ChangeNetSA spoke to Sebastian Smith, owner of Smith Coffee. He told us more about his business:
The business started four years ago, after Sebastian returned from his studies in the United States of America. He wanted to do business in the coffee industry, so he started with a coffee roastery from home for a year. He tested the reaction from customers at the Riddles building at the Museum for a short period, then in a small coffee bar in Ciglars for another year.
All of this was to figure out what the real needs of the Bethlehem people are. The Smith Coffee roastery sold coffee to clients from Johannnesburg and all over, but Sebastian felt that he should also cater to the needs of the people of Bethlehem.
The owners of the Paxinos building lost their coffee shop tenant and approached him to take over the tenancy of the shop.
What we see today is not only a coffee shop, but a roastery. He wanted to give customers the best product available, therefore the big roasting machine in the shop. Coffee is actually a fresh product, and he wanted to give customers their coffee as fresh as possible. Coffee is not fresh any more after one month, or two at most. Supermarkets tend to sell expired coffee. Because of this freshness, many people say that the Smith roastery has the best coffee they have ever tasted.
The future? They are building and expanding right now, to accommodate a lot more seating, catering for executives who want to “chill” for a longer time, in a space not as buzzing as the current space.
Smith Coffee is going from strength to strength, and will continue on this path, no doubt about that.
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