Interview: coffee pro Wade Windsor (Lord Windsor Roasters)

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Coffee Long Beach

Photo courtesy of Wade Windsor

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What does a coffee be for you to roast and brew it at Lord Windsor Roasters?

It’s gotta be lively. When I’m cupping and choosing coffees, I like the ones that catch me off guard. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s true. Whenever I tell myself I want a specific type of coffee (an acidic and citric Kenyan, or a floral and sweet Central, etc.), I always end up not getting that because something else jumped out that I wasn’t anticipating to do so. I like to be adventurous with our servings, get lots from places with interesting stories as well as taste.

What was your approach with the design and vibe of your Long Beach coffee bar?

We really wanted it to be simple. People are moving so fast around here, we wanted to encourage people to take a minute and relax. Our building is amazing, and very rare in coastal Southern California, so we wanted to highlight its inherent beauty. Who needs goofy artwork on the walls, when the brick and floors work so well together by themselves? We wanted a bar that encouraged interaction with the person behind it, as well as who you might find yourself sitting next to. We didn’t want a sea of laptops, we wanted people to be enjoying themselves in a stripped down kind of setting. I grew up surfing, and thoroughly enjoy finding a mellow café or bar to hang out at after a surf. I wanted to replicate that a bit. I also wanted a place that was showcasing the coffee, and keep it as the VIP. Lots of people get bummed with us for not having WiFi, artwork, old crusty couches, etc.; but I think lots of people dig it too.

Who else in the specialty coffee community do you look to for inspiration, guidance or advice?

Wow, everyone. I haven’t been in the scene long enough to meet too many people, but reading has generated so much respect for many of the ones I’ve yet to meet. I look up to Andrew Phillips (Rose Park Roasters) here in Long Beach. That dude is so friendly and positive, it’s always brighter when he’s in the room. Chris Schooley is another guy that is so positive and encouraging to talk to. His knowledge and excitement is infectious. I also really admire Thompson Owen, I couldn’t stop reading those travelogues and encyclopedias of information on coffee when I first got into it. Sweet Maria’s site was a permanent fixture on my browser for a long time. I used to spend a lot of time at Four Barrel while living in San Francisco, and would just watch that old Probat in action and dream. I loved the manual-ness (that a word?) of it all. I’m psyched on what’s happening here in Long Beach, there is a very authentic and innocent excitement about coffee at the moment. It’s fresh and fun, and doesn’t have some of the prescribed notions of what coffee is and how baristas should act, etc. Some of the guys here that stoke me out are Clancy Cramer, Sterling Houghton, Nick Rodriguez, and my main barista RJ Hahn. RJ is shredding, diving head-first into it and it makes me smile. I have a deep respect for all of the big guys out there and love reading the stories of them coming up, so I get inspired by the smaller guys making stuff happen without big budgets and fancy bow-ties.

Considering Long Beach is home to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, why do you think it’s taken people in the city so long to contribute to the specialty coffee community with roasters and specialty coffeehouses?

That is a great question my man! I think Long Beach is a pretty transitional town for most people, using it as a place they’re gonna be “for a while” until they decide to move to Brooklyn, SF, LA, or Portland. I may be way off by saying this, but I feel that mentality for many has not allowed a proper idea to root and grow. If there’s one thing I hear on a daily basis here, it’s the lack of good food, drink, etc. We are sandwiched between LA and OC, but people find it hard to find a good lunch spot, or brew pub, whiskey bar, you name it. So, my theory is that people that have the ideas and motivation to start these types of businesses end up doing them elsewhere, cause Long Beach might have never been the place they felt would allow the business to thrive.

With the SCAA, I think it’s a chicken or egg type of thing. Yes, they’re located here, but it’s mainly just an administrative office. There are not many events that draw in the non-coffee world into the specialty scene via the SCAA here in Long Beach. I do not mean that in a critical way whatsoever, that’s my reasoning for saying it could be a chicken or egg thing. If there was a strong specialty coffee culture here already, they’d be the driving force behind it, and there’d be a great Long Beach pride there. I get the impression from a lot of people here that it’s hard to wrap their brains around Long Beach being a place that has wonderful coffee, amazing beer, insane food, etc. They’ve categorized those thoughts for the towns they have visited, and Long Beach is just that affordable beach city with great tacos, not a culinary beefcake. I know that sounds pessimistic, but I say that in the context that people are currently responding to a new take on coffee, beer and food. So, I think people haven’t had the opportunity to contribute to said roasters or specialty coffeehouses in the past. Now that there’s an opportunity, I think people are responding wonderfully. I get amped when people come into our shop and buy bags of coffee; I love being the local roaster, not just a fancy shop that’s playing the most recent electro-funk-trance album.

What’s a typical coffee consumption day for you, drink by drink, from when you wake up to when you go to sleep?

Surprisingly, I don’t drink a lot of coffee throughout the day. In the mornings when I’m working behind the bar, I usually get shacked on espresso from dialing in the grinder and machine. Then, I’ll make myself a cup of drip based on what I’ve recently roasted, and what I want to note on how a certain coffee ages. After that, I usually have an espresso around lunchtime, but then I’m done. If I’m going to da club, I’ll have a quad-vanilla mocha w/ a 5-hour energy drink redeye.

If you brew coffee at home, what’s your preferred brewing method, and why?

I live about a 20 second walk from my shop, so I usually forgo the dirty dishes at home, and just stumble over to the shop when in need. When I do brew at home, I find nothing makes me smile more than a full Chemex. I dig the Aeropress setup when traveling or camping, but love the simplicity and beauty of a steamy Chemex.

Address: 1101 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA 90802
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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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