Chic Espresso plays host

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Posted by Brigette Paterson in Company News on Tuesday, February 2010 | Permalink

We sent a massive Five Senses contingent over to the Gold Coast for the Australian Barista Championship. Luckily, Dean and Kathryn of Chic Espresso were happy to play host and made sure we were taken care of with great coffees on the way to the airport.

The short drive to Brisbane where Dean and Kathryn opened Chic in November last year was well worth the trip. The fit-out is sleek and their coffee has received a sensational wrap on CoffeeSnobs. It’s easily accessible for the morning takeaway rush on foot and there’s plenty of room for morning meetings over coffee or a quiet lunch. Communal tables are popping up in all the hottest new cafés at the moment, and Chic is no exception, with a 12 foot table out front.

Both Dean and Kathryn are relatively new to the hospitality scene. They did lots of research before opening Chic, checking out the hottest coffee bars in Sydney and Melbourne, figuring out their game plan, and discovering the ins and outs of specialty coffee. They had our man, Ben Bicknell, to guide them all the way through the process and have set up something really special in Brisbane.

They have a shiny new Synesso Sabre and two grinders — one for their house blend (PNG) and one for their Single Origin programme. They were running the Colombian — Huila while we were there. They regularly change the featured bean, meaning punters get to try out a whole stack of new coffees.

It was great to spend time with Dean and Kathryn at the championship. No doubt Dean will be trying his hand on the competitive circuit later this year — he certainly knows what he’s doing, and his latte art skills are top shelf!

They are looking at offering alternative brewing methods in the not too distant future — we had an awesome filter coffee through the Clever Coffee Dripper during our stay. Everyone at Chic was incredibly friendly and helpful — from dishing up much needed long blacks and macchiatos to storing pallets of our competition gear, nothing was too much trouble.

Thanks to everyone at Chic for looking after the Five Senses team!