The local roastery is opening its first café shopfront in the ground floor of the WOTSO Workspace building, in the space formerly home to First Order.

Fraser Monfries’ start in coffee came from working in digital marketing within the hospitality industry.

While working with clients, Fraser would chat to baristas, slowly picking up tips and learning about the process behind the product.

He got a job working at suburban coffee shop and roastery Hark, on Duthy Street, just after it opened in late 2018, and later Sublime Coffee Roasters, which solidified his path toward entering the coffee roasting game.

Next week, Fraser will unveil Pogo Coffee Roasters to the world, with the brand launching in tandem with its first café space – the ground floor tenancy of the WOTSO Workspace building, facing Ifould Street.

The space was formerly home to coffee shop First Order, which packed up and left for the ‘burbs last year, and the space has since been under the stewardship of the Renew Adelaide team.

“I’ve basically been keeping an eye out for suitable spaces for the last six months,” Fraser says.

“I came across this late last year and was blown away with the opportunity I thought it presented, [and] dived on it.”

The café will pour Pogo coffee, and will also stock take-home packs of roasted beans, as well as compostable coffee pods. In addition to the pods, Fraser will incorporate a pod-return system into the café.

“There’s a lot of miscommunication in the pod market at the minute with compostable pods and how they actually break down,” Fraser says.

“So a lot of people market them as home-compostable, chuck them in your green bin, and they’re absolutely not. They won’t break down, councils won’t accept them

“I want to clear that up, have customers be able to return my pods to here, and I’ll commercially compost them, so there’ll be no footprint within 12 weeks.”

Given Fraser’s background in digital marketing and communication, he feels particularly well adapted to the challenge of educating his clientele about the Pogo product.

He is also keen to bring his customers along in the process of coffee roasting. Pogo’s roasting operation is based out of a warehouse in Magill and Fraser uses a fluid-bed air roaster, like the one Hark uses, which is a method of roasting not particularly common in Adelaide.

Working alongside Norwood’s Southland Merchants, one of South Australia’s only direct green coffee bean importers and wholesalers, Pogo will also trace the origins of the coffee for his customer base to see.

“That’s a major thing for me, is knowing exactly what farms the beans we’re roasting come from,” Fraser says.

“We’re really excited to be able to have that connection with Nadia [Moreira] and Andre [Selga], because not only are they in Norwood, nice and local, but that’s really what they’re about as well.”

But most importantly, Fraser says, Pogo just sells good, approachable coffee.

“What we wanted to achieve as a brand was, given everyone’s interest in coffee is increasing, we wanted to have a fun and vibrant brand, and we really wanted our fit out to reflect that,” Fraser says.

“So the coffee is fun and vibrant – you don’t need to be a coffee expert to enjoy it, you can leave that to me, you’ll just have a great product that you love to drink every day.”

Pogo’s coffee offering will be partnered with pre-made breakfast and lunch options, made in house, as well as sweet options from Saudade, Four Seeds and Port Adelaide’s Mayfair Bakery.

The café officially opens on Tuesday, 10 March, and will operate seven days a week: Monday to Friday from 7am ‘til 4pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 7am ‘til 12pm.

For updates on Pogo’s launch, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.