Coffee is a fruit.

It's a cherry and it's the seed of the cherry is what we call a coffee bean.

Most all farms, they hand pick those cherries.

So I like to tell people when they're drinking a cup of coffee.

[MUSIC] You've got about 20 to 30 cherries just in that cup of coffee.

It's an exotic drink.

It's something that's incredibly special and exotic the amount of processes that it went through.

in just the beginning of it, not even talking about the planting and the cultivation and the weather and all of that, but just picking it.

It's so much work goes into this thing that we totally take for granted.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] COFFEE The Universal Language is made possible in part by.

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The port of New Orleans, the mouth of the Mississippi River, is always receiving commodity spices.

You know, traded around the world would enter America through New Orleans.

[music] [music] [music] You know, coffee in the South, it predates probably most generations of people who've lived in the South.

My grandfather fell in love with the coffee so much, the whole trade of coffee.

To go to the Wharf of New Orleans and to buy roasted coffee beans.

Drive them back up to Baton Rouge, which there was no interstate.

This was a hundred years ago.

He loved the experience.

He loved the people he met in New Orleans.

He liked the excitement about that port.

[music] The people of New Orleans are hospitable.

We want you to get a little taste of our life.

You start talking about food or coffee.

It doesn't matter what kind of mood they're in.

They're going to talk about their mama's cooking, their grandmother's cooking, drinking coffee.

People love you when they start talking about all that.

[music] Trey's one of the most impressive people I've met in coffee.

As soon as he spoke, I realized he wasn't from the West Coast.

He was from the South.

[music] It's that kind of a spirit of a person that is endlessly motivated.

That is almost like, how do I get him to just stay for just a second, just so we can have one moment of whatever normalcy is.

He has pulled me around to like the most fun over the years.

I would never have moved 27 times or whatever it's been, but it's been a blast.

Allie and I were sitting on the patio and the thought just came to me and I said, "We're going home.

This is it."

And she starts crying.

I start crying.

We knew that it was time for us to go home.

It's the same feeling you get whenever you walk into your house after a really long trip.

Or when you get into your bed.

But in the cold and the wind, with wolves all around you, all waiting for you, they can be perfectly miserable places.

This glade in the ring of trees was evidently a meeting place in the woods.

Things are where they are supposed to be.

We could walk five minutes and we would find someone in this neighborhood that knows me and knows my family and knows my grandmother and knows my parents.

And that's special.

So, that feeling was the moment that we felt what that was.

And home for us really is just the South.

New Orleans has such a wide variety of coffee taste The coffee shop is the third place.

You've got your home, you've got your workplace, but you go to a coffee shop, sit in one of their nice, comfortable chairs and couches.

And that's where you have a cup of coffee.

The third wave of coffee shops, create that environment.

[music] Cherry opened in 2013.

For me to even do that, I was 24 when I opened Cherry.

I've literally had every single roll within the company.

You know, I loved extraction.

I nerded out to that for a really long time.

And then the next kind of step in my curiosity was the roasting side of things.

I always say, "Anybody can turn green coffee brown."

But to get it to taste good is, it's complicated.

One thing that I love about the roasting process is just really being present in what's going on.

Every coffee has its own personality.

Every coffee is roasted different.

There is no one profile.

We really appreciate the uniqueness of each individual coffee.

We were recently named Louisiana's Best Coffee Roaster in Tasting Table.

The other people on that list are coffee giants.

People I looked up to and respect and to be on there is a dream come true.

[birds chirping] One thing about this life is that there's really high highs and super low lows.

[thunder] My best music was written whenever I was in a stage of crippling depression.

I had about a year where I suffered with suicidal thoughts.

A lot of people didn't even know.

And I could just kind of glide through and... [sigh] Man, that was a tough season.

I was 23 years old.

Just graduated from school.

We just got married.

I just had a kid.

And we moved halfway across the country and my job sucked.

I remember saying afterwards, "I don't even know what I would tell myself to help it, to make it better."

Like I couldn't.

If I could write a letter to my depressed self several years ago, I wouldn't have any advice.

I wouldn't be able to help him through it because I think the only thing he can do is just hold on.

I don't really struggle with fear, but the one of them could be that it just comes back one day.

For about a year, I was just a shell of a person.

It happened and then it left.

I think one of the things that I've really wanted to use that for is to be able to help someone else that's going through that because... Just sitting with someone makes a difference.

I love that God made us, to where food and beverages are not just utility.

