We Talk | The Facing Page

Since our first visit, both of us at the Facing Page have found quite a lot to love at Gastown’s menswear purveyor, Neighbour. Founded by Saager Dilawri, Neighbour is a beautifully designed space that showcases Saager’s excellent buying tastes. Given his reputation as being a great guy to chat with, we were excited to sit down with Saager for a beer and a conversation about starting Neighbour, working for Unis, and balancing high fashion and everyday staples.

The Facing Page: What prompted you to start up Neighbour?

Saager Dilawri: Since early high-school I’ve been into clothes for some reason or another and so I wanted to do something in business but on the clothing side. I figured that retail made the most sense. I went to business school, my dad advised me to not go to art school first so I’d have something to fall back on. I did my business school in London, Ontario, but soon after that I moved to New York and went to Parson’s for a year and did what they call the AAS program which is an advanced graduate program for marketing and merchandising. Through that I got an internship with Unis where I worked for a couple years.

Unis In-Store

TFP: How was working for Unis?

SD: It was great and I learnt a lot coming out of it. It was just such a small team over there, maybe five people when we started. Then for a year it was just myself, Eunice, and the production manager. We all were wearing a lot of different hats so it was never just one focus: I was doing wholesales, press, marketing, some of the retail store setup and managing. It was a lot.

TFP: When you decided to move here and open a shop, was it always going to be in Gastown or were you looking around a while?

SD: I actually started with the shop a little sooner than I’d expected. I’d come out here because someone had offered me a job and I was thinking of moving here. But that didn’t pan out, but at the same time I was looking around mostly for a retail space just to see what was there. The space where the little tea-house is right now is one I actually really wanted, but that fell through. The space I ended up with was my number two choice, but there was just too much work to be done with tea house at the time. I looked around Main Street and Yaletown as well, but this area just seemed to already have that same sort of feel so it was already being visited by the clientele I was interested in.

Looking in from Blood Alley

TFP: Gastown is pretty amazing as far as this sort of store goes, I don’t know if I’d say saturated but this block has four world class menswear shops with Inventory, Roden Gray, Haven and yourself, do you find it hard to differentiate yourselves?

SD: There’s always going to be some crossover with brands, but it’s interesting how each really has their own distinct feel. One appeals to more a street-wear clientele, one is more the internet customer, but everyone can keep their own vision without stepping on each other’s toes. You talk to people and they always say that this area of Vancouver is unlike any other in North America, if not the world. You can find pretty much any brand you’d want if you’re into that. It is a select market but it’s doing all right here.

TFP: Do you find there’s a good community between the stores?

SD: Yeah, we’re all pretty relaxed. It’s a good community. I think everyone is focussed on their own thing and doing it well.

TFP: So back onto Neighbour, what was the philosophy or vision that you held starting out in terms of brands and aesthetic?

SD: I’ve always been into things, from a clothing perspective, that are a little more playful and less serious. At the same time I’m also into underdog brands. I don’t know, I’m not sure if that’s always the case but you sometimes see more quality in brands that don’t market themselves as hard. They make up for it in quality. For me it’s a lot about clean, wearable clothes. As guys, I think we want something that we can wear numerous times without much effort. I wear the same kind of thing day in day out. You don’t want to think too much.

Clothes to Put on and Go

TFP: Yeah, that’s always nice, things you can just put on and go.

SD: Exactly. But at the same time the idea of having things that are a little more playful or things that don’t take themselves too seriously. In terms of colour and textures, I’m really into that. So I guess that’s the sort of vision. It wasn’t like there were a few brands I totally had in mind, I’m just looking for things that seemed and felt right.

TFP: We were having a quick conversation the other day and I remember you mentioned that at shows like Capsule you’ve found it really difficult to pick out new brands. You’ve done a really good job though in picking through those saturated rooms of brands. Is there anything particularly that’s helped you with that?

SD: I think through the wholesale and retail side of things with Unis I did a lot of work going through shops websites and seeing where our product could fit in. Through that you sort of learn what’s out there and how it all works. For sure there were a few brands that were top of my list to pick up when Neighbour came about, like Our Legacy, and things that appealed to me to a degree. A lot have come through since with that sort of underdog feel I mentioned earlier. If no-one else carries it you feel you can really grow with the brand. Since we started with a few brands they’ve gone from 5 stockists to 35 stockists. To a certain degree that makes it feel nice. And now, I’m also looking to pickup more high-fashion brands that I might not have been able to pick up when I first started.

TFP: In terms of the high-fashion brands, how do you go through picking out pieces in their lines. You say you prefer things to be wearable, and although they’ll often have some basics a lot of pieces from those bigger fashion lines have some pretty tough to wear collections. A lot of playful though.

SD: I think what you see on the runway is really the standout pieces. These brands do tend to have a lot of basics as well, we haven’t gotten to the point where we are super runway focussed yet. We only have a couple brands with runway shows, but yeah, for 15% of the shop or so we do have things that say “Yeah, we carry that as well” but they’re not necessarily the moneymakers at all. So with that stuff it’s okay to have a bit more fun, as long as it’s not just completely over the top.

TFP: Do you find there’s a lot of room to have fun with your buying? Some of the shetland wool sweaters you did for example, you’ve got an orange and a red that not a ton of others stores would necessarily think to do. Do people respond pretty well?

SD: It’s a bit of a tougher sell. I mean it’s not navy and it’s not gray. If you wear it properly though, with a proper shirt underneath, dark pants, it isn’t difficult to wear. I think it’s intimidating though when you see it as it is on the rack. It’s not something you’ll be able to wear everyday necessarily, you might not want to wear an orange sweater five days a week.

TFP: Unless of course you’re Dutch and it’s during the World Cup, so if you don’t mind keeping one aside for 2014, I’ll be back to pick one up (Editor’s Note: this Orange lust only applies to CK). Moving on, you’ve done a few collaborative efforts as well as the Shetland recently, you’ve done the ties, the chairs, how do you go about choosing the brands to work with? No one will have heard too much about the people you’ve worked with. It’s a refreshing considering how many brands just throw collaborations out all the time.

SD: The ties are a good example, they were easy to do because with Unis we used that same factory. So it was really simple. The sweaters were done through someone I knew in New York referring me to them. In that sense it just comes somewhat naturally. I’m not opposed to doing collaborations with a bigger brand at some point, but in terms of just putting our label on it it does make sense to be working with a smaller company.

Collaborative chair with Jason Rens

TFP: With that background you do have in fashion design, do you ever think about having your own full line?

SD: Hopefully in a few years. If all goes well that would be great. There’ve been a few brands that have gone from a retail store originally and turn into a brand just through progression. Look at Norse Projects for example, the Norse store came first, then they realized there was a void and they moved to fill it. They made a small collection for the shop and then surrounded it with more fashion based brands. I feel the same way about doing something for Neighbour. Creating basics like shirts, ties and some sweaters and just rounding it out as a sort of capsule. Then build the shop with things the compliment that.

Bit of a playful edge instore

TFP: Would you want to be trying to bring that playful edge into basics?

SD: Maybe at some point. I think you’re limited to a certain degree. It’s difficult to do a nice outerwear piece, or to do a nice shoe, so you don’t see that many collections with those at a decent price point. It’s because they don’t have a purchasing power. They don’t have their own factory. That’s why brands like Arcteryx or even Macintosh or other performance driven brands are the way to go for outerwear. For something like that, especially somewhere like Vancouver, that’s just the way to do it.

TFP: Outerwear does seem like a really challenging market. It seems like a lot of brands do just throw in a jacket or two because well, you sort of need jackets for the collection, but they’re clearly behind the technical companies.

SD: They’re often really not worth the price they’re asking for. I’d rather just buy a performance based outerwear piece. If you’re buying a fashionable outerwear piece it’s a different story, but the brands that are trying to go more technical through their collections it just doesn’t often really work.

TFP: So you mention dressing for Vancouver, do you see Vancouver as somewhere that’s growing as a style-centre?

SD: I guess it’s a bit hit or miss. For the most part, there’s a little consistency through it. But somewhere like Vancouver you do have to stick with things that are functional to a certain degree. I feel like I have an opinion on that but it might not be the best of opinions.

TFP: That’s fair enough…

SD: You do see people that come into the store and notice interesting things they might be wearing. But I’m not someone who really likes trends, that’s just me. I think I’ve seen enough of the beard, the Americana. I think it’s enough of that. But you do see certain trends. Not sure there’s one that really transcends the others.

TFP: Do you find there’s a little more recognition internationally though for Vancouver?

SD: I think so. Especially with the internet it’s really growing.

