The ‘Coolest Alley’ in Uptown Saint John is Getting a Rogue Coffee Shop
The Duncans were going to open an electrical shop in an alleyway off Grannan Lane but decided to open a coffee shop instead.
Rogue Coffee will be launched in early August by Mike Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Electrical, and his wife, Vanessa Duncan. The coffee shop will feature Toronto-based Pilot Coffee Roasters and will use Modbar brewing equipment – the only coffee shop east of Quebec to have both.
The Duncans, both coffee enthusiasts, say they got the idea to open the shop a few years back after taking in different coffee shops and roasters on their vacation travels. Mike had already leased the shop’s location on Grannan Lane, with the intention of moving the Duncan Electrical office there.
“Vanessa and I have always loved coffee, so we’ve always talked about [opening a coffee shop] and all of our trips we would plan around cafe visits, which we love,” says Mike. “In thinking about moving Duncan’s Electrical into the space, we realized it’s just too cool to use for an electrical office with zero foot-traffic.
“We have this amazing alley, the coolest alley in Atlantic Canada that would just be so wasted.”
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The Duncans discovered Pilot Coffee in Toronto, and after doing coffee tastings of other brands out there, they decided to go with them.
“They just fit the bill for us,” says Vanessa. “They love education, they want every aspect of coffee to be done right, which is third-wave coffee, direct trade. They know the relationships directly with the farmers, and those farms are taken care of and their people are taken care of and the coffee is supreme. It’s coffee we don’t have right now in our city.”
This will be Pilot Coffee’s first venture east of Quebec City. Andrew Long, who is in charge of training shops that brew and sell Pilot Coffee, says the roaster is excited to have a presence in the Maritimes.
“Our goal as a coffee roaster is to work with great people and roast incredible coffee and have everybody taste it and have a good time with it,” says Long. “There’s no pretension with us. There’s no need. We buy really high-quality speciality coffee and want everybody – regardless of who you are, where you come from – to enjoy it.”
Rogue Coffee is aiming to offer something for everyone, whether you enjoy a simple cup of java or are the biggest coffee geek in the world.
“We want the whole thing to feel like a really awesome experience, [whether] you just have drip coffee, to maybe you’d like to be adventurous and try our kombucha on tap and sit out [in the alley], or try our cold-brew coffee,” says Vanessa.
Rouge also plans to host events like tastings and workshops for people to learn about different kinds of coffee.
“Coffee is the most complex drink in the world and so coffee is moving into that zone of tasting wine,” says Vanessa. “So we long to do educational things here for people that love to geek out about coffee. We want to do tastings with people and just show other ways of making coffee from around the world.”
Rogue coffee will be in an intimate 500-square-foot space wedged between Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club and Tuck Interiors down the alley off of Grannan Lane. The neighbourhood has been getting noticed for the new small businesses opening over the last year or so.
The Duncans says they want their new coffee shop to be part of the area’s growing vibrancy. They plan on working with local artists and musicians to put on shows in the alley, as well as doing light installations.
“We want to be really good neighbours and we want to be really involved in the community. We’ve always done that with [Duncan’s Electrical] and we really get a lot of life out of that,” says Mike. “We want to extend that with Rogue as well, and just be involved in all the great stuff that’s been bubbling up in Saint John, and just be a really great addition to what’s already happening.”
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The Duncans say opening a coffee shop like this wouldn’t be something they’d consider doing 10 years ago, but the recent “small growth” in the city’s uptown indicated it was time to make their long-time dream a reality.
“I’ll call it ‘small growth’ because there’s been a lot of it,” says Mike. “It’s not one big mega-project, but a whole bunch of little things and we would have never ever started investing this kind of money into a coffee shop if we weren’t convinced that the time is right.”
Rogue Coffee is expected to open Aug. 10.