It’s been a five-year build-up to the opening of The Roastery in central New South Wales, but the café and roastery is now up and running and catering to Griffith’s daily coffee needs. “We serve the local community which includes anyone within a 100-kilometre radius,” says General Manager Scott Rudkin.
Griffith is a strong farming community, at the heart of the Murrumbidgee irrigation area. “We established The Roastery to develop the coffee culture. Griffith is a fantastic regional growing area and those who are interested in coffee love it – especially the Italian population,” he says.
Scott says The Roastery embraces a “rustic country vibe but in a contemporary way”, with the use of soft leather couches, timbers, and local artwork.
The Roastery is a multi-faceted venue, offering a coffee retail outlet, wholesale division, café, and restaurant. Must-try items on the breakfast and lunch menu include their organic lentil burger, known as “the beast” because of its gigantic size, and their ciabatta rolls which come fresh out of the oven each morning from a baker only 600 metres down the road.
“We have a strong policy to source produce as locally as we can,” says Scott. “Griffith has a strong wine growing region as an irrigated farming community it grows lots of specialty produce including rice and grapes. Because of these influences of our standard for food and wine is high, and so too is our coffee.”
The Roastery house blend uses a Guatemalan base with Brazilian and Ethiopian beans. This coffee has chocolate and caramel notes, fruit and spice flavours at the front of the palate with a warm nutty and buttery finish.
“We’re trying to push our roasts to a medium body,” says Scott. “We like to take our customers on a journey through coffee so we’ve treading to lighter and more fruitier styles of blends and single origins.”
The Roastery serves a Guatemalan and Brazil single origin and serves French press and drip filter coffee. Each Friday night locals are invited to attend cupping sessions to learn more about the finer art of coffee.
Scott oversees the café operations on his La Marzocco GB5 while taking the reins of his 10-kilogram Roastmax Roaster.
“I’ve been passionate about coffee for many years. It’s a really dynamic industry, from the people you meet to the product you serve,” says Scott.
