PROPAGANDA with Will Wang
PROPAGANDA
with Will Wang
Located in the up-and-coming Chinatown of downtown Vancouver, Propaganda is almost a year and a half into operations and their coffee news is already being spread to the masses. Will [shop manager] sat down with me to talk about everything from war times to transparency and presentation in the coffee industry.
“I’d say this is probably the last part of downtown that’s getting developed. Lots of new restaurants are opening now, condos are popping up in the area, and the neighbourhood is sort of reverting back to its history of being quite the happening side of town. I think it’s for the better. ”
Where did the name come from?
It was more of my business partner’s [Winfield] idea. He’s more on the actual business side of things, and for him, I think it’s more about the connection to war times; I just thought it sounded cool. He’s owned many businesses in the past, and I’ve been in coffee for a long time now, so it’s a bit of a collaboration between the two of us. What do you think sets Propaganda apart? I really want to focus more on the coffee side of things. For Winfield, he’s about the concept of the space makes the café. We want to provide a great space for people to have a meeting or get work done, and keep the focus also on serving great coffee.
Yeah, I think communal space is a super important complement to the community of coffee. Do you have any big plans in the next little while?
We’re continuing to build our customer base, and we’d like to really experiment with innovative things we can do with coffee, so roasting might be something we get into in the near future, but for now, we’re focusing on what we have to work with. And what sort of beans do you use now? We do basically the same thing as Revolver [revolving roasters], but specialize in local roasters, and just keep cycling through different roasts as they come along.
What’s going on with the pour-overs here? I’ve never seen that before [glancing at the counter].
It’s Mod Bar, basically, a water delivery system that supplies water volumetrically, and records your routine. If you pour 3 times, it will record it and play it back so that every pour is the same, with the same temperature. Does that sort of go with the same concept as your modular espressos? Yeah, so the great thing about these under-the-counter group heads is that they’re modular; you can put them wherever you want. The pour-over Mod Bar lets you be a lot more consistent and accurate too. I think the under-counter system lends way to the concept of showmanship, and I think it will start to become more and more popular in the near future. It provokes more interaction between you and the customer; they can see what you’re doing.
So, you’re essentially promoting the crafting of coffee to the level of a bar with the same visuals as mixing drinks. Looks like a bright future!
We‘re excited about it :).