Established Coffee is a brand new café in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, opened by Mark Ashbridge (@mashbeard), and his partner Bridgeen Barbour, with design and branding support from Andy McMillan (@andymcmillan). They opened their doors December 9th, expecting to have a relaxed first week in their gorgeous new space.
But on Friday night, tragedy very nearly struck when a bomb, attributed to dissident group Óglaigh na hÉireann, was partially detonated a block from the shop, near enough for Mr. Ashbridge to grab a photo. Thankfully police had cleared most of the area and no one was injured in the attack. Residents of Belfast and the proprietors of Established Coffee vow not to be intimidated by the terrorist act.
Established Coffee is an exciting entrant into Ireland’s burgeoning specialty coffee scene, and a number of people were in town for the opening, including Brother Hubbard‘s Bruno Ferrer Silva (@BrunoFerrerFox), who you can see helping out with Established’s beautiful Aeropress service above.
Established is currently serving coffees from Workshop Coffee, Square Mile Coffee Roasters, and this week they will be rolling out coffees from 3FE Coffee‘s new roasting operation, making them one of 3FE’s very first wholesale clients.
Espresso is being prepared on a Synesso machine paired with an Anfim grinder. A Marco Über boiler and the oh so hot right now Mahlkoenig EK43 grinder are handling filter coffee.
In addition to opening Established Coffee, Mr. Ashbridge runs an event series called Coffee Calendar, a roving coffee tasting & community event bringing together interested consumers and professionals to share their love of coffee.
Established Coffee is clearly a labor of love for Mr. Ashbridge and Ms. Barbour, who put their life savings into the place. They have high hopes for Established, and the city of Belfast:
“We can’t be held to ransom like that.”
If you find yourself in Belfast and want to support this brand new café’s opening, you can find them at 54 Hill Street 7am-7pm Monday through Friday, and 9am-6pm on the weekends.
All photos courtesy of Si Mills.
Alex Bernson (@AlexBernson) is the assistant editor at Sprudge.com. Read more Alex Bernson here.
