“ENJOYING COFFEE WITH YOUR TEAM IS STILL A BIG THING IN THE HOSPITALITY WORLD. I GO AND MAKE THE TEAM COFFEE AND GET THEM PUMPED UP FOR SERVICE. IT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING WHEN YOU FEEL THAT COFFEE IS MORE THAN JUST COFFEE.”
Coffee to George Calombaris is about storytelling and memories. It’s about remembering his late grandmother sitting at the kitchen table with a Greek coffee, a good kaimak (foam), and sharing her story of coming to Australia with no shoes on. It’s also the Greek ritual of tipping the coffee cup upside down to predict the future.
“I remember my grandmother vividly reading my cup. She would never give me anything negative. She would say ‘that’s going to happen, and this will be amazing’. I reckon 99 per cent of it was made up, but it’s part of that moment when you realise the power of coffee is more than just the flavour,” George says, talking to BeanScene at The Gertrude Hotel in Fitzroy.
Despite growing up in a Mediterranean household, instant coffee was generally brewed