I love that it's a, a lot of times, a worshipful experience.

It's an amazing experience where we get to enjoy the taste and we get to enjoy flavor.

You drink something and it takes you somewhere else.

Sometimes I will think about the farm.

I love the experience of being able to pick coffee and meet the farmer and be in an origin and then having that experience and that memory and then being here and having that coffee.

That has always been romantic for sure, fascinating to me, but also just, it's just been something that I've always loved.

It's communal.

It's where people gather together to enjoy something.

And a lot of times you can, you can have a cup of coffee by yourself and it's fine and it serves a purpose, but rarely can you have a cup of coffee without engaging with somebody.

Everybody has their own relationship with coffee.

It's a very personable thing.

You know, either you drink it black or you drink it with milk and sugar and you fiercely defend that position and that's okay.

It's personal.

It's your coffee.

But when they've experienced that coffee, when they're introduced to it, it's always got a story attached to it.

The first time I tried it, my grandparents drank it with sugar and milk and every time I drink it today, I think of my grandparents.

I was with a college roommate and we just boiled some coffee and stayed up all night and studied.

So, you know, I think coffee is, can be very personal, but it can also be very spiritual in the sense that it becomes a routine.

It becomes a comfortable place.

[Music] I met Alonso about five years ago when he was looking to open Backatown and he wanted to have a really unique coffee house to serve the community.

He's got great New Orleans food.

You know, he's not just serving coffee, he's feeding your soul.

We opened Backatown in November of 2017.

We chose this location for its history.

Tremé and the area where we are now is where jazz music actually got its form and shape and has gone internationally now.

And it is the only original music from this United States.

[Music] We get customers from all walks of life and we get a lot of tourists that come in that are visiting the French Quarter and local tourist attractions.

So we've been received overwhelmingly positive and we're proud of the fact that the base of our customers are from the local area.

Everything that we've done as a coffee shop has been culturally intentional and we spin on that the historical importance of what this neighborhood is all about.

And so we also want to incorporate at all times our community.

So that's first and foremost in our planning.

[Music] We have crawfish and grits.

We have crawfish quiche.

Sweet potato scones to blueberry, bundt cakes.

I love seafood.

I'm a partial to all things seafood.

And so that kind of distinguishes us from other coffee shops in the area.

Things of that nature that most people can kind of associate or liken to what New Orleans is all about in terms of flavor and culinary skills.

[Music] Coffee culture in the South is everywhere.

If you go to someone's house and you ask them, "How do you take your coffee?"

Not, "Do you want coffee?"

I'm finding joy and excitement about being able to bring specialty coffee and Good Craft Coffee to the South.

And so there is just underrepresented.

Trey, it's awesome.

- Delicious?

That's the first time it's nitrogenated, the way it needs to be.

Oh my gosh, that's so good.

- Nitro honey lavender?

I've heard people describe the flavor of coffee.

I would describe the flavors that I experienced to someone.

And that is completely dependent on what the coffee is.

[Music] They usually categorize coffee with light, medium, and dark roast.

That's a very good way to kind of know what flavors to expect.

Only God puts those flavors in there.

We just try to not mess it up.

[Music] It comes in the earth, from the soil, from the way that it was harvested, the way that it was processed, the way that you just take the seed out of the cherry.

Just that has so much to do with the flavors that we experience.

This is Old Baton Rouge and you couldn't tell today because there's not much around here.

Behind me, that building was the old ice house for the city.

Before that it was a power plant for the city.

And behind you is where we would service the streetcars that would go up and down the 17 blocks that made Baton Rouge.

And so as the city has grown, this area got kind of left behind.

I'm attached to it because my great grandfather started community coffee about four blocks from here.

I mean, this was the heartthrob of the city.

So when I think about, you know, what can we do to bring coffee back to areas like this?

And then I thought, if we could do something that was different and really focus on the interaction of the people, that's our roots.

Matt said he wanted to talk to me.

We met and he asked, he said, "Well, what would you be interested in?"

I would like to do something different with coffee, something really more people focused.

I want to have great coffee, but I also want it to be a place where we could bring people together.

All walks of life together over a great cup of coffee.

Really comes more so from the people who walk in the doors and then the people behind the counter serving.

They're the ones who make it a great place.

So our city roots are hyper-local focused storytelling and embracing the people around us and bringing something new to the environment.

To me, that was a vision for city roots.