TFP: Speaking of which – do you feel pressure to do a portion of your buying with internet retail in mind. There are things you can know you’ll be able to sell a certain amount online, do you find yourself sometimes leaning towards something like that in a collection, or would you maybe prefer something where you’d look at it and think “I may sell a couple of these online, but if someone comes in and sees this in person they’ll be amazed by it”.

SD: I love the balance of the brick and mortar and the online store. You do see certain things and certain brands that do well online and not in store as well as vice versa. It really allows you to buy well to tell you the truth. You can take a risk on certain things because there will be customers online who will be looking for it. I’m taking it into consideration but in the end it has to sit well in the retail environment. I won’t buy something that will just sell well online if it won’t fit in-store. I won’t buy something camo or something that will sell online but won’t look good in the shop.

TFP: Other than camo, anything that you’ve had go really well online and not at all in-store.

SD: It’s more certain brands. Stephan Schneider or Frank Leder do really well online, Patrick Ervell too. The more flashy stuff I think. We had this jacket from Patrick Ervell, it’s just a ridiculous piece but kinda fun. Sold online really well but barely sold in-store. It was a transparent jacket that was 700 dollars. Minimal function but it looks pretty rad. That didn’t sell so well in store.

TFP: Do you have a favourite piece of things in the store? Anything that stands out?

SD: There’s one Hentsch Man sweater that we just got in. Its a cotton sweater called the Marney sweater. I guess its a take on what Marney does with a lot of block colour. I really like that. And I really like the Porter stuff we just got, it’s pretty amazing.

TFP: Hentsch Man is an interesting one, they’ve been around a while but not a ton of people have taken a shine to them.

SD: They are great staples. It’s a nice thing to have in-store. It’s a little like Our Legacy I’d say. Our Legacy is a bit more playful but it works well.

TFP: You’ve often had a good bit of the basics for Our Legacy but they’ve been expanding their collections out a bit recently, are you going to be doing a bit more buying of their slightly more eclectic pieces?

SD: Our F/W 2013 buy is actually our biggest yet from Our Legacy. They’ve grown a lot, and they’re really easy to work with. They’re really nice guys, definitely one of my favorite brands. For our market and for the price-point its a great value.

TFP: So one last question, where can you see Neighbour headed in the next five years?

SD: I want to expand out the online site, I know there’s a market and I need to get a hold and figure it out and be proactive with it instead of reactive. And also expanding and developing my own clothing. Maybe in the future there’s another retail store somewhere else in Canada, but we’ll see.

TFP: Where would you go in Canada, Montreal?

SD: I’m not sure. Toronto is starting to get more saturated, but maybe somewhere on the West Coast? I don’t know. I’m just trying to do this well first.

- CK and AP

Neighbour can be found at 12 Water St, Vancouver, BC and is open from 1100h-1900h, Monday to Saturday, and from 1200h-1700h on Sunday.

http://www.shopneighbour.com

All images via shopneighbour.com

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19 February 2013

An interview with Powell Street Craft Brewery

by The Facing Page

In the middle of last year, we began to hear rumours of a new brewery opening up on Vancouver’s eastside. Before long the rumours solidified into a few news articles, a Twitter account, website and a name: Powell Street Craft Brewery. And then, heaven be praised, an opening date was set: Saturday, 15 December. As it happened, I was escaping Vancouver on that same day to sequester myself at a friend’s cabin in Whistler in a vain attempt to write my thesis. And what could be better fuel in this endeavour, than a growler (or two) of Vancouver’s freshest beer? The simple answer? Nothing.

Run by David Bowkett and Nicole Stefanopoulos, Powell Street is a nanobrewery, and nano is the key term here. They produce only three beers on a rotating basis. Typically, they sell out of one beer before the next beer is ready due to their small capacity but also, and more importantly, due to the high demand for their beer. Clearly, the people behind Powell Street are keenly focussed on producing the best beer they can. So, to learn more about the inspiration, concept, operation and future of Powell Street Craft Brewery, we recently sat down with David Bowkett for the following conversation.

David Bowkett of Powell Street Craft Brewery.

The Facing Page: To start off, could you talk about the inspiration and background of Powell Street Craft Brewing?

David Bowkett: The background for me was just starting out as a homebrewer: experimenting at home, learning the process, essentially being self-taught. I read a lot of books, gained as much information as I could on the process, and through that gained a good enough base of knowledge. I suppose, the concept actually came from a trip to Portland, I was up late and saw a show on TV called Brewmasters. It focussed Dog Fish Head, a craft brewery in Deleware, and it’s owner Sam Calagione. Sam had started his brew-pub with a small one-keg system in the back where he was just brewing all day. When I saw that I got more into it and started looking into what it takes to open a brewery, seeing if I could start doing it at a small scale myself. Then after a lot of research I found that going any smaller than I did here was just not going to make sense from a business perspective.

TFP: I can definitely see Portland being a good place to get into the idea for craft brewing!

DB: It’s sort of the Mecca of craft brewing.

TFP: British Columbia has a reputation for being quite restrictive with liquor licensing laws. Was it particularly challenging to start a nano-brewery here in BC?

DB: Surprisingly, it isn’t hard to get through the process. However, it’s the same for any size brewery. As long as you have all your ducks in a row it’s pretty easy to get through the provincial liquor control branch. The hardest part for me was actually the city. They haven’t dealt much with a small brewery like this and so they’re used to much larger breweries. Dealing with someone like me they were apprehensive in what I needed to include or exclude from the brewery. So one of the things for me was that my trade waste interceptor is the same size as any other brewery, despite that I’m producing about 100 to 150 times less beer than some of them.

TFP: There are a lot of breweries opening up in the Vancouver area. Do find this is a hinderance or a help that there are so many places starting up around the city?

DB: I think it’s helped. The city has started to get used to the process, so for me it was tough because I was the first small guy, but I think for newer breweries it is going to be a little easier because the city has gone through it now with me.

TFP: So do you think we’ll see more nano-breweries opening up in the next while?

DB: Yeah! There’ve been a few contacting me to get information about the process. I think the more breweries out there the better for the industry so I’ve been more than glad to help out.

TFP: Definitely better for the consumer!

DB: The best example is that on our opening day in December I heard Paralell 49 had their best ever day for sales. All the overflow from us went right there. So we’re trying now to get everyone to set up their storefronts around us!

TFP: Storm Brewing is just around the corner on Commercial Drive, but doesn’t have a storefront. Do you see them opening one up?

DB: Yeah, I hope so.

TFP: So there’s a sense of community among the breweries in this neighbourhood?

DB: Yeah, definitely

TFP: In a way, it’s like a brewery district.

DB: The breweries in areas are actually trying to classify it as the brewery district. We have been talking about getting in touch with the city and hopefully we’ll be able to call this the brewery district. I know Main Street has been having a few open up too, and that area was originally known as Brewery Creek. There used to be a creek that ran right down there, and a lot of breweries would get their water from there and used it to drive some of their brewing machinery. There were a lot of breweries in that district but also down here as well. There is a gas station just around the corner from here that sits on the site of Vancouver’s first ever brewery.

TFP: Is there a big difference when you’re setting up having a storefront or not? Do you have to jump through extra hoops to be able to sell on site?

DB: It’s a separate license from the manufacturing license, but in terms of jumping through hoops not really, no. Just keeping tally of what you sell from the storefront.

TFP: In Vancouver right now there’s a push towards craft beer. Not only drinking it but also producing it. What do you think is driving that passion?

DB: I think people want to drink really good beer. Not just the same old stuff people have been drinking for the last 50 years or so. They’re looking for things with more flavour. People like things to be local. Eat local, buy local, drink local.

TFP: At the moment you’re making just the three beers right now: the pale ale, the porter and the IPA. How did you choose these?

DB: I love IPAs, I love a nice hoppy pale ale, and I’ve always been a dark beer fan so the porter was right up my alley. I didn’t want to go with just a traditional porter, I wanted to go on the side of having a little more caramel, toffee flavors in there, kind of giving it a full flavour. For the pale ale I found there aren’t a lot of malt based but still quite hoppy pale ales in the Vancouver, or indeed the West Coast market in general, so I wanted to do something like that. I really like Sierra Nevada and breweries like that. And for the IPA, I just wanted to make something super hoppy. High alcohol content, high in bitterness.

TFP: So do you have any plans in the future to add a different beer or perhaps switch one of these out?

DB: I’d like to keep these three going for now, I’m not sure if they’ll keep going for ever, and I’d like to add in some seasonals. I’m thinking for spring doing a Belgian witbier with 50% wheat, 50% barley, a little orange peel and coriander and some other spices. And maybe something new for the summer. I’d like to do a pilsner but we don’t quite have the capacity for that.

TFP: In terms of capacity, do you have any intention to increase your capacity in the future or are you happy being at the scale of a nano-brewery?

