“Best in town” one woman stated to me as I walked into this little hole in the wall. A friendly face behind the counter gives a warm welcoming smile. Thats Rodney- He owns the place.
Rodney Contojohn has been around coffee for 15 years and knows all about good coffee. He runs the Barefoot Brew Room located on Lawson Lane beside St Elmos and roasts his own coffee under the name ‘Barefoot Roasters’.
Rodney was taught how to roast coffee by Phil Di Bella at Di Bella in Sydney’s Surrey Hills. He now resides in a little lane in Byron Bay, roasting his own coffee and running his cafe. Rodney is working a 7 day roster running the cafe and doing his roasting but he loves it. “If I didn’t love what I did it would be hard, but I love all of it”.Â
His passion is roasting. He wants to do more blends and different flavours, introducing new tastes and new methods. One of these methods is creating cold drip coffee which is the process of steeping coffee grounds in room temperature or cold water for an extended period. The taste naturally seems sweeter due to its lower acidity, because the coffee beans in cold-press coffee never come into contact with heated water. The blends Rodney has done are a taste sensation!Â
Since opening in November last year, Rodney is happy with his businesses progress, with plans to grow in roasting. Despite plans to go bigger he emphasised that it is important to maintain that individuality and personal touch and he thrives on keeping everything personal.Â
“You come here, you see me, I want to share my passion and share what I’m doing. I don’t want to make millions of dollars- I want to have a house, a cafe and enjoy life.”
