Dave’s Coffee looking to be more than flavor of month

COLD BREW: Dave’s Coffee founder David Lanning said that the iced-drink segment of his business has “exploded.” / COURTESY DAVE’S COFFEE
COLD BREW: Dave’s Coffee founder David Lanning said that the iced-drink segment of his business has “exploded.” / COURTESY DAVE’S COFFEE

From modest beginnings – a small space in the back of Galapagos Boutique where guys could find a refuge from clothes shopping – Dave’s Coffee has turned into a major Rhode Island brand.
Founder David Lanning first expanded into roasting his own coffee for whole bean sales, then introduced a line of coffee syrups found at retailers such as Whole Foods and Crate & Barrel. This summer, Lanning opened what he sees as a flagship Dave’s Coffee cafe on South Main Street in Providence, complete with a custom-built espresso machine and pour-over coffee bar.

PBN: With the opening of a Providence location, is this the start of an expansion that will eventually see Dave’s Coffees on every block in Rhode Island?
LANNING: I don’t know about every block, but I definitely see an opportunity for other locations, not just in Rhode Island but elsewhere in New England. I think Boston is interesting and Rhode Island could support another Dave’s Coffee somewhere.

PBN: Do you have something already in the works?
LANNING: I am looking at least a year down the road. We have had the location in Charlestown a long time. The original was in a 1740 farmhouse – we were limited in what we can do. I feel what we learned being there we really took into account in the Providence location. Just the logistics behind the counter and in front of the counter, we have put a lot of thought into work flow and customer flow and having that experience behind us helped a lot. This location in Providence would be our flagship store even though it is not the first one.

PBN: Is the Providence store fundamentally different from Charlestown?
LANNING: It is different aesthetically. We kept a natural feel to it. We worked with a great architect [3Six0] in Providence for a great design. The materials we focused on were wood, concrete and raw metal. It still has a nice, warm, warn feel to it. It’s one of the newer buildings on South Main.

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PBN: Do you now have the fanciest espresso machine in New England?
LANNING: It is really a unique machine. It is one of the only ones made in the United States. Most are made in Italy. Espresso machines went from being manual to highly automated and are now going back to manual again, where the barista has complete control. It is a really sleek-looking machine but relies on the skill and knowledge of the barista to extract a perfect shot.

PBN: Do you have trouble finding people who can do it well?
LANNING: It is difficult to learn, but we have a three-week training program. My son, who joined Dave’s Coffee last year, grew up in coffee bars and we had two people from our coffee bar in Charlestown working in South Main.

PBN: I see your beans and coffee syrup in more and more places throughout the state. Is that where most of your growth will come from going forward?
LANNING: We are growing our wholesale, but at a controlled pace. Our whole-bean coffee is dated with three-month shelf life, so it is not like we are going to be in Shaw’s or Stop & Shop. We are selective about being in places that will do it correctly. We have spent a lot of energy building Dave’s Coffee as a brand and are trying to protect that end of it. Also, a 12-ounce bag retails for $11.95 and syrup $10.95. We are geared toward a high-end, gourmet market.

PBN: Is coffee syrup still purely a Rhode Island thing?
LANNING: The bulk of sales are in Rhode Island and surrounding communities, but it is catching on in a broader scope. We recently got picked up by Crate & Barrel, just the syrup, and are in 89 stores nationally. It’s still amazing when people come in and say they were in California and saw our coffee syrup. It is an educational process. In other places they think it is a coffee concentrate, but coffee syrup isn’t mixed with water. Everyone knows it for coffee milk, but we are going beyond into cocktails, dessert toppings and you can mix it with BBQ sauce and put it on steaks on the grill.

PBN: On a retail level, how much of your drink sales are iced versus hot now?
LANNING: Iced drinks have exploded. We cold-brew our iced coffee and throughout the industry iced has been really popular year round, not just in summer. I would say it is now close to 60-40 cold-to-iced sales on a revenue basis.

PBN: What are the next trends on coffee? Is it pour over, or is that a fad that will come and go?
LANNING: I think the pour-over concept is just beginning. If you are on the West Coast, there are [coffee shops] that do not have coffee in urns, they just have a pour-over bar. In Charlestown, we don’t have space, but in Providence we have a dedicated space just to do pour overs. Coffee is getting more like wine where people will ask what is different about each variety and want to brew on an individual-cup basis. Another upside is we are bringing in smaller lots of coffee. We don’t deal directly with farms, we deal with brokers, but we have opportunities to buy a farm’s whole harvest and then serve that in brew-over method. But if someone wants a French press for a different flavor, we can do that too and we have already brewed coffee, because pour over takes three to four minutes and not everyone can wait that long. •

INTERVIEW
David Lanning
POSITION: Founder of Dave’s Coffee LLC
BACKGROUND: A mechanical engineer by training, Pawcatuck, Conn., native Lanning opened the first Dave’s Coffee in the back of the Galapogos Boutique he and his wife opened off Route 1 in Charlestown.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from New England Institute of Technology, 1988
FIRST JOB: Prep cook at BB Dairy
RESIDENCE: Westerly
AGE: 48

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