DB: Happy being a nano! I would like to eventually get another fermenter though, it’d just be nice to be able to do two batches a week. We’re selling so much beer right now that we just can’t keep a steady supply, and we’d like to be able to provide that. Right now there’s a long wait period between beers coming through to market.

TFP: In terms of distribution, right now it’s just storefront, Legacy and Brewery Creek right? When you’re doing such small batches is it possible to get into bars and pubs or do they require a more steady supply?

DB: It’s possible. Some bars will do one-offs, or a feature tap. They’ll take a couple kegs and just try to sell those. They understand that we’re a small scale, so right now we’re in talks with a couple bars and restaurants and we’re hoping to get a couple of kegs out there.

TFP: When you’re out in Vancouver and need a beer, where would you turn? Is there a place with a beer list you particularly like?

DB: Definitely the Alibi Room.

TFP: Good choice, that’s definitely our favourite.

DB: Hands down best in the city

TFP: So on that selection, what’s your go-to beer if you can’t have your own beer?

DB: That’s a tough one. I really can’t pick. Every time I go out I don’t have the same beer. I like to vary it a lot.

TFP: We can understand that! Thanks so much for sitting down with us.

- AP + CK

Powell Street Craft Brewery is located at 1830 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC. Their tasting room is open for sales and growler fills from 1pm to 7pm, Wednesday to Saturday.

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26 November 2012

An Interview with Matchstick Coffee Roasters

by The Facing Page

We at the Facing Page are passionate about our coffee and in our celebration of Vancouver’s emergence as a serious player in world’s coffee culture scene. To continue our look at Vancouver’s best coffee shops, we’ve chosen to highlight the cafe/roastery Matchstick. Matchstick started roasting their own coffee in order to to serve the best possible coffee – a goal they’re constantly striving for. A cafe with a strong sense community, they’re approachable and knowledgable and are willing to share a great deal with those who are interested and passionate. While a little off the beaten path up at Fraser and Kingsway, Matchstick is one of Vancouver’s finest coffee destinations, and we were lucky enough to have a chance to head out and have a chat with them over an excellent cup of one of their more recent roasting runs.

So just to start can you give a little bit of background on Matchstick?

Aaron: We all have a background in coffee. Myself, Spencer and Annie have all worked in coffee shops. Spencer for a long time, myself and Annie for a while as well. We just started chatting – we’ve worked together before in various capacities – about what our perfect coffee company would look like. So we just started scheming ways to maybe start making that a reality. Maybe we’ll get there one day.

Spencer: We all wanted to make a go of it, wanted to make it a career, and there weren’t a ton of different avenues. We wanted to dive in both feet first and with coffee that means starting your own thing. There’ve been some shifts in the coffee world that we wanted to be a part of that weren’t yet in Vancouver. The idea of really getting back to the coffee and less of the extras like flavouring, extra sizes, was really driving us and is the story we want to tell.

Did Matchstick start with the idea of wanting to open a roastery as well, or was it just the cafe at first?

A: When we first started talking about it, it was more just having a drink and having a theoretical conversations

S: Wouldn’t it be nice one day if…

A: Like would you do this, or would you do this? It started initially as conversations about a cafe.

S: But it didn’t take too long to get to the idea of the roastery.

A: I think all of us, especially Spencer and myself, are very much perfectionists. Annie is the hospitable one, the one that manages to keep us loveable. But we couldn’t really fathom doing this without doing the roasting as well. It’s part of what interests us and excites us and pushes our vision of coffee.

It’s interesting to see you actually taking that step. A lot of coffee shops that have similar mindsets seem to never have the extra drive to go that extra step.

A: Looking back from where we are now you can see why. It’s a tricky process. It costs a lot more to get into it and start it up. And it adds huge logistical issues and stress as well. We have really high expectations of ourselves and we really want our coffee to be the best it can be. So that’s a whole other side of things we have to obsess about. We had seen it, in Vancouver there isn’t a ton of it, but in other cities like Portland, San Francisco. I was in San Francisco when I started to really see the roaster/cafe concept and thought about how it could maybe work in Vancouver.

S: Yeah, and I saw the same sort of thing in Portland. It’s similar I guess to beer – you can’t really conceive of a great craft beer without a ton of people brewing. Even though they’re all committed to the craft they all have different interpretations. And there’s always that push to keep being better. We don’t really see as much of that in Vancouver. There are a few bigger places and bigger cafes that have been doing a good job, but they didn’t really gain the same momentum as we’ve seen in other places. I think it really does something for the culture as well. We wanted to come in and say look what coffee can do, and look what we can bring to it. We try to do it the best that we can, we just offer up what we see to be the best.

Where there any other places that gave much inspiration for this?

A: Concept wise, it came from the micro-roaster scene from the West-Cost states. There are so many great little roasters in that area. Design wise we have some specific design inspiration but also had to make-do with the space around us. Having a giant concrete wall in the middle of the space was just part of the cards we were dealt.

How did you come to choose this particular space? It does seem a little out-of-the-way.

A: We looked hard for a long time, Spencer in particular was looking really hard for a long time. Pounded a lot of pavement. We looked at a number of neighbourhoods, we certainly don’t think this couldn’t exist in a ton of other places in the city. At the end of the day though, we all live in East Van, I actually used to live literally 10 meters away, just a stones throw. There’s a real gap on Fraser for good coffee. There’s no real coffee between Commercial Drive and Main Street and there are a ton of really neat interesting people around here. It’s one where people have real imagination and creativity. Rather than knock an old house down they’ll fix them up and do cool stuff with them. We really like the neighbourhood as a place. This street here is one of the most unique in the city. It’s such a unique urban environment. The little park there, it kinda creates this slowed down space within a really busy intersection. It’s unique. We saw a gap here, we wanted to fill it. And the right space eventually came up.

As the conversation turns to the particular coffees we’re drinking, the sourcing of the beans seems to be an appropriate question.

How do you go about choosing which regions and particular farms you’ll get your beans from?

S: Flip a coin..

So just close your eyes and pin the tail on the roaster?

A: Yeah, exactly. No – the global network for discovering and maintaining small lots of coffee has really exploded over the last ten years. Before the conventional way of doing it was really tough: the small producers would deliver their coffee to one mill which would put it all in one big pot before grading it for size and density and then it would be sent out to big bulk lots. This happened all over the place in all sorts of different countries. It’s come down to a much more minute level now to keep batches separated. We’re just getting to the point now where we can offer a small level of selections of different counties and different coffee. It wouldn’t make a ton of sense for us to be travelling though, but there’s a few different places that do a really good job helping small roasters like us develop connections. We’re so small to start that we don’t really have a ton of connections with individual roasters.

S: We just send in an idea of what we’re looking for and we’re sent back a bunch of samples, but at the end of the day we’re just sticking with what tastes the best. Coffee can come from somewhere very famous, a spot or producer, but at the end of the day if it doesn’t taste awesome it’s not worth carrying.

A: We’re building some relationships now, but those relationships change and grow as we do or as the roasters do. We’re interested in doing the best job with the roastery as we can. What that means to us is that we’re going to be pushing ourselves to achieve a higher level of quality. If it gets to the point that we need to take another step in our relationship with a roaster to improve quality then we’ll take it. That’s the stage we’re at.

S: We don’t totally need that yet. One of the biggest advantages of dealing with smaller quantities is that you really get to pick and choose everything. With the lots we buy, we can buy three bags of coffee and that’s fine but with most roasters that won’t even be one full roast. By necessity that might one day have to grow for us, but at this scale we’re really able to be picky with what we’re choosing. That’s part of why we want to work with a smaller roastery. It’s a sort of purchasing power.

A: It’s kinda the opposite of purchasing power. It’s a different kind of purchasing power. We can say no to pretty well anything.

S: There has to be a good name for that…

A: The ability to not purchase? Non purchasing power?

Can you give us a bit of background about the story behind opening up a roastery, how many hoops do you have to get through to get to this point?

S: Blood sweat and tears. Lots of concrete saws. Band-aids.

A: I think at the heart of it, just wanting it so badly you’re willing to take on so much and push through. There’s no real guarantees at all here, there’s no knowing if this is going to succeed or if things will work out. You just do your best to make everything line up the best it can. And it doesn’t, but you try anyway. I think the passion for coffee informed the way we build and designed this space, it’s set out for that. We spent hours and hours putting together equipment lists and floor plans. It’s just all because we care about coffee – that’s the heartbeat. The story behind it is really just why we got into it. We wanted to create the best coffee environment, the best roastery that we possibly could, and what would that look like? What’s stopping us? Get that out of the way and then do it?

Is there anything in particular that really sets Matchstick apart among roasters?

A: Unique is interesting in this industry because there are lots of people in the industry that really care. At the end of the day, we kinda tear the whole thing down each week and then try to re-build it. Constant roast profiling is I guess what sets us apart from most roasters.

