Cafe Find: Barrel One Sydney
The flowers are fresh, the coffee is hot and the banter is rolling. At Barrel One Sydney, a coffee-roaster-cum-cafe, that’s about all it takes.
Daniel Agapiou had been in the coffee game for a while before he decided to open his own cafe, in September 2017. The space ”“ parked in Brookvale, in the industrial northern beaches pocket of Sydney ”“ functions (and has for three years) as the dispatch centre for the roastery; the scales, bags, and barrels of beans strewn throughout are proof of that. Agapiou didn’t want to mess too much with that vibe, aiming to create an accessible space where coffee (single origin, drip, espresso blends, filter) is expertly crafted and velvety milk poured with aplomb. “Kitchen” is a generous term for the culinary area ”“ it’s more of an assembly line of Brooklyn Boy bagels, Butter Boy pastries, and toasties, with recipes created by Melbourne’s Maker & Monger (including a pastrami sandwich, made with meat from a Manly diner). Barista Reggie and co-owner Samuel Graham complete the team.
The crowd is a mixture of local entrepreneurs, trades- and craftspeople, and young professionals. They mingle in the cavernous white warehouse, designed by Agapiou and his mate Taylor Heywood of Taylor Made Design. The aesthetic channels Agapiou’s soul-searching trip to New York in 2017, where he visited coffee pals and their roastery-cafes in Brooklyn and Williamsburg. (Think exposed insulation, metal work, and an unironic minimalism.) Milk crates function as tables; bar stools sit aside the roller-door entrance or up at the concrete-slab bar. It’s both crisp and toasty, with a vertical garden, a neon sign nodding to Stranger Things, and wood touches by Porter + Maple (and Agapiou’s father, Steve) thrown in the mix.
People loiter, waiting to collect their Joe ”“ often in KeepCups. Locals drift in and out, as is the way on the northern beaches, stopping to say hello and promising to be back soon. There’s a basketball hoop outside too, for when it gets to that time of afternoon. Meanwhile, the beans grind onward and the day steams ahead.
Barrel One Sydney
22 Orchard Rd, Brookvale NSW 2100, Australia
+61 408 431 864
(All photos courtesy of Simon Whitbread and Barrel One Sydney)
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