COFFEE
&
CAKE
Head into St. James's St, Kemptown, and you will find the newly re-opened Redroaster Café. Absolute's coffee aficionado dropped in to chat to Mike Palmer, test the coffee and was suitably impressed.
The Cappuccino Kid
Thanks. Yes, although in the evening you can come in for coffee/wine/beer whatever. There's a lot of food going on at night.
Q. The Red Roaster. Same name, new look, major make-over. what's it all about? We felt that the café wasn’t doing justice to the coffee. So much effort is made by the guys to travel and source the worlds best coffee and then import it and roast it here in Kemptown. So we set about challenging ourselves to make the best café we could imagine, and where the coffee would take centre stage.
Q. Let's talk coffee. Red Roaster made a fine reputation for it's quality coffee. What kind of beans are you using? Do you vary your espresso? We are direct sourcing from Africa, Central and South America. At present we are roasting three blends and eight single estates and that changes throughout the year as the new harvests come in. In particular, we are focused on Rwanda, where we have a special relationship with the farmers. We've spent a lot of time out there. Last year we built a school and we are actively involved in the community. Q. Your Flat White is wonderful. What's your secret to the balance? At the roastery Rob and Diana are pretty obsessed and they are in the cafe training everyday making sure we don't mess it up. Plus, we have had perhaps one of the World's best coffee machines hand-made for us in Holland, by legendary espresso machinist Kees Van Der Westen !
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Q. There have been some major refinements in the Café. Who was behind the design of the interior? It was a collaboration between Stella Collective in Melbourne, Australia, and Studio C102 in Dalston, London. Q. What's going on with the business outside of the building you can share with us? Just that we will be headlining at this years London Coffee Festival so we’d love to see people up there. Q. Can we still come in the morning and sit with just a coffee and pastry? Yep, everyones welcome. We upgraded the wifi and you can use it as you want.
Q. The drinks menu has been given a massive makeover, do you consider yourselves now as more of a bar/bistro? No, we are a café. 90% of the drinks are espresso based. No surprise that changes in the evening when there's more booze. Q. The daytime food menu looks delicious. Do you become a full-on restaurant in the evening?
ABSOLUTE
We have some great partners all over the City who serve our coffee to their guests and our wholesale business is super important to us. There's nothing better than seeing people enjoying the coffee all over town. And for the next three months we are exclusively partnering with Selfridges in Oxford Street, Birmingham and Manchester so grab some coffee if you see us. The Red Roaster Café 1D St James's Street Brighton @redroasterbrighton http://www.redroaster.co.uk/