Can you quickly explain what roast profiling is?

A: Essentially it’s the premise that no two coffees are the same and each require a unique temperature and time profile for roasting. Different airflow and various other things. Roasting, tasting, evaluating, then making adjustments to those profiles, to then accentuate or highlight different parts of the coffee and to find the way that the coffee tastes best. Once we’ve continually refined that process for the bean, or at least continually getting better and better, that’s the roast profiling.

S: When we have a brand new coffee we can maybe hit 95% of the potential. For most that’s great, or that’s good enough. But it’s willing to care for that next 5%, or 4%, or 2% or even that last 1% to make it better. That takes a ton of extra time and effort and even capital, but we think that’s worth it. For most it’s too much hassle. To say what sets us apart, I think that there aren’t that many that are willing to push and push until you feel the coffee is 100% – which you can never really reach, is what is important. You can never get there, but it keeps you pushing.

In terms of customer education and explaining a little more about the different coffees, is there anything Matchstick tries to do?

S: The way we’ve designed the space and the way we’ve structured the company, it kind of speaks to that. We opened a roastery in a cafe that has no doors. So you can come and see and watch it happening. With our bakery you can see our bakers baking the food right in front of you. There’s no display case with refrigerated saran wrapped paninis from a few days ago. We wanted to tell people where their food was coming from and involve them in the process. The coffee is the culminating point of that. In my opinion the way we brew coffee here, with a Chemex filter, is the best way of doing it. It’s what I do at home, I think it’s what tastes best, that’s what we do. Again, we’re showing that right in front of you. You can see our dose, you can see our technique, you can see everything. That’s something we want to share with people.

A: I think we all have a bit of an educator in us. But the idea is mostly just to remove the veil. We’ve build an environment where hopefully it’s ok for people to ask questions. People will sometimes ask ‘is that a heating plate the Chemex is on?” “No, it’s actually a scale.” “Why would you need a scale?” And then you have a conversation about the coffee. Same with the roastery: “Is that a big coffee grinder?” “No, that’s actually the coffee roaster. These are green coffee beans, this is coffee.” Removing the veil and taking away the blinders, that’s our form of education.

S: Also just expecting more from coffee and trying to show people that it’s okay to expect more from your coffee. It opens up those questions. Rather than treating coffee as something that tastes bad and should be fixed with flavorings, when you move beyond that you open up the prospect of discussion.

Recently you’ve started to sell your coffee a bit more around Vancouver, how do you choose and vet the places you’re selling in?

S: In a sentence, we want to work with people that do things really well.

A: Sometimes it’s a cafe, sometimes its’ a restaurant. Care and passion for quality translate into everything else. People who do coffee well are people we want to participate with. We’re always looking for those sort of opportunities. We don’t want to try to sit all high and mighty, it’s nice when people want to work with us and use us as a resource and want to make better coffee. We’re so lucky in Vancouver that there are so many places like that. Across Canada too even.

In terms of Vancouver coffee culture, it’s moving away a bit from the Starbucks culture to more of an educated customer base. Is that something you’ve seen?

A: We have an amazing coffee culture in this city. We’re not surprised at all when someone comes in and really cares about what’s going into their cup of coffee. We certainly still see people who are taken aback by this sort of cafe, but they’re not really scared, I guess they’re ready for it. I mean sometimes people will try it and it’s just not for them, they’d rather something simpler or easier – but most of our customers are really engaged and excited. We’re a culture that are pretty thoughtful and want to know whats going into our bodies.

S: Coffee is a great entry point to that too. It’s sort of the most affordable luxury. So anyone who wants to kinda be a foodie – coffee makes a great starting point. You might as well learn about it. The price you can get some of the best coffees in the world for is amazing. That low barrier to entry gets people quite excited about it too. Our premium coffee would still cost less than a venti drink at Starbucks, and has the same amount of caffeine. It’s just about what you care about? Do you really want to drink a half litre of whatever that’ll last three hours, or do you want to get into the coffee. Coffee is actually pretty healthy when you’re not adding in all kinds of crap.

You’ve built all this up in a very short amount of time, are there any plans for expansion here? Can you see Matchstick growing or is this more what you want?

S: Kinda both. We don’t have plans to take over the world, but if we can move forward while keeping quality at the forefront there’s no philosophical barriers to expanding.

A: At the end of the day we just want things to be really good. We could open another cafe, or two cafes, and maintain that philosophy, there’d be no reason why we wouldn’t.

Right – so if I were to ask where you’d see Matchstick in 5 years?

S: Definitely another cafe into the mix.

In Vancouver?

S: Unless we can go to Mars by then. Probably, keep it close to home. This is where our lives are. I think we’d rather work with new cafes starting out in other cities and supply them rather than move to other places ourselves. That’s a great way for us to move around and have a bit of diversity. Supplying other cafes is a nice way to do that. Thus far we’ve started supplying a couple of cafes in Kamloops and Kelowna. Still pretty close to home, nothing in Korea yet, but we’ll see.

Stock question – if you were stuck in Vancouver outside Matchstick where would you go for a coffee?

A: On Commercial Drive, probably Bump-N-Grind. Along Broadway probably Elysian Coffee, if I’m downtown probably Revolver. Those would be my three. If I’m stuck in Gibsons.. TIm Hortons. I think this coffee really does have some great cafes, so it’s not set to those few. We’d try new places too.

Perfect – thanks very much guys. We look forward to seeing where things go from here.

- CK | AP

Matchstick Cafe and Roastery |639 E 15 Ave | www.matchstickcoffee.com

7am – 6pm Daily

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7 November 2012

An Interview with Dustin Fishbook of the Belmont Barbershop

by The Facing Page

The Belmont Barbershop is one of Vancouver’s men’s grooming staples, behind which are the efforts of founder and master barber Dustin Fishbook. Dustin has been involved in a couple of similar initiatives including the recently closed Mr Lee’s General Store, and we’re hopeful he’ll have a lot more to give not just Vancouver – and Montreal – in the years to come. We recently sat down with Dustin over coffee to discuss the Belmont Barbershop and his hopes and dreams. The transcript follows.

The Facing Page: First off – can you explain a little bit of the history behind the Belmont Barbershop?

Dustin Fishbook: When I was in school for barbering we had to put together a shop; our instructor wanted to make sure that should we choose to open our own shop, we’d be fine. So we went through the whole process of starting a store. When I got out of school I decided that I wanted to cut my teeth in an established store, get some experience and build my customer base, and then I eventually expanded to open up Belmont here.

TFP: So it was just you at first?

DF: Rich came about three years ago, he was a customer first then expressed an interest in learning because he wanted to get out of serving and get into this. We went out, we had a conversation and I decided to take him on as an apprecntice.

TFP: So he had no formal training before that?

DF: None.

TFP: Right, so you obviously did – was barbering something you always wanted to do?

DF: Before this I was painting cars professionally, I didn’t like that career so I wanted to come up with something, a different avenue from which I could not only create an income but furthermore do something I was interested in. The whole idea came about because I was subscribed to a hot-rodding magazine at the time that did an article about a small barbershop in California and I read it. I was like, “I can do that!”. That was my inspiration. I spent the next year and a half trying to find education, or an apprenticeship, and ended up going to Malspina college which had the last real barbershop program in the country. A few more have popped up since, but I don’t think that curriculum has been matched.

TFP: You’ve just brought in a couple more apprentices now, so can you explain a bit the expansion thats happening?

DF: For me, expansion equals a bit more free time. By bringing in more individuals it will allow me to spend more time doing things outside the store. So I’m definitely interested in expansion to a particular degree but this shop can only hold so many people because of the square footage and electrical capacity. And outside of that – I’m not interested. I don’t want to have a second shop in Vancouver, should this lease here ever fall through I’d have to consider moving, and at that point I’d probably want more square footage to potentially add a couple chairs and really just have a better facility for us. Have a bigger backroom, more storage, a shower, things like that. Just to supply a better work environment. Outside of that I’m considering opening up a store in Montreal and doing this all over again. Montreal is a city that I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a couple of times in this last year. I think Montreal is in a spot right now where Vancouver was in six years ago. There’s still things that need to get done, and it’s still preliminary, but I’d hope that this time next year I might be starting up in Montreal. Before I’d do that though, I’d want to make sure that this location was in such a position that it could sustain itself, prosper and produce the same quality. I’m working very hard right now to make sure this is the case so that I’ll be able to move on to Montreal.

TFP: So on that note, you started five years ago with a very small clientele list and you’ve grown into a position where you have to call a week or so in advance to even get a cut.

