A roadside coffee roastery has rolled up to High Street in Collingwood.
Founded by Adrian Lakoseljac and Sarah Messervey-Lakoseljac, Collingwood Coffee Company is new in town. The cafe and roastery was built on wheels, and specializes in wood-roasted single-origin coffees, roasted onsite. Since opening in November, the shop has become well-known for its espresso-based hot drinks and cannoli.
“I love talking to people and putting a smile on their face. Coffee and cannoli can make people smile,” said Lakoseljac.
The coffee company officially opened up shop in the Home Hardware parking lot on Nov. 15, 2022 with one goal in mind: "to make the best espresso in the world."
“It’s been amazing so far, people are so supportive,” said Lakoseljac. “The best feedback is that people think of the coffee in the way that I hope they would.”
But the journey to get here wasn’t so linear.
Lakoseljac has always loved coffee, so much so that he would spend his free time reading about different brewing and roasting styles all over the world. Eventually, he decided to modify a roaster in his backyard to see if he could do it for himself. A firefighter by trade, Lakoseljac was always tinkering with stuff, and he would spend his days off experimenting with different techniques to make the coffee better.
Flash forward a few years, Lakoseljac was on leave from fire and needed new ways to fill his time. He tinkered even more, and eventually started rebuilding a run-down, 1970s Winnebago in his driveway.
He wasn’t sure what he was building at the time, all he knew was that he wanted to roast coffee.
While a normal system can roast a few hundred pounds of coffee at a time, Lakoseljac could roast two. He knew it wasn’t feasible for him to supply his coffee to a shop and still have it be worth his while. So that’s where he thought the trailer could come in.
His friends are the owners of M+M Custom Inc and they invited Lakoseljac to bring his trailer to their shop in Ravenna. With their help, Lakoseljac spent about a year refinishing and revamping the trailer. His days were spent hanging out at the shop and building a coffee roastery, and quickly became known as the ‘coffee guy.’ There were a few others working at the shop at any given time, so every day at noon and 2 p.m., Lakoseljac would make coffee. It was during those days that the business really started to take form. Over coffee, the group would discuss how they like their coffee and their favourite things to pair with it, sampling all sorts of sweet treats and baked goods.
The custom-built coffee trailer now sits in the Home Hardware parking lot in Collingwood and is accessible by road, trail and sidewalk. And, for those cold winter days you don’t want to get out of the car, they even have a drive-thru. In the summer, they plan to build a patio behind the trailer and will close the drive-thru for safety reasons.
“I use the best beans in the world and roast it in a way that is super simple and unique. My job is really just not to mess it up. Like cooking a really good steak,” he laughed.
Messervey-Lakoseljac stepped in to help develop a number of different recipes and expand the drink menu to what it is today. Although neither of them had much experience as a barista, they committed themselves to learning and decided to utilize the Australian method of preparation.
“Everything is timed and weighed and dosed ... to make it so it isn’t an estimate, it’s a science,” said Lakoseljac.
Along with espresso and espresso-based drinks, Collingwood Coffee Co has a large selection of teas and tea lattes, hot chocolate, lemonade and Italian sodas available. When it came to food, if there was one thing Lakoseljac learned during his days at the shop, it was that people really loved cannoli. A big fan of the Italian treat himself, he knew he had to have it on his menu.
He also hired his sister’s company, Pizelle by Shell, to provide a number of dairy-free and gluten-free baked goods as well.
Collingwood Coffee Co. is open Tuesday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, visit their website or follow them on Instagram.
