There is a special kind of pride felt when a client asks you to send them all of your most exciting, unique coffees in a single order, especially when they tell you they'll be featuring beautiful natural process Ethiopian coffee on the espresso bar. A lot of trust goes into sending out your best to a client, knowing they then have to prepare and present that product at a high level.
Since August of 2017 we've been building a lot of trust with our neighbor across the train tracks, Chairlift Coffee. Chairlift is attached to one of Richmond's most exciting new restaurants, Brenner Pass, and has been bringing a consistently exceptional cafe experience to Scott's Addition since the day they opened.
{cheese monger and cafe manager Joshua Franklin makes espresso}
Walking in the door of Chairlift, you're met with clean, airy design in a small space surrounding the coffee bar and a simple pastry display featuring beautiful handmade pastries from chef/owner Olivia Wilson. If you explore around the bar-corner past a cold case full of prepared lunch items, the bar opens up with more seating, thoughtful selections of wine, beer, and a full cheese and charcuterie bar that continues into a large rear seating area accented with white furs and lots of natural light.
In addition to Rosedale, our fruit-forward espresso blend, Chairlift features a rotating selection of single origin batch brew and hand pour coffees, and this weekend they'll be featuring our favorite natural process Ethiopian coffee - Chelchele - on the espresso bar, with the washed process Ethiopia Layo Teraga and Honduras Finca San Isidro as brewed coffees. We think this is going to be the best coffee line-up in town this weekend, so we hope to see you there.
We caught up with owner/pastry chef Olivia Wilson recently for a short interview - here's what she had to say:
