Behind the ‘spros #1 Renata Taylor, Grouch & Co
Renata Taylor of Grouch & Co is a self-proclaimed wine-loving Virgo, who enjoys walks on the beach. Her energy is what you expect from a person that has been working in the coffee scene for seven years—Renata is the person you want to see in the morning, a smiling face and a hand proffering your favourite cup of coffee. And of course that’s a long mac topped up.
When asked about the source of her inspiration, she says it’s in the World around her, and that shows. Renata is open—as a person, as a business, as a coffee shop at the centre of her neighbourhood.
Coffee places have always been a meeting point, a neutral ground, a third place—as opposed to home, the first place, and work, the second. Now, you can count as you wish—it’s “third” either as an enumeration, or, combined with globalisation and technology, as an addition of the first and the second one.
It’s no wonder that when we ask her about the importance of her coffee shop to the local community, she exclaims “So important! Sometimes, we’re the only adults people speak to all day!” That must have been true before the Covid pandemic and is even more true now, in the time of lockdowns and social distancing. Coffee shops are one of the precious few third places we have left—they carry on their shoulders the weight of the community through these tumultuous times and into the unknown future.
You can’t talk about coffee and not talk about sustainability—in this grand global party where everyone enjoys a cup of coffee, we have to be mindful of the people that are actually producing our next cup. All the coffee in Grouch&Co is sustainably sourced—she doesn’t even pause when asked. “Of course,” she says, over the sound of the grinder. “We know where it comes from and who grew it.” And this is when local turns global. This touch with the ‘ground’ is what makes cafes like this a unique place—focusing on sustainability and fair prices for the producers of coffee beans allows them to transform the whole world into a single community.
Coffee places like Renata’s are turning into a global ‘third place’, a place where people from all over the world can come to meet, even if their never see each other in person. And this meeting of people brings an equilibrium that, otherwise, would never come to be.
This coming together—either through travel, or through fair trade practises—has invaluably enriched cafes as an industry and people as, well, people. According to Renata “every young Australian’s pilgrimage to Europe makes us richer for it.”
When we ask her how many of her customers prefer LMTU —her eyes go round “A huge percentage, 60%!” So, it’s only natural she fully endorses our fun campaign —people just need to know what is the right —the Perthian —way of ordering coffee!
A cafe can be seen as a vision of the future, where people you know welcome you with a cup of brewed coffee, where people are equal, sitting at the same tables, drinking from the same, sustainably sourced, menu—coffee is the great equaliser.
Grouch & Co, Renata and all the people bustling around her fill us with a wonderful energy for the rest of the day—just like the brew they offer their people (it’s hard to call them customers).
As for the million-dollar question: “No, I don’t know Hugh, but I’ve seen him! And he is so much more gorgeous, and tall, in person!”
Well, onward and upward! World of coffee, here Perth comes!