Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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10 SPEED COFFEE HOOD RIVER, ORE. BRYAN MCGEENEY, OWNER AND ROASTER A CAFÉ DS SROA CROS STORY AND PHOTOS BY REGAN CRISP t 10 Speed Coffee in Hood River, Ore., the line between coffee culture and cycling is a fine one. Dirty Fingers bike shop, adjacent to the café and roastery, acts as a useful stop-off for the region's avid cyclists, while 10 Speed's breakfast and lunch offerings, house-fried doughnuts and hand-crafted espresso invite post-ride relaxation. By sponsoring the prestigious Amgen Tour of California for the last two years, Ten Speed has made a name for itself in the realm of professional cycling. In Hood River, the café/bike shop pair acts as a local community hub, hosting local CSAs, Friday night movies and a Sunday jazz brunch. Meanwhile, sponsored group rides like September's Post & Pint (a ride through scenic Post Canyon followed by a pint of something local from one of 10 Speed's nine rotating taps) and nearby views of Oregon's panoramic Columbia River Gorge draw tourists and adventure seekers alike. The company's newest coffee bar—in upscale Calabasas, Calif., and attached to the Moots Cycles bike boutique and cycling-themed restaurant Pedalers Fork—seeks to bring the company's bike-friendly business model to a new kind of community, this time in the hills west of Los Angeles. Coffee and cycling culture may seem like an unlikely combination, but as owner and roaster Bryan McGeeney explains, it's only natural. Q: How did you decide to start a bike-friendly coffee company? A: I knew I wanted to start an independent café and roastery, and biking is my other passion. I thought the whole 10 Speed thing would be a fun, whimsical theme. Dirty Fingers were our neighbors [at our first shop], and when we found this new location, we ended up partnering with them and utilizing the whole building and opening it up. We really wanted an open concept between bike shop and coffee shop. Really it was all about creating more of a sense of community—not just with the cycling community but with the community overall, as far as creating a place that locals wanted to hang out and tourists would be attracted to. We wanted them to use it as a hub to start rides, as a place to get directions to go find trail rides or whatever. Culturally, bicycles and coffee just seem to go well together. Q: When did you first start roasting? A: I had experimented as a home roaster for a lot of years, then when we started here I ended up buying a small Probat roaster. Through a lot of experimentation, reading and learning, I sort of developed our own signature roasting style. We started roasting about eight months after we opened. continued on page 26 24 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com