How do you know when you’re at the top of the game in your chosen profession?
I suppose one way to gauge success is the level of demand for your unique talents by a discerning audience. If you were a gifted dancer in Russia, for example, a spot in the Bolshoi Ballet company would be fairly incontrovertible evidence of arriving. Turning our attention to a more local example, what might be the professional pinnacle for a North Shore coffee roaster?
How about an overwhelmingly enthusiastic welcome for a new outlet on Commercial Drive, the established epicentre of this coffee-obsessed city’s java scene? Yes, I have to think that would do it.
Moja, the cult North Shore coffee roaster that has been quietly but systematically building a near-fanatical following of loyalists since its debut in 2003, has just launched a new café and roasting facility on Commercial Drive at Napier Street, a stone’s throw from Grandview Park and smack in the heart of the densely populated Drive community. I say fanatical because I have never had a casual, even-keel conversation with a Moja Coffee fan; patrons and buyers have very strong opinions about this business and tend to employ an arsenal of superlatives when describing it.
Moja’s original North Vancouver location on Rupert Street down in the industrial neighbourhood just north of Main Street will continue to remain the company’s principal roasting facility. The small café attached to the roasting operation offers a handful of tables, which are coveted commodities on any given day of the week. I have noted a curiously competitive phenomenon emerge in this space: as patrons await their coffee at the end of the service bar, they tend to size up the seated customers, casting not-so-subtle glances at their rivals that positively scream “drink up and move along, it’s my turn.”
At the new Moja, where I recently met up with founder and owner Doug Finley and chief roaster and co-owner Andrew Wentzel (the two are brothers-in-law), the café portion of the business is a much larger, airier affair, with exposed brick walls, stylish furniture and a beautiful, window-heavy façade that opens out onto the Drive. I spent an hour with Moja’s masterminds, discussing the company’s growth and watching the shop’s squad of baristas dole out urgently needed coffee to a relentless lineup of Saturday morning locals.
“It’s humbling,” says Finley of the response Moja has received since opening this new location just two weeks earlier. “We’re so grateful for the welcome we’ve been given already. We know that the residents of this area are very loyal to their own, so it means a lot for us to be received this way.”
Trying to account for the positive response, Finley and Wentzel are modest; not once do they proclaim that their coffee is in some way superior to others available on the market. Instead, they relate to me the importance of carefully managing the process of bringing top quality coffee beans to the market, an undertaking that begins with a small network of dedicated farmers whose pride in their crops sets the bar for what follows.
Wentzel explains that there are family ties to African coffee production. Through visits to select farms, both he and Finley have become acquainted firsthand with a number of growers across a host of continents. Moja, it turns out, is the Swahili word for one. The term was adopted for the business on the basis of its numerous symbolic applications, from Moja’s focus on single-origin beans to the company’s strategy to stick to their own signature style of roasting, sidestepping the fleeting trends of an often fickle marketplace. Wentzel explains that visits to the source of the magic are strong motivators for Moja to work exceedingly hard to find the best expression of the beans they procure, respecting the efforts of those who toiled to deliver a top quality ingredient. Of a recent trip to a Brazilian coffee plantation, Wentzel says, “You go down there and you can see what this business means to a small farming community. Their revenue is going straight into schools, into dentists, right there on the farm.”
In addition to their role as careful stewards of high quality beans, let me add the following to the list of reasons why Moja delivers an exceedingly good, memorable coffee experience (sorry Doug and Andrew, if you weren’t going to say, someone had to):
1. Their staff members know what they’re doing. In my experience, if you’re lost in a sea of variety, ask them to guide you based on what you like and you’ll be steered in the right direction.
2. Being present counts for a lot in ensuring consistency. When you visit one of their locations, you’re likely going to run into one of the owners.
3. There is an obvious commitment to fine detail that shines through. The Commercial Drive Moja has a coffee roaster in the middle of the service area that roasts the day’s supply right there in the shop, supplying what is easily one of the most immediate, freshest cups in the city.
4. Third party suppliers (such as Thomas Haas for Moja’s pastries) are of a notably high calibre.
Moja is located at 1412 Rupert St., in North Vancouver (604-983-6652), and 1102 Commercial Dr., in Vancouver. mojacoffee.com
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. Contact: [email protected].
