well. Since we only had a couple
37:00
hundred episodes, maybe I have a smooth, we didn't have a guess
37:04
every week, but that would be one hell of a party.
37:07
It would be a great way to start a new era.
37:11
I don't want to, I don't want to not talk about your podcast.
37:13
You are also doing a podcast for the Roasterie or on behalf of
37:16
the Roasterie. What are your goals there?
37:19
I listened to the first couple episodes.
37:21
It's still really knew who should be listening to that show
37:24
and what What are you bringing to the table with that?
37:27
I'm looking to achieve the same thing from the combi Coffee
37:31
Roasters podcast as I did with spro cast which is basically I
37:37
learn a lot of things through conversations and if I can write
37:41
down some questions that I have, I imagine other people have them
37:45
too and we can learn about this together.
37:47
I think in the in the sense of the questions you're asking me
37:51
right now somebody's going to learn from this podcast just
37:53
from us having an hour-long conversation, right?
37:55
Now, I love the idea that somebody could listen to us and
38:00
learn. Therefore, I want to keep diving
38:02
and keep learning on this uncensored journalistic level,
38:07
where I can ask whatever questions I want.
38:11
Respectfully. So long as they're respectful
38:14
and you can answer them and we can have this talk and it's very
38:16
endearing. I love that as far as who should
38:20
be listening, it's anybody that wants to learn about San Diego
38:23
hospitality Coffee drinks. In general.
38:27
I'm going to have on bartenders and Baristas and Barbers and
38:33
chefs and anybody that wants to have a conversation.
38:38
It's probably not going to be super like political or anything
38:40
like that, but it's going to be a little more fun and less
38:42
taxing than that. Ideally it's somehow seeps in.
38:46
I used to have a sign. I used to run a bar and I had a
38:49
sign over the bar. That said, you can talk about
38:52
anything you want, but except politics.
38:55
Whenever somebody would bring up politics at the bar, I would
38:57
just point at the sign and not acknowledge them in any other
39:00
way, and that was our rule. Amazing.
39:03
I don't want to get too far away since we're getting a little bit
39:06
further into this conversation, I want to make sure that I'm
39:08
asking you about the coffee. That's coming out of your shop
39:12
and if you guys have developed sort of an ethos about the
39:16
coffee, or what is it that you think that you guys do really
39:19
well, or that if people were to go and explore and say, check
39:23
out the coffee shop or order beans.
39:25
Line. What can they expect from what
39:27
you guys are doing? I think they should expect
39:31
coffee to be served and made and sourced by people who have been
39:35
doing this for a few years. I think people should expect
39:39
that. I would never serve you a cup
39:41
that I hadn't dialed in and tasted myself.
39:45
I think our ethos on coffee is to Source great coffee but to
39:50
also respect it when we roast it and when we Brew it, we know
39:54
that we are responsible for every step of the way.
39:59
From green to Cup and that is in respect to both the customer and
40:04
the farmer. I think that it's a big
40:06
responsibility to take that on, and I'm having a lot of fun
40:10
learning how to do that in the best light.
40:13
I think that when people come to combine, when people taste our
40:16
coffee, they should expect that. Our entire team is simply
40:21
wanting to be better than they were yesterday.
40:24
And knowing that we're not going to be as good as we will be
40:27
tomorrow. And with that being said, said
40:29
we're tasting every cup. And we're learning from it.
40:31
We're learning. Damn, this is better than the
40:33
last one because of this, but we can also look forward to these
40:38
ways, to improve every cup, man. And we're becoming so much more
40:42
of a scratch kitchen by making our own syrups, by making our
40:46
own almond butters and mayonnaise, and all these
40:49
different things. We just started cold-press
40:51
juicing. This week sourcing coffee was
40:54
our first step and we're just getting further and further.
40:58
I'm so, Lucky that I got stick on the coffee director role so I
41:01
don't necessarily have to worry so much about the kitchen and
41:05
the mayonnaise and almond butters.
41:06
I get to focus on, literally looking at these distributorless
41:10
and finding great coffees and sampling them.
41:13
Myself tasting, every single one and making choices of what we
41:16
taste knowing that if any customer comes in the cafe and
41:20
they'll look at our menu and they say salted Maple is that
41:23
good? The question is that good?
41:25
Will always be yes if it's on our menu because As we've all
41:29
tasted and we all agree that it's awesome.
41:34
Is there anything that we haven't talked about today?
41:36
That you want people to know about compa Coffee Roasters
41:39
anything that you think would maybe tip them over the edge of
41:43
saying? This is, this is a plate.
41:44
I mean, you've said a lot of great things obviously, but just
41:47
anything that we didn't talk about that, we should up for
41:49
that. I should have asked, no, I can't
41:52
think of anything that you didn't ask.
41:55
No, I can't. All right, I did a good job
41:58
today. Yeah, you did.
41:59
Yes, you did. I tried to do a little bit of
42:01
research this week, you know, you killed him.
42:03
And I really appreciate it. So then the last question that
42:06
will ask you today is when you are getting a cup of coffee,
42:10
when you're out in the world, not at your own Roastery.
42:12
What is it that you're ordering? Easy answer.
42:16
I spent a long time trying to get espressos place to place,
42:19
and you learn that, not everybody dials in for you and
42:21
you learn that. Not every Barista is an espresso
42:23
head and you learn all these things.
