COLLABORATION CAN BE KEY FOR DULUTH’S CRAFT BEVERAGE BOOM

BY ALISON STUCKE

PHOTOS BY DAVID BALLARD PHOTOGRAPHY

David Moreira is a man of taste. He likes to think about taste, talk about taste, experience taste and revel in taste. He mixes and matches flavors — using beer, wine, coffee, spirits, liqueurs to create unique beverages with a drop of this, an essense of that.

Moreira works at two craft beverage businesses in Duluth. He is bar manager at Duluth Coffee Co.’s Roasteria in downtown Duluth, and he is “liquid justice provider” and cocktail room manager of Vikre Distillery in Canal Park.

Moreira moved to Duluth from White Bear Lake, Minn., in 2007 to go to school at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

He graduated with a fine arts degree in printmaking. His work, which has been displayed at the Duluth Art Institute, can be seen on band posters, skateboard decks, at least one parklet.

He was originally contacted by Duluth Coffee Co. to create art to hang on the shop’s walls. When they learned that he worked for Vikre Distillery, they were intrigued by his ability to mix unique flavors and hired him to work in their Roasteria — which Moreira refers to as a “tasting room.”

The Roasteria offers beer, wine and liquor as a way to talk about coffee, according to Eric Faust, owner of Duluth Coffee Co.

“We’re a coffee-focused company, but it’s our way to bring synergy to the craft beverage industry,” he said.

The Roasteria is the place where Duluth Coffee Co. keeps its 70-kilo, drum-style coffee roaster. It’s more than eight feet tall, and it fills the front of the room. Every Monday and Tuesday, Charlie Comnick, director of coffee operations, fills the drum with green, raw coffee beans, and roasts enough to sell and distribute for the week.

Some days, Comnick opens the garage-style door of the business, and the coffee smell fills the air for blocks.

At the other end of the room is a bar with taps pouring the product of its collaborations with local breweries and specialty cocktails house-made with fine spirits — some from Vikre Distillery. The cocktails have names like “When Palomas Cry” (Tattersall’s orange and grapefruit cremas and Copper & Kings apple brandy, thyme and lemon) and “Misnomer” (Vikre’s boreal juniper gin, ginger, cardamom and cranberry).

By working at both Vikre and Duluth Coffee Co., Moreira represents just one of several crossovers of the craft beverage industry in the area. Bent Paddle Brewing Co. worked with Duluth Coffee Co. to make Cold Press Black Ale, and Earth Rider Brewery in Superior to make Earth Rider Duluth Coffee Pale Ale.

Moreira said that working at the Rosteria has helped him to truly appreciate coffee as a craft beverage.

“I wasn’t a coffee drinker before I worked here,” he said. “Now it’s fun to taste and explore different coffees, and to find out how dynamic coffee can be.”