Baristas of DFW – Coffee Talk Series # 4 with LDU

As Australian’s why did you want to bring your style of coffee to DFW?

We grew up in the Italian and Greek areas of Australia, where good Coffee was simple and well-made and was more about a sense of community than a quick drink.  In Australia, the coffee industry has had more of a European influence for a long time because coffee was brought to Australia by the Italians and Greeks a long time before it came to America.

In America, the larger part of the community has been brought up on Starbucks, which is mostly represented by weaker, over-sugared products, so the average consumer has only had a palette for this. It’s what they first try and what they know. But now that the education is changing, and they are being exposed to more European-style coffee which is fresher and stronger, their tastes are changing, and they’re liking it.

What do your customers want that keeps them coming back to your coffee store?

We’re known for a strong and simple coffee. In the beginning, we were selling more lattes and espressos but now its shifting to more short black styles, because our customers are starting to recognize the flavor of pure good strong coffee and that they don’t need all the sweeteners.

Why do you think you’re doing differently to the larger commercial stores?

We felt like coffee service here, and the product was sub-standard when we moved here. Most of the commercial stores here are charging a lot for a sub-standard cup of coffee and still asking for a 15 percent service fee, and people are paying it because they don’t have much of choice on options.

All the best places here are very spread out, so there’s not a lot of good variety here for excellent coffee.  We wanted to serve an excellent but straightforward product with good service, keep the prices down and be approachable, and that’s what is bringing back our customers.