SUBCULTURE COFFEE
A Coffee Roaster that Doubles as a Think Tank
Subculture booms out of the newest addition to West Palm Beach’s famous 500 Block of Clematis Street at the Subculture Coffee Café & Roaster. Celebrating its official grand opening Thursday, March 13, this coffeehouse-lover’s must-see spot expresses every facet of the new wave culture surrounding the coffeehouse society. Sitting in the quaint but elegant decor of the downtown shop, I am delighted to see co-creators Rodney Mayo and Sean Scott’s vision for a coffeehouse, which promotes nothing if not quality, come to life. Above me, decoupage pictures by Kayla Whitehurst plaster the café’s stylishly visible air ducts with the faces of some of the inventive and radical minds that make up the underbelly of the American way. Such faces as Ken Kesey, Janis Joplin and Edgar Allen Poe commemorate the very essence and importance of a subculture consisting of those who promote individualism and celebrate the uniqueness of every man in opposition towards a larger society that threatens to destroy it.
“We are in the third wave of coffee brewing” Scott informs me as we sit at one of his largest and most regal wooden dining tables. “In the first wave,” Scott continues “coffee intake was more specifically about caffeine consumption and quality was not such a factor. Instant coffee, like Sanka for example, was huge!” Scott goes on to educate me about the arrival of today’s “third wave” movement from the first, with a second huge explosion of distributers advertising quality with quantity (i.e. the Starbucks era). What is blatantly apparent though, in this now third wave of coffee consuming America, is the “quality” offered by big name corporations like Dunkin Donuts or even Starbucks falls short of delivering the sensuous complexities produced in coffee made by hand via the brewing techniques practiced by smaller mom and pop type coffeehouses like Mayo and Scott’s. “When you break down the drink, coffee is often more complex than wine.”
On the horizon for Subculture Coffee is a project very close to Scott’s heart. “We’re going to be offering coffee cupping classes.” Essentially with these classes, Scott hopes to educate people about the roasting process much like a vineyard’s wine tasting would educate about viniculture. Another exciting endeavor for the cafe and its owners is the distribution of their beloved hand roasted beans. Much of Mayo’s other establishments (including Howley’s Restaurant, The Dubliner Irish Pub and Dada Restaurant) are already supplying Subculture’s finest java.
The emphasis on quality handmade goods continues at Subculture Coffee in a variety of available homemade treats that pair excellently with Scott’s specialty beans. In true small coffeehouse fashion, customers to Subculture Coffee can enjoy handmade cakes, pastries, fresh sandwiches and salads, nutritious breakfast cookies and smoothies, ice cream, as well as a menu of locally brewed beers and their handpicked red and white wine selection. Keeping with the promotion of individualism, the cafe will soon offer customers the option to choose their own style of beans to roast in-store, bag and take to-go to enjoy premium hand-roasted coffee in the comfort of their own home.
With a great café and roaster like Subculture Coffee, there is no better time to jump on this especially honorable and undoubtedly scrumptious bandwagon.
For more information about Subculture Coffee and for hours of operation visit their Facebook page. Check out sub-culture.org in the near future as well for a complete listing of Subculture’s menu and for information about upcoming events at all of Mayo’s fine establishments.
~Danielle E. DiSpigna
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