DF: We’ve constantly faced a particular issue with actually being able to meet the demand that is coming in. So again, part of the point of having the apprentices and the like is just to meet the needs. All I’m trying to do is accomodate my customers. Its been nice to have the growth, but its almost as much a curse as a blessing because we just can’t fit it all in.

TFP: What do you think about the ‘barber scene’ here in Vancouver that’s been sprouting up recently. There’s been a lot of branding towards to old fashioned barber, but to me you guys are one of a few who really have the barbershop concept right.

DF: Man, what we do here is, that I think is different from a number of other places, is that I have a really high expectation of quality from my people and myself. I’m not willing to sacrifice any quality for more customers or anything. We take our time. We produce a high quality result and I think because of that people keep coming back through our doors. In terms of our aesthetic, if I chose to have this shop with a painted ice-rink on the floor and hockey paraphenalia everywhere and banners and team shit, it would not reflect on the business as any less of a barbershop than what we have now. The barbershop is the barber’s shop. So it’s a direct reflection of the individual. This is a direct reflection of me, the aesthetic that I appreciate. But it wouldn’t be any less of a shop if the aesthetic were really far out. If it were on the opposite end of the scale even. I’ll shake the hand of any man or woman that is producing high quality work in whatever physical space they choose. Sure – I think there’s a trend toward the old-time sort of shit, but I think you can package anything. We offer a genuine environment and service here, it wouldn’t matter if this was neon pink with polka dots – sure it wouldn’t attract the same clientele from the start, but what I’m saying is that it wouldn’t be any less of a barbershop than it is now. This is a reflection of what I’m interested in. This is not a trend driven space. It has grown though, from day one to now, it has grown and evolved. It didn’t used to have the tiles on the walls, it didn’t have the sink in the corner, that Elk Head was given to me by a customer. It’s important that your space grows with you and your customer-base and I personally think that a space should always be evolving with the individual. A space should never be finished. That’s my idea of the aesthetic.

TFP: Have you ever done any advertising or has it all grown purely off of word of mouth?

DF: We’ve done no advertising in the traditional sense, it’s all been word of mouth. I want to attribute that word of mouth to the quality of work and the effort we’ve put in. Some of it might be that it’s cool or whatever, but I think what has happened in last year or two with the development of the barber scene in Vancouver is that due to things like the internet people are now concious of barbershops again. Theres just more of a demand for it now. Maybe subconciously it’s starting to come back to the forefront. People may be noticing the shop now while they wouldn’t have in past years. It’s fantastic for all barbershops, and yeah, as a result you’re seeing a ton of new places popping up now. I’ve seen so much growth here over the last few years since we started. I really haven’t done any advertising to push that though, we just have the name on the window. We’ve had a little coverage from media, not a lot but we’ve had a few small articles, Inventory did a little piece on us and things of that nature. I wouldn’t pay money to put out an advert though. It maybe would hurt our process until we could accomodate more people. To speak on that, that’s a part of the reason I haven’t advertised. I started as just me, and the amount of people coming in the door alone was enough. The growth period has been steep. Getting in more people from advertising wouldn’t have done much good.

TFP: You mention people come in just walking by, to me the store is a little bit out of the way, is this something you chose consciously or was it just really the space?

DF: It’s just what came up in the timeframe I was looking to setup in. It came up, it was affordable, and the space was really good. When I came into the space for the very first time it did feel right. You know? I just went for it and five years later here it is. Five years later and I still don’t have a sign. One of my friends is making one now: again, its a step in our evolution.

TFP: Mr Lee’s closed this summer, much to our sorrow. Is that something you were invovled in as well?

DF: That was me and a partner. We had our three-year stint and then we had to take a look at the directions we wanted to go in in our lives. We had to take a look at the efforts we were putting in and, simply put, we came to a conclusion that we wanted to free up a little more time in our lives. Over the last year we geared it down, we knew the lease was coming up, and we just didn’t care to renew it. So for us it was a project that we did, we had fun doing, but now it’s time to move on and concentrate on other areas. There was never the thought of “oh this isn’t making money” or anything, it was more about just moving forward as people and the directions we wanted to go in. My partner is looking to move away from Vancouver as well, it was just the right time.

TFP: It’s a relief to know you’re at least continuing to stock some of the products from Mr. Lee’s down here. [Proraso, Baxter, Mast Brothers and a couple of other brands are still sold at the Belmont.]

DF: They started down here, got put up there, and now they’re back down here. Completeing the circle.

TFP: Perfect. Thanks for sitting down and taking the time and for the excellent coffee, Dustin. We look forward to seeing where things go from here.

You can book your own visit to the Belmont here.

- CK | AP

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24 October 2012

Upcoming Interviews

by The Facing Page

Both of us here at the Facing Page have been busy over the last little while. Addi has been been trying to finish his thesis and I’ve trying to figure just what I want to do with my life (more time consuming than it sounds) so we’ve fallen behind a bit with our interviews. Rest assured though, we’ve got some interesting pieces in the pipeline. In the coming weeks we’ll be featuring interviews with Dustin Fishbook of Belmont Barbershop fame, Aaron Braun, one of the owners of Matchstick Coffee Roasters and the team behind recent brewery start-up Parallell 49. If there’s anyone you’d like to see interviewed here, drop us a line.

- CK

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21 September 2012

iPhone 5

by Addi Perkins

Today is iPhone day. You can see the lines outside your local Apple Store and can read about the excitement/ennui/impatience online. In fact, it will probably be iPhone month. So settle in. Last week, with much fanfare but few surprises, Apple announced the details of the latest iPhone. And today, it goes on sale. While little has changed on the software side – Apple has added a number of new features but user interface and experience of iOS are essentially the same as when the first iPhone was announced in 2007 – the change in hardware design is the most significant since the 2010 release of the iPhone 4. As expected, the screen has increased in screen size from 3.5″ to 4″. The cynic in me wonders how much the increase in screen size was influenced by a desire to keep pace with the industry (Motorola, HTC and Samsung all produce flagship Android devices with screens in excess of 4.5″) and how much was a design and interface decision. My suspicions here are borne out after spending a few days iOS 6. There are few changes to the OS that specifically target this increase in screen size. But no matter, with the iPhone 5 Apple has produced another beautiful piece of industrial design – especially the black model which has changed a silver antenna bar for a more fitting black one. The result is a gorgeous, if slightly menacing phone. The design and engineering wizards in Cupertino have also produced a lighter and thinner device while boosting all the internal specifications such as processor, RAM and graphics. Initial reviews speak incredibly highly of the build-quality. Our Connor Keller popped into the Apple store this afternoon (a dangerous assignment for his wallet) for a hands-on with the new phone. He came back blown away by the display, both in terms of size and quality, and the feel of the phone (in his words: “It’s ridiculous. So light. So fast.”). Apart from the screen size, the other big change is the inclusion of LTE wireless data. I’ve yet to use Rogers’ new network in Vancouver, but friends who have report that it is frighteningly fast compared to the 3G speeds to which most of us are accustomed. Indeed, users of the new iPhone on the US network AT&T report faster speeds than Wi-Fi when on LTE. In short, technically and aesthetically, iPhone 5 is a seriously drool-worthy device.

The big question that all iPhone users face is whether or not to jump to the new model. You’ll certainly have time to think about it; so great is demand that iPhone 5 is currently back-ordered until late October. If you are on 2009′s 3GS, and want to stick with an iPhone, then it’s a no-brainer: upgrade. The speed, screen quality, design, and camera will blow you away. Coming from an iPhone 4 the answer is slightly more convoluted. iOS 6 does not bring the full array of new features to the iPhone 4 but the screen, apart from size is essentially the same as the iPhone 5. The camera will be a large improvement and the change from glass to metal back will make for a far more durable device. If Apple was making more use of the larger screen in iOS 6, I’d highly recommend upgrading but as yet the extra real estate is currently just extra real estate. That said, if you can afford it, go for it. It has been two years since the iPhone 4 was released and that’s a long time in the mobile industry. However, iPhone 4S owners probably won’t feel compelled to jump to the 5. Yes, the screen is bigger and the camera has undergone minor improvements but these upgrades likely aren’t worth a renewed contract or $800 for the unlocked device. As for me, will I be upgrading my iPhone 4? Probably not. The LTE chipsets on the Canadian model are not compatible with the UK and European carriers. Given that, with any luck, I’ll be moving in that direction soon and I wouldn’t want to miss out on the LTE party.