42:24
It's a waste of three dollars every single time.
42:27
The number one thing I recommend doing the number one thing I
42:29
started ordering is simply a batch Brew.
42:32
It's one of the cheapest things you can get.
42:33
It's one of the easiest things, you can get, it's something,
42:35
they should always have online and it's something that's so
42:38
easy as a coffee director, for me to come in and dial in and
42:42
know that every day, my Crew is fantastic, and I focus on that
42:47
so much because so many customers come in, and when they
42:50
say hi, I want a coffee. What they mean is, they want to
42:54
batch brew and to make sure that they have an over-the-top best
42:58
Bachelor that they've ever had. Is one of the best ways to
43:01
ensure a returning customer with a smile.
43:04
Sure. And that batch, Brew will be
43:06
their Gateway coffee into a port over into a single origin into
43:10
something. So many other things, I
43:12
appreciate all of your time today.
43:14
And I appreciate that. You took some time to share with
43:16
me and I look forward to getting down to Hawthorne and getting
43:20
down to try your coffee and to meet you in real life.
43:23
Ryan, thank you so much. I appreciate you investing.
43:24
The time to think about some questions to consider us as a
43:28
worthy guest of your show. I've listened to a few episodes
43:31
and I really appreciate your care towards San Diego coffee,
43:33
mint. Thank you so much for what you
43:34
do. To recap, apparently J is more
43:42
of a Power Rangers guy than a Ninja Turtles guy.
43:45
I don't understand it because I've never seen an episode of
43:48
the Power Rangers. It was after my time, but I'm
43:50
going to take J's word for it. That it was pretty cool.
43:54
I left this conversation with Jay in more of a reflective mood
43:58
than normal. The question.
43:59
He asked that, I kept coming back to is what metric do you
44:03
use to judge the success of your business?
44:05
Your career, your life. Of course, I was thinking it
44:08
about me and not about you, Jay also touched on something that
44:12
seems very applicable to the current moment in Hospitality
44:16
job loyalty, there are a lot of coffee shops and Coffee Roasters
44:20
hiring at the current moment. And there have been for a while.
44:24
While how does the growing number of coffee roasters and
44:27
cafes that are opening attract and retain good employees.
44:32
Especially at a moment when there seems to be less people
44:34
going into Hospitality than ever before.
44:38
That is going to be a theme in some of the upcoming shows as
44:41
well. If you're listening and looking
44:43
for a job in coffee, check out the coffee jobs thread on roast
44:46
westcoast.com. It's still new, but some good
44:50
jobs are being shared. Their, you can also follow at
44:52
roast West Coast on Instagram. I'm sharing new jobs in the
44:56
stories with the hashtag coffee jobs, almost daily.
45:01
Before I go, today, I want to wish a happy anniversary to you
45:04
all. We just passed the two-year Mark
45:06
of what was the public kickoff of the covid-19?
45:08
Pandemic. The MBA shut the basketball
45:11
season down, first other sports, followed, and then state of
45:15
emergencies were declared. And we took a break from the
45:18
world for a while. We've all been on our own
45:20
journey through this, pandemic to those of you who've lost
45:23
someone or gotten sick or lost a job or had their world turned
45:27
upside down in some other way, you're not alone.
45:31
We're all dealing with this awful.
45:32
Wait, but for the moment, things feel a little optimistic at
45:37
least on the covid front where I am in California today and I
45:40
hope it stays that way. Regardless, I want to say thank
45:44
you to the guests supporters and listeners of this coffee
45:47
podcast. You've become a stabilizing
45:49
force in my life and kept me saner than I have any right to
45:52
be. Thank you.
45:54
Thank you, thank you. And thank you, just for
45:56
listening to this episode today. Right now, I'll be back with
46:00
another episode. Sewed, a coffee smarter session
46:02
all about milk and latte art later this week with series
46:06
simran, Khalsa, the executive director of lofty coffee.
46:10
I also want to thank our coffee industry Partners, especially
46:13
zoom bar coffee and tea who invited me to come hang out on
46:16
their patio with my microphone. Last week, I want to say what's
46:19
up to Gene and Matthew and Kate and Luciano who are, just some
46:23
of the fine folks who hung out with me last Friday morning.
46:26
Check back for some audio from that.
46:27
In-person appearance in this week's.
46:29
Coffee smarter episode coming in a few days and I don't want to
46:32
forget our other industry Partners, including Cafe litter,
46:35
who are celebrating their one-year anniversary, ignite
46:38
Coffee Company. Most her Coffee Company.
46:41
Shout out to Salmon Bev. Congrats on the new edition.
46:44
Leap coffee, Maria coffee steady-state, coffee, roasting
46:48
coffee cycle, roasting Camp, Coffee Company, Cape Horn,
46:52
coffee importers, and first light whiskey, this episode of
46:56
the roast West Coast coffee podcast is was has been written
47:00
produced and recorded by me Ryan Walt.
47:04
I hope this show is found you happy healthy and with at least
47:07
enough sanity and coffee to make it through the day.
47:10
And please always tip your Baristas and be sure to drink
47:14
good coffee. Hey there.
47:45
Thanks for listening, all the way through to the end of the
47:48
show. If you liked this episode of the
47:50
roast West Coast coffee podcast, and you want more and more
47:53
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