Monogram Coffeeโsย flagshipย shopย is an unassuming cafe,ย nestled between a convenience store and a Greek restaurantย in Altadore, a quiet community about 10 minutes outside of downtown Calgary.ย Although the street may be quiet, the scene inside is a constant stream of locals and coffee fans who travel out of their way to enjoy Monogramโs offerings and welcoming vibes. In many ways, Monogram reminds me most of some of my favorite cafes worldwide: a little DIY, bright yet cozy, and with lots of personal character.ย Despite the marquee Canadian coffee names behind the enterprise, the space still feels like itsย humble beginningย as aย dream of three friends who came together to open a cafe full ofโas they invoke repeatedlyโwonder and warmth.
In the two-plus years since Monogram first opened its doors to Calgary, co-owners Ben Put, Justin Eyford, and Jeremy Ho haveย opened a second location (and expanded their first cafe), popped up in venues across the city of Calgary, supported Put competing in the 2015 and 2016ย World Barista Championshipsย (thereโs even aย short documentary about his journey to Dublin in 2016), and gained an impressive 15,000ย Instagram followers. But forย the three friends-turned-business-partners,ย relationships and balance are at the heart of their growth.
I sat down with Eyford and Put to discuss these last two years and their hopes for Monogramโs future. The two made itย instantly clear that maintaining balance is the company’s key focus.ย Balance between having a local and international brand. Balance betweenย business lives and personal livesย (both Eyford and Put welcomed new babies to their families this past year). Balance between quality and growth. To maintain this balance, the team puts a big emphasis on relationships with their customers, their staff, and their roaster.
Monogram has a somewhat unique relationship with roasterย Transcend Coffee and one that Put and Eyford feel has been successful. โThere are other formats like this,โ Put says, โbut we entered a relationship with Transcend in a little bit of uncharted waters. They trusted us to take their coffee and use our own branding. Itโs known for Transcend that thatโs a bit of a departure from the typical roaster-cafe relationship but I think itโs been successful.โ
They tell me that the reason this particular model has worked so well for Monogram is that they have a very transparent relationship with the Edmonton-based roaster. Put talks weekly with Transcend about how the coffee tastes and gives feedback. Each side has anย understanding that coffee can taste different in different situations,ย and Put emphasizes that this is an important part of the way cafes should talk to roasters.
โItโs the one part of the chain where there is more subjectivity, and we need to acknowledge that we have different environments right now and just because this doesnโt taste good here doesnโt mean that you messed up. I think that could be a really healthy aspect to the industry. All the other chains itโs really hard to give that feedback, but my hope is that eventually giving feedback to a roaster could be a very positive thing and not even something that people worry about.โ
A roaster himself, itโs something Put thinks about a lot: the ways that baristas, cafes, and roasters couldย have more open communication. And roasting is something Monogram hopes to be doing very soonโthoughย there’s no set timeline for this next step. โSince we started weโve always tried to be very transparent with Transcend about what it is that we want and what weโre doing,โ Eyford tells me. โWeโve told them from the beginning that eventually we want to be roasting for ourselves.โ
Beyond moving into roasting, Put says the company would love to have more cafes, while constantly improving operations within all of their current shops as well.ย โI would like to continue to explore how to keep staff engaged and long-term, both in terms of roles and monetarily, and I would like to try new service models and new experiential things,โ he says. Monogram hasย already had success challenging service norms with anย Honour Bar at itsย downtown location and has alsoย started to gain an international following for the companyย branding and aesthetic.
What makes Monogram so appealing to both localโtheir Altadore cafe is always busy when I go in, no matter the time of dayโand international audiences may be in their guiding principle of โwonder and warmth,โ a phrase that Put says, in the beginning, was โjust a nice alliteration but [has] actually worked really well as a guiding principle.โ Itโs this guiding principle that Eyford says โhelps keep us focused on something. Having those [words] in the back of our minds always really helps us when weโre trying to make a decision. When weโre trying to decide to do something we always ask ourselves: โIs it promoting these two principles? Are we making our cafe more into what we wanted it to be, or are we losing our direction?โโ
On a recent visit to the Monogram location in downtown Calgary, I ran into Eyfordโs father, and we struck up a brief conversation. He told me about a recent trip he took to Amsterdam and, while wearing a Monogram shirt at a local cafe there, the baristas got very excited and exclaimed great admiration for the Monogram brand and coffee. Eyfordโs father was surprised by, and extremely proud of this, but to me it spoke of the enduring smallness of the specialty coffee community and the affection that anyone in the coffee world has for a brand that seems to be doing something a bit differently.
But while the international recognition has been appreciated, Eyfordย saysย you can’t rely on being a destination cafe alone. “Recognition is helpful to be a destination but really what weโve learned in the last two years is that you canโt survive on that,” he says. “Itโs not a consistent flow of peopleโyou really need to become a part of your community. And those people donโt necessarily care if youโre the best baristas in the world, they care that their daily experience is good.โ
And while the coffee at their cafes is indeed warm and tasty, itโs those staff interactions that make Monogram shine and who carry the โwonder and warmthโ mantra every day. โI think the unique thing about Calgary,โ Put tells me, โis that there are more and more independent cafes and thereโs still lots of room to grow. I think specialty coffee is still fresh enough in Canada that thereโs a unique opportunity for people to make names for themselves.โ And Monogram has done exactly that.
Elyse Bouvier is a Sprudge.com contributor based in Calgary. Read moreย Elyse Bouvier on Sprudge.
