Roastville
When you’ve been working in hospitality for 35 years, there comes a time to settle. Having run many businesses from cafes, to espresso bars, to restaurants to fine diners, in 2015, George Choutis opened Roastville, the spot that would allow him to stay in one place for the foreseeable future.
“What attracted us here was that you can virtually get anything within 1km radius, anything,” recalled Choutis of the site on Victoria road, Marrickville.
Surrounded by suppliers to the hospitality and construction industries, there was no limit to what Coutis and his wife and business partner could do. So they decided to do everything in house.
“It was pretty much a box that was full of rubbish,” said Choutis of the space before it was renovated. “We built the whole front of the store — that's all been rebuilt because that was just one doorway at the front — so all windows and everything has been put in. [We] had to raise the whole floor level at the front to make it work for us.”
Today, after walking up a short set of stairs, one passes by the open kitchen and espresso bar before coming into the main area. A double height dining room with a significant roastery at the back, open to the view of diners who can watch their bean be brought in, roasted and then brewed to their preference.
“I'm sick of moving, changing businesses, so we purposely built this to be everything. The café as well as the roastery. So for us it's all about high end coffees, product product product, that's it. So we only serve the best and we're proud of what we serve. And that comes from the kitchen all the way through to the coffee.”
Making all of this possible took six months, and Choutis along with a friend constructed all the timberwork, brickwork as well as laid the wooden floor.
“It was a big task, a lot of money, so we're going to be here for a little while.”
Having made this the hub of their operations, Roastville also supplies wholesale customers in Sydney as well as Brisbane, Adelaide and Saudi Arabia. In partnership with Colombian coffee experts Cofinet, who they share the space with, the Marrickville space has become a mixing pot of some of the best things in coffee, all of which is open for the public to sample any day of the week or immerse themselves in on the weekly public cuppings on Saturday evenings. Roastville also offers barista classes and other workshops so that the effort and passion that goes into coffee here can be absorbed by all.
For Choutis, all this comes from when he first started working in his family’s fruit and veg shops.
“I was fifteen, sixteen [and] I was working at a café in Parramatta Thursday nights and Saturday nights and then it all started from there.”
Being able to bring it all under one roof has become a dream come true for Choutis and in speaking with him on a Tuesday morning, he’s constantly fielding calls from suppliers and text messages about beetroot relish. A man consumed by his passion for coffee and its edible accoutrements, it’s clear that this is someone who’s found their calling.
“We want to eventually open some more espresso bars around the place, but we're not in any rush, that takes a lot of energy. We're here for a long time.”
Roastville
Mon – Fri, 6am – 3.30pm
Sat – Sun, 7am – 4pm
157 Victoria Rd
Marrickville