And if I could connect it to the origin where the coffee's grown and the growers could tell their story and their roots, so what it's like to grow up on a coffee farm, then I've completed, you know, my vision for what city roots can really be as an extension of really old brand, 100-year-old community coffee brand reinventing itself one neighborhood at a time.

Me and my four girls have moved 25 times in 11 years-I guess, 26 if you count Covington.

So 26 times in 11 years.

All but one were coffee-related.

(laughter) (gentle music) In Long Beach, we kind of were walking down the beach and I remember talking to Allie and saying like, all right, well, we don't have any money.

We could go back to Mississippi and I can just get a job or we could stay here.

We came back six years later.

That was Allie Malone.

I would do all these things that I wanna do and feel it out, but I needed my family.

I remember saying that to Allie, of course wanting to stay in California and build that.

I didn't wanna go get a normal job and do this as a hobby.

I loved coffee.

And her response is, she said, well, I don't see what other choice we have.

(gentle music) The story's not over.

And that's, it's so cool once again to just have gratitude because I feel like God gave me that perspective.

Like that's not something that I mustered up in me, but I have started a lot of projects.

Eventually something's gonna work is what we keep telling ourselves, you know?

And that's not just me.

I mean, that's Allie as well.

I can't even tell you how fulfilling it is to have an idea and then to see someone else years later talk about that idea as a reality, as something that exists.

Coffee concentrate in a bottle where you can use it to make coffee in the morning was something I thought about 10 years ago.

It was 9 years ago, 2014 was the first time that I made coffee concentrate.

Then I put it in my cup and I added hot water and it was delicious.

That is now on some of my friends' Instagrams because their coffee companies purchase that or make that and sell it.

Seeing that come to life that I envisioned years ago is one of the most satisfying things.

It's like writing a song and hearing it on the radio two weeks later.

I don't know if it's possible to own a business and to still create a culture within your family that is loving and that is welcoming and that is inclusive, but I'm gonna try my hardest.

There's so many stories of failed families.

That was the one thing that my wife and I early on decided that that was not gonna be our story.

So having that foundation is really important, but the most important thing is really having a life partner that has agreed to that, signed up for it and daily chooses to continue in building that with me.

For this moment and we are so excited, I remember the day that Justin said, "What if we got Colony House to come and play a show at the opening of our coffee shop?"

And I said, "That's crazy, let's do it."

And it is overwhelming to look across the street and see that beautiful stage with some of my friends.

I've always been looking to have a space where I can see that to the end of the road of how it makes people's lives better, of how they enjoy it.

Because at the end of the day, anyone who is in coffee is working towards people enjoying coffee.

I've never been able to be a part of the process where I actually get to watch that on a day-to-day basis.

We knew he was the perfect partner mostly because he shares a similar faith with us and he cares about what he's doing and we feel the same.

I tend to come up with some crazy ideas sometimes, and so to have a partner in crime like Trey who says, "Yeah, let's do it, we can do anything."

It's been fun.

- Yeah, they're dangerous.

(soft piano music) With Justin and Stephanie, it's been fantastic because we've been able to do this together.

We have very similar interests and vision for where we want this to go.

That's been a really good part of this journey, is having really good partners to work with.

(upbeat jazz music) We want to cram as much of our culture into you.

We want to feed you.

We want you to taste our coffee.

We want you to get a Sazerac as opposed to a gin and tonic because the Sazerac is something that New Orleans is known for.

Can we feed you a po' boy?

Can we get you some jambalaya and gumbo?

We want you to taste our culture because we know you'll go home and you'll tell friends and family what you drank and what you ate and what you got to see.

You go to Cafe Du Monde, you go to all of our iconic places downtown.

Got on a street car and rode the street car for a couple of miles and get off, go have lunch.

And you just soak up the culture because there's just so much history here.

You just can't do it in a day.

You can't do New Orleans in a weekend.

There's just too much.

You have to come back.

(coffee grinder) (soft music) If you care about something and you're passionate about it, you're gonna invest everything you got into it.

When you fail, when, not if, when, you're gonna be devastated.

You're gonna have moments that you don't wanna get out of bed.

But then the next morning you'll be better.

Oh, maybe the next month, I don't know.

It takes time.

It depends on how much of a devastating blow it is.

If the worst possible thing happens and you're still okay, it's not that bad.

It's worth the potential reward.

Jumping in head first with something, knowing that, hey, this might work, this might not.

Either way, it's worth it and let's go.

Eventually it's gonna work.