C is for Coffee / Barista

Barista logo

The red is vibrant and fresh, the palm tree reminds us of better places, the name can only give you images of perfectly served coffee. Coffee bar Barista not only has a great logo, it has two great locations (Zuid and Zuivelbrug) and − what did you expect? − great coffee. Even soy milk for the lactose intolerant! Here's a coffee stop tip for the rainy winter days.

 

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: You started Barista Zuid in 2007. Was this a dream?

SABINE VAN DORPE (Owner Barista): No, everything started more or less by coincidence. We were looking for a new tenant for this building. Back then it already was a nice building on the outside, but inside it was full of false walls and false ceilings. So we specifically wanted a tenant who would have an eye for the esthetical aspect. But a lot of the candidates were interim agencies, which we wanted to avoid, so we decided to "clean up" things ourselves.

In the end we thought this location and building were very appropriate for a coffee bar, especially with the large windows. Nevertheless we didn’t know anything about coffee as a product and had to learn about it. We tried ten coffee brands in order to find the perfect fit for our concept and eventually we chose Viva Sara. I wanted to work with high quality products instead of serving Coke light and Martino sandwiches. This means we had to be very persistent in the beginning and from a commercial point of view that wasn't always easy.

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: Why this location?

SABINE VAN DORPE: The Zuid area could really use a boost. It looked quite different at that time: there were mostly interim agencies and there was only one luxury boutique. We wanted to offer a healthy pause, for example to people working here, so from the beginning we had the plan to combine a coffee bar with a bio-bakery, without emphasizing the biological aspect too much. 

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: Were you missing this kind of coffee bar in Ghent when you started in 2007?

SABINE VAN DORPE: Absolutely. Not that I'm such a coffee drinker but these are the kind of bars I enter when travelling abroad. We didn't have these in Ghent at all; we had Mokabon and that was more or less it. We really wanted a coffee bar for young and old, for both enjoying coffee inside and take away. Nothing like Starbucks however; it had to be high quality coffee for a wide range of people.

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: Have you become a difficult customer yourself when it comes to coffee drinking since having your own coffee bar? 

SABINE VAN DORPE: Yes, if the coffee is not what I expect it to be, I simply don’t drink it. In general I only order coffee if I’m confident it will be served like I want it to. Moreover I’m allergic to cow milk, that’s also the reason why we have soy milk on the menu. Anyhow, I think customers have become more demanding in general; nowadays they all have high standards.

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: There’s another Barista coffee bar at Zuivelbrug. Do you have a different clientele or approach there?

SABINE VAN DORPE: First of all, we opened it two years after the bar at Zuid. We also wanted a more spacious location. The clientele is a bit different since at Zuivelbrug we have a lot more tourists. Here at Zuid we mostly have people who work or live here.  

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: Recently you bought a boat as well. Plans for the future?

SABINE VAN DORPE: It happened again by coincidence. My husband loves boats very much and made an offer on the internet. And in the end it was ours! So then we started thinking: what do we do with it? It’s an antique boat which in the Netherlands is already use from time to time to sail on the inland waterways.

So the current concept is that people can rent the boat, get a brunch basket and can come to Barista Zuivelbrug for a coffee when they get back. We also want to show our city from the water, in a quiet way, without having a guide yelling into a microphone. And we also sail beyond the tourist attractions.

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: While a lot of other coffee bars in Ghent serve cakes from Les Tartes de Françoise, we only see homemade cakes at Barista. How important is this to you?

SABINE VAN DORPE: It started as a hobby. I have loved this for as far as I can remember so it’s not a task either. Moreover there wasn’t any supplier for biological pastries and we wanted authentic, simple cakes. It started small, but at Barista Zuivelbrug we now have someone baking cakes on a fulltime basis. 

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: Another thing that immediately got our attention is your very original logo. Where did the idea of having a palm tree come from?

SABINE VAN DORPE: Well, for every aspect of our business we wanted to work with qualitative partners. We already knew graphics Jan and Randoald and knew their style. When we asked them to work out a proposal, they made two drafts for us. We were very happy with these from the beginning. The link isn't obvious; instead of a coffee cup or bean, we have this palm tree since coffee grows in tropical countries. I think the logo is simple and recognizable. For our name we have been looking a very long time; we always thought "barista" was too obvious but at a certain moment we realized how clean and straightforward it was and often that's the best solution.

ROSIE & THE RABBITS: We see this very large photograph of Erwin Olaf on the wall. Do you change the items on the wall from time to time?

SABINE VAN DORPE: My husband and I like art very much. We were thinking about the concept for the bar and saw this photograph at an exposition in Turin. We kept thinking about it and eventually we bought it. It has just been hung back on the wall since it had lost its colour due to the sun shining in, so we had it restored. 

The toilet doors in the bar for example have been decorated by a young artist who lived above the bar. And in the other bar at Zuivelbrug we have a very large work of art consisting of a lot of small drawings. It didn’t fit our house anymore  but for the bar it’s perfect.


www.mybarista.be 

www.facebook.com/pages/BARISTA-coffeecake 

Erwin Olaf, The Kitchen