For two years, Paul Olsen roasted his own coffee beans twice a week. In his backyard.
With the help of Coffee Roasters Club, he modified a gas grill with a drum fabricated with a rotisserie spit and an electric motor. On that rigged-up machinery, he taught himself how to roast. “Starting off that way, you really learn how to do it without automation, using all of your senses and getting the perfect roast that way,” Olsen says.
After sharing beans and receiving positive feedback, Olsen enlisted his coffee-loving brother Kenny to open Weird Brothers Coffee, the first roastery in Herndon. The two also run a mobile coffee bar traveling around Fairfax and Loudoun counties and hope to open a cafe in their roasting warehouse by next spring.
With only 1,000 square feet, the cafe is built more for grab-and-go cups instead of lingering sips of lattes. With a bar area, a few stools, a table and a standing-only table (very Italian), the space will fit about dozen people at a time. Food will mimic the to-go theme with sandwiches outsourced from a deli and pastries by Boutique Bakeshop.
Though the space is small, Olsen still plans for an ambitious coffee program. There will be a full-service espresso bar, drip coffee, pour over, French press, cold brew and multiple taps dedicated to nitro. The nitro coffee—think coffee poured like a Guinness—is made with Weird Brothers’ Embrace the Dark Side blend, and Olsen is experimenting with imparting the brew with spices and herbs. Upping Herndon’s coffee game, Olsen will bring in rare coffees, too, like small-lot Kenyan coffees SL-28 and SL-34, and will look into a few single-origins from Costa Rica, Peru and Panama, as well as monsooned malabar, a labor-intensive Indian-style coffee gaining popularity.
But those esoteric brews will arrive in Herndon later. Says Olsen, “I didn’t want to start shocking the newbies with really expensive coffees.” // Weird Brothers Coffee: 321 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon
Read more about third-wave coffee, roasting trends, Weird Brothers and other Northern Virginia shops in our January coffee issue on stands Dec. 22.
