(33/100) coffee buzz
Liverpool Street, early 2013 and after a cold winter at the Gherkin, we were back at Broadgate Circle and taking over a small kiosk for a temporary time before the Circle was rebuilt. It was exciting times.
The area was right in the centre of London City and the headquarters of where I had worked for most of my career, UBS.
It was always a super buzzing place and we were right outside Icap who had a reputation for bringing fun to the workplace.
This really felt like a breakthrough and we’ve always been so grateful for @britishlandplc for giving us this chance.
When starting the business, I desperately wanted to re-create the busy Aussie weekday morning I used to love while working in Sydney. In my view the greatest skill of an Aussie barista is the appearance of being super laid back, engaging and humble while underneath peddling at a million miles an hour to effortlessly produce superb coffee cup after cup. The approach is calming yet uplifting which is highly valued (and needed) when working such long hours in the City.
We were fortunate in many ways as the site we inherited already had a following - “Coffee Buzz” had been in the same tiny kiosk for almost 15 years, run by a couple of Moroccan brothers who specialised in serving super dark roasted ‘rocket fuel’ coffee.
Our coffee had the different Aussie profile, but after a couple of weeks of transition, the regulars were hooked on the Beany Green experience.
Over the next five years we would move our tiny coffee offering three times – 10m across the road, next door and then back again to the enlarged site following the Broadgate Circle redevelopment.
The extreme loyalty of the amazing customers makes this a very special site.