Barrio has opened their espresso bar at Dairy Road, adjacent to the roastery. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Barrio Coffee Collective has long been a favourite of Braddon locals for a morning coffee. The institution has been around for over 10 years and has developed a strong following of loyal customers. It’s often mentioned as the best place for a coffee in Region’s Five Minutes With … column, proving that their locally roasted coffee is a hit among hospo workers and regular customers alike.
Barrio co-owners Sam Burns and Max Neve have been roasting coffee out at Dairy Road for about eight years and decided it was high time they added a small espresso bar to show off their brews to the locals. The two were behind the coffee machine in Fyshwick when Region popped in on their opening morning.
“Opening up as a cafe here fits with the roastery, makes good use of the space and is really just a natural progression for us,” Sam told Region.
“There’s a really good little community building out here, and it’s nice to be able to find our feet in that community.”
There were plenty of keen customers from around the Dairy Road precinct community also coming by for a caffeine fix: one of the Capital Brewing team was coming in for his second coffee of the day, and a group of people from the Keep Co co-working space also popped in for a round of piccolos.
Max Neve and Sam Burns are co-owners of Barrio alongside Dan Zivkovich. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
The minimalist shopfront, fitted by local builders Ignoto, has a deliberately raw feel. Sam jokes that he’s in his plywood era. The curved, mint green bench top, cute stool seats, and retail shelf create a cozy, laid-back atmosphere.
While they find their feet, there’s a simple cabinet of pastries – muffins, a Basque cheesecake and a selection of Italian doughnuts – but they’re planning to start making fresh sandwiches and toasties soon. Punters can expect Under Bakery bread and plenty of Barrio’s housemade pickles, condiments and fermented hot sauces to add a little excitement to the other fresh fillings.
With the roastery just next door, there will be more options available for specialty coffees. Braddon usually offers one blend of beans for milk coffees and another for black coffees, but there will be up to four or five black coffee blends available for customers to try.
“Braddon is a little more streamlined, but we’re hoping we’ll have time to play around a bit more with different black coffee options, so people can come in and taste the different pour-over and black coffee blends.”
The iconic Barrio cups are handmade by Sam’s brother, Joey, who runs Sawpit Studios. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
The small, handmade, mint greens cups at Barrio have become an icon unto themselves, so of course Sam had to ask his brother Joey – aka Sawpit Studios – to make more of these huggable cups for the Dairy Road location, this time with a darker glaze, and (controversially) a larger size.
“We finally caved!” Max laughed.
“After however many years [of only serving one size of coffee], we gave in, so there’s large mugs now as well.”
Large or small, the coffee is – as expected – exceptionally good.
The Barrio Espresso Bar is located at 1 Dairy Road, behind Capital Brewing Co. They are open from 7.30 am to 2 pm Wednesday to Saturday. Follow Barrio on Facebook or Instagram.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on Region Canberra.