- AP

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23 August 2012

An interview with Ya Wei and Jerome Lin of Innocent Coffee

by The Facing Page

The innocent lamb of Innocent Coffee on 4th Avenue

Back in June we sat down with George Giannakos of Revolver Coffee in Gastown to discuss the Vancouver coffee scene. In the course of our conversation, we asked where he likes to go for coffee in Vancouver apart from Revolver. He pointed us in the direction of Innocent Coffee. Neither of us had ever heard of it but intrigued by such a great recommendation, we tracked it down (it isn’t that hard to be honest) and fell in love. Innocent Coffee is a hyper-designed cube of coffee-worship. It is perhaps one of the most carefully planned cafes, or restaurants or bars for that matter, in Vancouver and we were immediately curious about it. To slake our thirst and curiosity we returned this week to talk to the owners: the sister and brother team Ya Wei and Jerome Lin who have been running Innocent for almost two years since opening in November 2010.

The Facing Page: What was your inspiration to open a coffee shop in Vancouver?

Ya Wei Lin: I think a lot of coffee shop owners start out with a dream of owning a coffee shop. It wasn’t really that way for me. I started working in coffee houses because I was an art student and just needed a job. So I started from there. I also find coffee houses are an interesting place; they reflect a city’s culture. And the people who you meet are really interesting. Then gradually I discovered the specialty coffee scene which is fascinating. It’s similar to art: you take coffee as your medium and go from there. That’s how I was introduced to coffee, I wanted to have a place to do it myself. It’s not so much a business for us though, it’s more like a studio. We don’t have any staff, it’s just my brother [Jerome] and I. We just treat it as a studio where we can practice our art [the Facing Page notes that this means not only the art of coffee but also actual art; the upstairs portion of the shop is a studio/gallery]. I think this sets us apart from a lot of other coffee shops.

TFP: So what do you think it is about coffee which inspires that kind of obsessivness in people?

YWL: It’s similar to something like wine or craft beer or even sandwiches now. Places that are sourcing great ingredients and taking care in the preparation. It’s pretty simple I guess; you just focus on one thing like coffee rather than having everything in your shop. I think coffee is interesting in that it becomes such a story. You can really go back to the origins of it – where it’s farmed, how it’s roasted, how it’s processed. Coffee isn’t local at all, it’s very global, you have to source it out.

Jerome and Ya Wei at the bar

TFP: Speaking of sourcing – how have you gone about doing the bean sourcing for Innocent?

YWL: Right now we use coffees roasted by Origins Organic Coffee on Granville Island. The owner John Sanders has been roasting for a long time. Not just roasting but working with farmers, taking it every step of the way.

TFP: So despite coffee being so global, you’ve ended up staying very local?

YWL: Yeah – exactly. There’s a lot more local roasters in Vancouver now too – there is Origins, 49th Parallel, jj Bean and Matchstick. And a few more in Victoria. Bows and Arrows and 2% Jazz has been doing it’s own thing for a while in Fernwood. You need to have a real relationship with roasters – you need to get to know how they work, what they’re like. Then you can translate that into your own shop, your own style.

TFP: So for you it’s preferable to stick with the one roaster and change the beans from time to time rather than experiment with different roasters?

YWL: For now yeah. Our goal as a coffee shop isn’t volume so it’s tricky to bring in a lot of different roasters; we wouldn’t use the beans fast enough. And we’re very happy working with John [at Orgins]. It’s nice as a barista and shop owner because you have the liberty to use what you want but we really leave it just to him. That comes from working with him for so long, we understand each other and I trust his decisions. If he gives us something we don’t really like, there’s an open communication so we can talk things out. It’s consistent. You kinda have to stick with one for at least a period of time to figure things out. So right now we’re happy with that.

TFP: Speaking of being close to Granville Island, this is an interesting location for a shop: near Granville Island, on 4th Avenue but it’s still a little off the beaten track. So was it a conscious choice to open here, or was it more a great space that just happened to be here?

YWL: When I was looking for a space, one of the important things was working near the roaster. So that narrowed things down to the Kitsilano area and then I was looking for something small. I passed by this place so many times walking to school on at Emily Carr on Granville Island and so I’d seen it a lot. It had been empty for a long time but it’s an interesting building. It’s detached, which you don’t often find very often in the city. I guess it just slowly came together. I could see a coffee shop here, it’s not a high traffic area but it can work.

Is the little lamb Paul or Silas?

TFP: Was it difficult at first to attract traffic here being such an unknown quantity?

YWL: Yeah, it was – we’re really unknown. This is our first business so no one knows us. It was tough to start, but I think every business finds it tough to start and you just have to stick with it. Also, it’s a trade-off. My friend owns a coffee shop, Dose, at Granville and Broadway, which is in a really high traffic area, but then the rent is much higher. So you’ll get more people but pay more rent. Everything balances out. You just keep your head level and don’t look always at just how busy things are, it works out – so far we’re doing fine. I found too that when it was slow to start with we had time to build the quality that we wanted. The gradually it spread through word of mouth. We didn’t do any advertising, so it was all about word of mouth, talking to customers and in a really busy setting it’s hard to do that.

TFP: The word of mouth seems to be working, that’s how we found you! With a background in art, was the design of the shop important?

YWL: The building was completely white to begin with. We put in the furniture, the floor and the appliances, but I wanted to keep it white. You can add to white and things look good on it. We wanted the furniture to be really minimal – that’s the main thing. Clean. We wanted something that anyone could feel comfortable in. It’s somehow turned into a home for us too, but that wasn’t intended. I was on a trip to London before we opened this, and I was amazed with the coffee shop design there because of space restrictions. They’re really smart with their space, very flexible, so we wanted something that was flexible too. Furniture that we could move around quickly and easily.

TFP: With such a flexible space, what else would you like to do with it?

YWL: We really like the fact that we have two stories: upstairs is more seating for customers but we’ve also been using it as a gallery, for photo-shoots, and we’ve even had a wedding there. If someone proposes an interesting idea for it, we’re always ready to take it on. Upstairs is also our own studio. We also did a pop-up shop for one of our friends there last month – it was a two day event and we had an amazing turnout.

Innocent Coffee makes the most of what little space they have with a minimalist design sense and flexible furniture.

TFP: With your art background the gallery must be an important focus, how do you go about choosing the artists you feature?

YWL: It’s mostly local. Our first exhibition last year was one of my teachers from school. I told him about the space and we agreed to put together this exhibition. The turnout was insane, there were so many great artists there. Then after that we’ve had some visits from the Culture Crawl so we had a few artists from that. Also friends of customers. Really, we would work with any artist who can fill the space, either professional or students, just as long as they have an idea of what they want to show.

TFP: Do you have a preferred medium?

YWL: Not really, we’ve featured drawing, painting, sculpture, photography. However the artist wants to use the space.

TFP: We asked Revolver this and it worked out really well because it led us to you, so if you’re out in Vancouver for a coffee, where would you go?

YWL: Kafka…[the owners of Kafka have just come into the shop] and I go to Elysian a lot for convenience. It depends on which area of the city I’m in I guess. One thing I like about independent coffee is how it’s so spread out. Kafka on the East-Side, Crema – they have really good food there as well. Momento on 4th Avenue. I also really like to try new shops but then I’m going somewhere just to try the place.

TFP: So at Innocent you make espresso and you use the Hario pourover, what’s your preferred method for brewing when you’re at home?

YWL: The French Press. Sometimes also the stovetop Moka Pot, but mostly the French Press. That’s actually another thing – I like to sometimes try other places based on the methods they use. Momento has a really great syphon.

TFP: Can you tell us a little bit about the pastry selection you’ve got?

YWL: That’s all my brother Jerome, we bake it in house every day.

The brother and sister team behind Innocent Coffee: Jerome and Ya Wei Lin.

TFP: So one last thing, how do you see Innocent moving forward in the next 5-10 years, is there anything specifically you want to do?

YWL: That’s tough – it’s so far off. We really like it here. I think we’d like to keep this. I guess keep trying to branch out into the online component. Some of the subscription bean service. I’d like to integrate blogging and the like into it. Also keep developing the space upstairs. Keep the events happening. Other than that, we just want to keep on doing what we’re doing. We really like it here. A lot of coffee shops are doing these sort of collaborations, Revolver had the book sale, Old Faithful does the Farmer’s Market, that’s something we’d like to get into. We’ll be having another pop-up in November, same sort of thing with the clothes. Maybe have another artist or designer in.

TFP: Looking forward to seeing how it goes, we’ll certainly be back. Thanks so much for having us!

- CK | AP

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15 August 2012

An interview with wings+horns

by Connor Keller

We were lucky enough this past week to sit down with JJ Wilson and Courtney Chew of wings+horns to discuss the brand’s evolution, origins and the Fall/Winter 2012 collection. We’ve written about wings+horns on the Facing Page before; it’s one of our favorite local clothing brands. Their basics line has long been a staple in CK’s wardrobe. Of late, they’ve seen a great deal of expansion in their collections, most recently drawing on the influences from the nomadic tribes of the Central Asian steppes. In our conversation with wings+horns we covered how they approach the design of new collections, where they are pushing the brand and how to balance protecting brand identity with expansion. But we began by discussing the origins of wings+horns. Enjoy.

