Biography Series

role                       Co-Owner, Human Relations
region                  North Minneapolis
faction                 Crimea
sneaker               Air Max 1
tasting notes     Guava, Latakia, Tangerine

in conversation

What inspires you about the work of coffee? The culture of it seems to resonate deeply with you, enough to inspire you to open a shop in town, at least.

Yeah, that’s fair to say. I really love finding the interesting flavors that the coffee plant can produce. It’s astounding that so many tastes and places can be evoked by a single plant. Everybody involved in the whole industry—farmers honing their craft while holding onto their roots and tradition, baristas who’ve fallen in love with the work and make the experience of going to a cafe relaxing and restorative—all those sorts of people come together to bring this wild industry to life. And, if things are done ethically and sustainably, all of that effort can build spaces where genuine community has an opportunity to thrive. Basically, I think the amount of care and human effort that has to go into making a cappuccino a reality is pretty incredible. Anyone who thinks coffee ought to be cheap is truly undervaluing the life it takes to make it work for everybody involved.

Has that thought process developed over time as you’ve lived in the coffee world?

Definitely. I've been able to connect with a lot of different people over our passion for the industry, and that’s been really encouraging when we were at the beginning of the journey and still tripping over ourselves. The whole learning curve was so worth it though. The way a coffee shop can create a space where anybody can relax, collaborate with each other, maybe even get a bit inspired: that’s actually affected me in more ways than I've fully been able to process. So thankful to be a part of the coffee world. 

Being as deeply involved as you are probably makes it easy for the coffee world to sort of bleed into other parts of your life.

That’s true, but I try and do as much as I can outside of the shop, too. Anyone who knows me well knows that I go through these intense phases with hobbies, where I’ll just be obsessed with something as soon as I discover it—it’s been tabletop games, film and cinema, the world of sneakers, Rubik’s cubes, fantasy books; I just love anything that can pull me into a world. Board games particularly stick around throughout all my other interests, and anything Simone Luciani touches is almost guaranteed to inspire me.

Somehow I imagine this has come up in conversation across the bar before.

Oh yeah—definitely talked a few people’s ears off about board games or movies. Those are like, the best-case-scenario conversations for me. Actually, put that part in there so more people ask. *laughs*

 

top five           Sorry To Bother You (2018)
                         Tim Robinson
                         Teenage Stepdad
                         Football Pizza
                         MoYu RS3 M

 

Back to Our Direction