Today we’d like to introduce you to Xavier Alexander.
Xavier, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Metric all began with a taco and a beer. Darko Arandjelovic and I met at Big Star back in the spring of 2012. Over the aforementioned, he and I parsed out this idea we have been building ever since. At the time, I worked at Intelligentsia Coffee, a roaster and quality control manager, and Darko had just opened his own specialty shop, Caffe Streets.
Darko and I had crossed paths through various gatherings and expressed a similar enthusiasm for starting our own roasting company.
So there we were dining and minds churning: What kind of roaster did we want to use? How did we want to package our coffee? What brand did we want to develop?
As romantic as it would be to stay we left that meal, ran to a roaster, and popped out an award-winning first batch, simply that wasn’t the case. Darko and I quickly realized that we had zero capital to give this idea flesh. So we had to settle, continuing to mentally hash out our idea, while we waited for financing. After a couple weeks and a couple more meetings, we stumbled upon an opportunity to import a dream roaster, a 1960’s German Cast-Iron Drum Probat. We were salivating.
All the planning evolved into a sort of do-or-die scenario. I personally sold my music gear, closed my 401k, and took out a risky loan, but somehow Darko and I scraped up enough dough wiring it to Germany. And as romantic as it would be to say that roaster simply arrived, we roasted and popped out an award-winning first batch, simply that wasn’t the case yet.
After 7 months of logistical hell to get the machine stateside and then, another month of travel at sea and rail, Darko and I received a crate. And inside was less than promised. Opposed to a fully functional, antique machine, we had a dilapidated and very expensive bucket of rust in front of us. We blew up, lost it.
But after the initial rage regressed, we came to terms with our options: refurbish the machine ourselves or quit? Another do-or-die. So we rolled up our sleeves and started sanding, painting, greasing, soldering, et cetera in a dusty, West Humboldt Park warehouse. Nights dripped into days, and days to weeks. Until after four months, we got the machine finally fired up and roasting.
By now, our initial wave of enthusiasm had crashed. We realized that owning our own roastery was going to be more than we could have conceived over that Big Star meal. But luckily for both Darko and I, the taste of a little blood didn’t scare either of us, so we kept hustling. A two-man operation, in the beginning, I roasted and packed beans while Darko delivered them. Fully sacrificing our social lives, we figured out how to collectively wade through things such as sales, marketing, sourcing. And we did all of it without a single backer.
Four years later, we have blossomed into opening a café, launching a cold brew company (Hellion Cold Brew), and building relationships: abroad, at origin, and at home, through partnerships with Lula Café, Avec, Arbor, Marisol, Whole Foods, and Local Foods. Now 14 strong, our company consists of passionate and immensely talented humans focused on making great coffee.
Moving forward, our vision has honed into sourcing some of the world’s finest coffees while innovating and collaborating. Our goal is to partner with other regional and national brands creating brand awareness with likeminded companies that celebrate our respective uniqueness.
Has it been a smooth road?
The journey has been bittersweet. From the beginning, our backs were against the wall without financing. While this was my first business venture, Darko had some privy about the double-edged sword of accepting external financing, the buck stopping somewhere else.
Our desire to be autonomous definitely limited getting off the ground: we couldn’t process the payment for our inaugural order of coffee at first… But what this method offered us was a lesson on frugality and value. We had to carefully interrogate every purchase and re-invest every earned penny to keep gas in the roaster. Darko and I didn’t take a paycheck for the first two years and we worked side jobs. But we were maybe stubborn, may be determined, or maybe both to organically grow Metric on its own.
Aside from money, perhaps our biggest obstacle was that we didn’t have the foresight for brand awareness. Not knowing exactly what we were at first made business relationships hard to sustain. We experienced pushback: “Why another roaster in a saturated market?” But really, Metric is, and was, not about competition; the whole project is about doing what we love and expressing our selves through our own medium.
Tell us about your business/company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
Metric Coffee Co is, now, an award-winning specialty coffee roaster based in the heart of Chicago. We dedicate, ourselves, to buying delicious coffees directly from partners and producers at origin; to roasting said coffees to their highest quality, highlighting their natural sweetness and bitterness; and to serve our product, whether in-house or through accounts/partnerships, respectively honoring everyone who’s helped developed this coffee over its journey.
To briefly speak about my position, I linger in the foremost of that mission statement: I travel to origin, e.g. Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Peru, establishing a rapport and a conduit for the coffees on our menu. But perhaps my proudest moment, in Metric’s development, was reaching the point where we can offer insurance to our amazing staff.
It’s meaningful to me because while establishing the company, my family and I were on Medicaid, and with that coverage, my middle child, a micro preemie born at 27 weeks, fought and survived. I don’t mean to digress politically, but both Darko and I value this achievement and the importance of contributing to our staffs’ insurance.
While it may be hokie, what sets us apart is our dedication to fostering relationships. Coffee is such a personal thing. All of our peers and partners bring their own flare to the process, and in that deviation, we find where our identities end and overlap coming together regardless to share what we love. We’ve learned how important relationships are which is why our company’s motto is “ Made by Humans”.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Metric Coffee Co. – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Metric Coffee Co. is an award-winning specialty coffee roaster here in Chicago dedicated to buying delicious coffees directly from partner/producers at origin, roasts them to bring out delectable flavors and serves them in-house and through our partners all over the United States. My job here at Metric Coffee is chiefly as Coffee Buyer, which has been traveling to places like Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia and Peru to source the coffees you see in our menu directly from farms that we have vested interest in.
For me personally, our proudest moment was being able to finally offer insurance to our staff. Myself and my family, through the beginning of starting Metric, we had to get coverage through Medicaid which was not only necessary but also without it, my middle child wouldn’t be alive today. He was born a micro preemie at 27 weeks which meant made 2014 (a year after founding Metric) one of the toughest years of our personal lives which made both Darko and I value the importance of being able to offer coverage to our staff and family.
As hokie as it sounds, what sets us apart (i believe) is our dedication to fostering relationships at the local level with our partners and across the united states. Coffee is such a personal thing for all of us in it and I know not one company that wants to emulate the other. We all have our own identity and what sets us apart is what brings us together and that is the people which is why we have made it a point to highlight the humanity in coffee and use “Made by Humans” as our company motto.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I love about Chicago is how it balances city with neighborhood allowing for culture to exchange while not sacrificing a sense of normalcy. I simply love Chicago’s community; it is chalk-full of great people and quality food/drinks underlined with a willingness to unite and innovate.
Ha, what I dislike is simple: red light cameras, climbing rent prices, and parking dibs.
Pricing:
- Blends $14- $15
- Single Origin $16- $18
Contact Info:
- Address: 2021 W Fulton Street Suite K-101B
Chicago, IL 60612 - Website: www.metriccoffee.com
- Phone: 312-982-2196
- Email: xavier@metriccoffee.com
- Instagram: @metriccoffee
- Facebook: metriccoffee
- Twitter: metriccoffee
Image Credit:
Milan Lazic & Ryan Lowry
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