The Facing Page: First off, would you mind giving us a brief history of wings+horns?

Courtney Chew: wings+horns started in 2004. At that point it was called Spruce, which was a brand focused on knitwear. From that we developed into wings+horns. The CEO lived in Japan for 7 years, which was a big inspiration for him. So Japan has become a big influence in our brand story and in how we approach design. Attention to detail, quality manufacturing, quality fabric, all the minute details – those have really been integrated into the brand.

TFP: But you’ve still stayed very true to Canadiana, no?

CC: Definitely.

John James Wilson: It’s very important for us to stay true to the origin of the brand, it’s very subtle but there is focus on both Japanese and Canadian influence. We stay true to Canadiana because we live here, we work here, and our brand is designed and made here – aside from that that the focus is really on producing quality goods that we love and that speak to our customer.

TFP: How has the e-commerce store been doing thus far? Has it taken off with customers?

JJW: Great. Our main purpose behind the new site was to establish a working place to showcase the brand and give our customers an opportunity to view the whole collection in one place.

CC: Like JJ was saying, up until now we’ve been really fortunate to become a brand that people have really just been talking about. So our main source of marketing up until now has been blogs talking about the brand without us even having to talk to them. Now with the new site we have more control over how we want to present ourselves and have an outlet where those blogs can actually pull content from.

TFP: So how do you see yourselves, how do you present wings+horns in an ideal world?

CC: We are very much a masculine brand and we always stay true to classic tailoring, slim fits, and utilitarian elements. I feel like that’s the foundation that has kept wings+horns aesthetic consistent.

JJW: One of the things I think we do best is taking staple menswear pieces and tweaking them just a little bit. Our main focus is fabrics, creating different fabrics, manipulating elements, and always trying to bring forward Canadian and Japanese influence. For example, we’ve created a Japanese inspired print for the SS13 collection and integrated it into classic tailoring- so we have suit jackets, tailored shirts, the like. We also try new things but make sure each collection speaks to our customer.

CC: It’s always nice to see each new collection and the inspiration behind it. We always get great feedback from existing and new customers - and when you introduce the brand to someone it’s cool because often people really get behind it, it’s nice how it connects to people with its wearability.

TFP: So the last collection was influenced by Central Asian Nomadic Hunters, how does something like that come into play? How do you take the Canadian, take the Japanese and then add something like Central Asian Nomadic Hunters in?

JJW: I think at the end of the day in order to push the element of design every season with new palettes, new designs, and new fabrics we search for a theme that stays true to the brand but gives us new ideas.

CC: The theme of each collection is usually a work in progress. We spend a lot of time as team discussing what we want to do next. For this FW season we took the approach of using color and texture to create a darker aesthetic to tie the inspiration to the collection. Something that’s important to wings+horns outside of a collection’s theme are the core styles. For example our westpoint chino is something that we will always do.

TFP: Would you say the most recent collection (F/W 2012) was the biggest step away from the original concept thus far?

JJW: It is definitely the biggest collection to date, it has the most different uses of fabric, and I think we recognized that we needed to offer something more outside of what we consider core. Our customer base is also growing and the collection was reflective of that both in design and size. That being said, I do not think that we will ever venture too far away from what wings+horns is.

CC: Back to Fall/Winter. One program that we really expanded this season outside of core is our indigo series. It’s a yarn-dyed indigo, enzyme washed series of styles that are unique to wings+horns. It resembles what makes wings+horns – taking something core and tweaking it in our own way. There is a lot of character in each piece and its something that I can see us continuing to do beyond SS13.

TFP: Speaking of pushing the brand forward, you recently made the step into denim, how did you approach entering such a saturated market?

JJW: Expanding the core was the real inspiration behind that. It’s a natural place in menswear to be. The funny thing is I agree in that it doesn’t seem very wings+horns considering our past. That being said, we made a pair of black denim in Japan for F/W 11 that was a one-off and was really successful. Then we questioned if denim was somewhere we should be, if it was something that was important to us to do. So we only introduced two styles. We kept it small, we kept it raw, and we did only one wash. I think that’s the way that we’re going to keep doing it.

CC: With the denim, everything – every little detail – was thought out, what shanks we’ll use, what stitching, what washes, what fits, and the denim itself

JJW: Exactly, like you said it’s a very saturated market, so for us to get into it our product had to be very much wings+horns. We kept it simple and basic. It was just a natural place for us to move to and I doubt it’ll expand much from where it is.

TFP: So getting back to the staples of your collection, I’m just curious; you work under the same parent company (CYC) as Reigning Champ (RC). Is there any overlap there at all? Do the designers work together to make sure there isn’t too much of the same thing being done?

JJW: RC is very product driven whereas we’re much more collection based. For a collection to be cohesive it’s important to include some of those basics, but there are more category’s to work with. Our designers don’t work together per se – but they’re literally side-by-side, they’re talking everyday, they’re going through the archives of both brands, what styles worked and what styles didn’t. Some overlap is unavoidable but it’s great because we can bounce ideas off each other. RC is also growing quickly and becoming much more established as its own brand.

TFP: So in the next 5 years, where do you see wings+horns going and how do you see yourselves protecting the brand identity?

JJW: For me, the biggest thing about growth is not moving too quickly. I’d rather go slowly and grow the brand right than go too fast and lose the essence of the wings+horns along the way. As long as we continue to focus on providing quality garments I think that we will continue along our current path.

TFP: Would you ever consider having a wings+horns brick and mortar store?

JJW: It’s not something we’re actively looking at. It’s more a topic of conversation.

CC: It comes down to timing and how we want to develop the brand over the next few years, we’ll see what happens along the way.

TFP: Do you do the majority of your manufacture in Vancouver right now?

JJW: 98% of our manufacturing is done here. From time to time we’ll look somewhere else just because they are more specialized. We’d ideally like to do it all here, but if we can’t do the best job here and there are people that can are more specialized, we’ll get them to do it. Our main focus is always quality.

TFP: Right now you’re based in a relatively small building just outside downtown – that must be getting a little small with all the growth?

JJW: The problem is that there’s only so much capacity to produce in Canada. So yeah, if expansion is unavoidable then we will have to move. It’s funny, a lot of people think we’re really big but the wings+horns team from a sales, marketing, design, product development side is less than ten people.

CC: It’s great because we’re so close. We can really bounce things around, everyone has a say, and we all really know where we want the brand to go and where we see the brand in the next few years. It’s a good team.

TFP: Speaking of Fall/Winter, you’ve done a few variations on the 60/40 parka for Fall/Winter 12, that was nice, sticking to the Vancouver necessities.

JJW: We also used that fabric in our FW Mac Coat as well - which has a removable wool lining. It’s super nice. That Mac coat has been something that we have done for a number of seasons now and each season it gets better and better.

CC: The Parka should be in stores now and the Mac coat drops at the end of this month. We always get a lot of questions about when those two styles are expected to arrive at our retailers and online.

TFP: So what is your favourite piece, both from this collection?

CC: From the F/W 12 line, I think the primaloft quilted shirt which is coming in September in delivery 3. It’s a wool/cashmere blend with a primaloft on the inside.

JJW: Primaloft is a bit like down, but with technical elements. It’s awesome.

CC: It’s a really nice fit as well – it comes in charcoal and heather grey. I love the charcoal. It just looks really good. My other piece would probably be the camouflage button down shirt. I feel like it’s a very wings+horns piece. It has the pattern and the detailing but it’s quite discrete.

TFP: I noticed that about your camo patterns, they’re not as direct or in your face as other camo styles other brands are putting out.

CC: Yea. We aimed to make it more tonal, it’s very wings+horns.

JJW: For me, the camo bush pant in black – I’m pretty sure it’s sold out almost everywhere – but for good reasons. I also can’t live without the henley’s, I think I have about 14 or 15 of them that I just rotate, and then of course our sneakers.

TFP: Is the footwear something you’d like to build on going forward?

JJW: I think our sneakers have become a classic for wings+horns. Hopefully we’ll look at doing more styles in future – that really just depends on the direction of the season.

TFP: Is getting into womenswear something you’ve ever talked about? I know it’s a totally different game but would it be something you’d consider?

JJW: It’s something we joke about – yea. I know Courtney would love it. It would be really exciting, and hopefully there would be tons of girls out there that would want wings+horns. That being said, it’s a whole new ball game with different fits, different fabrics, new seasons, etc.

TFP: Alright – thanks so much guys. We really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us and chat today. We’re both really looking forward to seeing where you’ll go from here.

