What we've been up to at our roastery and HQ...

It's been a busy couple of months here at the Elsewhere roastery. We've been lucky enough to be able to expand into our neighbouring warehouse unit, which has more than doubled our available floor space. This means we were able to whack all the messy stuff (pallet racking, packaging etc) next door and focus on making our roastery unit a much more customer facing space for coffee lovers (and our own staff) to enjoy. 

Our coffee roastery has always been the heart of our operation. It's where our skilled roasters work their craft, selecting the tastiest beans, roasting them and sending them out across the UK and beyond. For years, we've been a bit of a hidden gem in Deptford, known only to a select few. However, we recognised the potential to turn our spot into a destination for coffee enthusiasts and a hub for community engagement in South East London. After all, we can't let East London have all the best coffee spots! 

ELSEWHERE TRAINING HUB

One of the central elements of our renovation was the creation of our coffee training hub within the roastery. This space is dedicated to teaching baristas and coffee lovers alike about the journey of coffee, from bean to cup. We're excited to soon be offering regular workshops and tastings, where participants can explore the nuances of different coffee beans, learn about various methods of brewing, the roasting process, and even try their hand at roasting under the guidance of our experts. 

INTERACTIVE COFFEE BAR

In addition to coffee education, we plan on introducing an interactive coffee bar in the coming months. Customers will be able to engage with our baristas and roasters, asking questions and learning about the art of brewing and extraction. It's an opportunity to taste freshly roasted coffee in various forms, from pour-overs to espresso shots.

CREATING A COFFEE COMMUNITY 

We want our newly spruced roastery to become more than just a place to purchase coffee; we want it to be a new hub for the already exciting coffee community in South East London to utilise. We're set to host regular events, including cupping sessions, live music nights, and coffee competitions. It's a space for coffee lovers to come together, share their passion, forge connections and have some fun!

This was our roastery a few weeks ago, we previously had it packed (and I mean packed) with pallet racking and miscellaneous coffee stuff. As you can see it’s definitely not a customer facing space!

For our main roastery space we needed to get our trusty roaster out of the way to get started on our floor and back area.

We started boxing off the back right area to facilitate our brand new training room and the area to the left for a nice staff kitchen (there’s only so many meal deals a human can take). 

Here’s our main man Andy giving our floors a much needed shave.

Our gleaming new floors post buff, with a lovely few licks of paint.

Queue the plastering for our training area. This probably should have been done before the floors but who needs foresight anyway 👀

Glass partition frame in. Peep our little lollipop sign too.

Here’s the glass all in. Wow, now we look like a WeWork. Is this a good thing? Probably.(I’m kidding we love this and it provides lots of sound diffusion, lovely.)

Our first cupping with our team in our spanking new training room.

Phase 1 of our roastery revamp is complete! Stay tuned for phase 2… We’ve got lots of exciting good stuff planned that we can’t wait for you all to see.