- CK | AP

4 comments

31 July 2012

An interview with Rene Strolenberg of Tenue de Nimes – via RawrDenim

by Connor Keller

When I was recently in the Netherlands, I was lucky enough to sit down with one of the co-founders of my favorite denim store: Amsterdam’s Tenue de Nimes for a chat about denim and retail. Rene Strolenberg is a man who quite clearly loves denim and it was a truly enjoyable experience talking to him and picking his brain on parts of the buying process, the Dutch denim scene and raw denim culture. The interview is being released in two parts website denim website Rawr Denim. Part one is available here, and part two here.

- CK

1 comment

28 June 2012

An Interview with Revolver’s George Giannakos

by The Facing Page

A few months ago, we wrote about the coffee shop Revolver in Gastown. It’s a fantastic shop; the coffee selection is superb, the design is gorgeous and most importantly, they serve truly excellent coffee. For both of us here at the Facing Page, this is one of the best cafes in Vancouver. It also has a unique feel and ambience that sets it apart among the faceless masses of independent Vancouver cafes. And so, we were keen to learn a little bit more about Revolver. To do so, we met up with one of the founders, George Giannakos, to chat about Revolver and Vancouver coffee-culture in general. With an excellent cup of coffee, a few questions and a relief to be inside during a tropical rainstorm, we sat down for the following fascinating discussion.

There are an awful lot of Vancouver coffee shops. How did you set out to differentiate yourselves?

My family runs Cafe Crema – which turns six in December – as well so we’ve been into coffee for a bit. We’ve had a chance to network with the right people, we’ve done a lot of travelling, seen a lot of cafes, particularly San Francisco, Portland, and even Japan where its a bit more progressive and a little more niche. It’s kind of a sub-culture so with coffee you could see the direction it was going and we aimed to bring that here. Being current, not in a trendy way, but just keeping it current and very coffee focussed. I spent some time working as well in a cafe in Montreal we’ve taken some influence from there too – particularly in the service style: it’s less like a cafe and more like a bar. Sort of a more interactive design.

Why choose Gastown? Was there any particular tie to the neighbourhood for you?

It’s the neighbourhood, inevitably because it’s the neighbourhood we like. We were hunting for a couple years, not aggressively the whole time but every time we were in Gastown we’d hunt for the for lease signs. We get a bit of a community sense here too, you get a lot of the wait-staff from the Gastown restaurants coming in before a shift, same with the people from the Woodward’s building. There’s a lot of “Hey, how’s it going?” while people are waiting for drinks at the bar.

Revolver’s Gastown Exterior

We really like the way you do the menu of different coffees – how do you source and choose what you bring onto the menu?

Everything is cupped and tasted weekly, blind – my brother does that, he’s directer of coffee right now so whatever he likes we try to bring in. If something has maybe gone downhill we might talk to the roaster and try to figure out why. We tend to only take a couple different beans from a roaster, even if they have 6 or 7. The roasters tend to be more constant but the coffees will change.

Speaking of roasting, is there any ambition from you at Revolver to get into roasting your own beans?

At the moment just the cafe side. That’s one of the things we like actually, being able to choose from the roasters rather than being restricted to selling your own thing. We still focus on roasting a bit as a third party but we don’t let that take over here.

Vancouverites are said to drink a lot of coffee – but with perhaps the focus on quantity and not quality. Do you get the sense we’re getting more into drinking high-quality coffees?

I think people are a bit more willing now to pay for quality but we haven’t gotten away from the size thing yet. I think in Europe, many of the cafes would see 8oz as a lot. 12 oz here is as big as we go. For us, this *George points to the glass Hario pots the coffee is served in* is 12 oz and many people don’t even finish it. It feels like much more, I’m sure they’d finish if it was just in one cup but the act of having to pour it and sit down with it makes it seem like a little more. To go cups are cool but it goes to show that you don’t need as much if it’s drank for the purpose of drinking it.

The assumption among Vancouver coffee-drinkers tends to be that espresso machines and specialty coffees are premium while a drip coffee is not. Do you find people balking at the idea of paying 4 or 5 dollars for a cup of black coffee?

I think we were more hesitant than customers honestly. At first it was a bit scary to ask for $4.50. But not one person has walked out after hearing the price. Some people walk in, think it’s not for me and leave, but that’s cool. I think people recognise that the coffees are higher quality. So people seem to be pretty open. I think also because it’s individual, you can see that the cup is worth just as much as a latte. When people see that you put the care into it rather than just pouring it out of an urn, people realize that the quality is there. If it’s just coming out of a tap in the back and someone charged $4.50 for it I might question that.

Interior of Revolver Coffee from behind the bar

Say you’re out around the city and you need a cup yourself, what would the other cafes you’d turn to be?

Well Matchstick definitely, they’re good friends of ours and we just like going there. I do like Crema – I don’t know if that counts. Let me think.. it’s not hard to think of places but it’s hard to narrow down. Innocent coffee? Have you guys been there before? It’s on West 4th – right near Granville Island. Definitely worth checking out.

How would you feel then about working with some of the local coffee roasters in future?

We’re open to it – but one of the purposes with this was to highlight some of the stuff that you can’t really find around the city. That being said, we had Matchstick on yesterday for the first time. We’ve had 49th [Parallel]. We’ve been in talks with JJ Bean about a sample we’re thinking about bringing on.

You and your girlfriend have done a couple iterations of a pop-up book store in Revolver – is that something you’re thinking about continuing?

That worked out great, that’s kind of a side project my girlfriend and I did – it’s not really Revolver related other than just by nature – that worked really well. Books are my own side passion, under the guise of Sons and Lovers books. It just happened to be at Revolver as a gateway – a front. We’ve never done a 3rd party pop-up but we’re open to the idea

There’s also the free public tastings, how do those work?

It’s from 12-1 on Friday. We set it up at the back bar for whatever specifically we’ll be doing, it shifts from either 5 different coffees, different filters, this week we did it with our cold brew. That’s been only out three days but we wanted to sample it out. It’s to let people try different things – there’s no signup, it’s free.

Looking forwards, in 5 years where would you want Revolver to be?

Because it’s family and there are 6 of us, I’m just 1/6 of the view but personally I’d imagine that Revolver will stay as just a single concept. Like Crema has stayed it’s own concept. If we opened another it wouldn’t be called Revolver, it could be a spin-off or something but not another Revolver.

When you’re making coffee yourself at home what do you use, you use a Chemex with a metal filter here – what about when it’s just for yourself?

The problem at home is the grinder really, the grinder is such an important part. I usually just use a French Press or an Aeropress – keep it simple. I don’t usually do pour-over at home because there’s a few more variables, temperature and flow can be a bit troublesome. But some of our customers swear by it and it seems to be going well. I prefer the Aeropress but sometimes it’s just a bit much work.

Speaking of Aeropress, you hosted the BC Aeropress Championship here recently – how did that go?

That was awesome. It was nationally sanctioned and it was also the only one in Canada, so by default the winner was national champion. They didn’t manage to go onto the World Championship but it was good. That was really cool and the first one. It’s every year so it’ll be back again next year. It was packed in here, really fun. I competed but got knocked out. It was like a battle royale, I lost to my guy and that was it. We had a lot of great coffee people from around the city judging. There was no arguing when they made up their mind.

George behind the bar

We’ve noticed the record player behind the bar and you tend to have great music on in Revolver, can you list three albums you enjoy listening to at work?

First would be one a friend introduced me too recently, Alt-J, An Awesome Wave. Tommy Dorsey, we dim the lights and play a Best Of at 5 everyday, it’s awesome. And recently Monsters and Men, I’ve been playing them a lot lately, my current go to.

You mentioned your passion for books, anything particular you want to get into this summer?

Catch-22, I haven’t got into that yet. The Last Temptation of Christ – I don’t know if I’ll get there but I’d like to get there.

Awesome – Thanks so much George. We really appreciate your taking the time with us today to chat. We’ll be seeing you soon.

- AP | CK

4 comments

The Facing Page

Category: We Talk

15 March 2013

Neighbour Interview

by The Facing Page

19 February 2013

An interview with Powell Street Craft Brewery

by The Facing Page

26 November 2012

An Interview with Matchstick Coffee Roasters

by The Facing Page

7 November 2012

An Interview with Dustin Fishbook of the Belmont Barbershop

by The Facing Page

24 October 2012

Upcoming Interviews

by The Facing Page

21 September 2012

iPhone 5

by Addi Perkins

23 August 2012

An interview with Ya Wei and Jerome Lin of Innocent Coffee

by The Facing Page

15 August 2012

An interview with wings+horns

by Connor Keller

31 July 2012

An interview with Rene Strolenberg of Tenue de Nimes – via RawrDenim

by Connor Keller

28 June 2012

An Interview with Revolver’s George Giannakos

by The Facing Page

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