{"id":1569,"date":"2018-12-10T03:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/12\/10\/rotterdam-with-a-flair-for-melbourne-at-harvest-coffee-brewers\/"},"modified":"2018-12-10T03:00:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T13:00:01","slug":"rotterdam-with-a-flair-for-melbourne-at-harvest-coffee-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2018\/12\/10\/rotterdam-with-a-flair-for-melbourne-at-harvest-coffee-brewers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotterdam With A Flair For Melbourne At Harvest Coffee Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"harvest<\/p>\n

\"harvest<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring 2018 was a season of harvest for Zjevaun Janga and Loes Beljaars. April 1st marked the official opening of their first business, a central Rotterdam cafe called Harvest Coffee Brewers<\/a>. And April 3rd marked the birth of their first child, a good-humored girl called Mia. The bounty was particularly spectacular considering it was only nine months before that the couple had returned to the Netherlands after living and working in <\/span>Melbourne<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvest is located in the Glashaven, a neighborhood named for its former glassworks but newly apropos considering all the high-rise apartment buildings being developed in the area. Walking into the venue, the eye immediately drifts to a placid harbor seen through the back wall of windows. If it weren\u2019t for the three-group\u00a0<\/span>La Marzocco Linea PB<\/span><\/a>, two <\/span>Victoria Arduino Mythos One<\/span><\/a> grinders, and <\/span>Mahlk\u00f6nig EK-43<\/span><\/a> grinder, it would seem you could run along the long black bar and dock-dive right into the water. Instead, a slender door controls traffic outside, to a pier set with bistro tables.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"harvest<\/span><\/p>\n

The place is a 20-minute walk from where Janga and Beljaars first met, in 2001. It was early in their careers, while both working at Michelin-starred <\/span>FG Restaurant<\/span><\/a> (formerly known as Ivy), run by chef Fran\u00e7ois Geurds. The self-proclaimed \u201c<\/span>coffee freak<\/span><\/a>\u201d has been known to coach competitive baristas and was doing precisely that with 2008 and 2009 Dutch champ <\/span>Sander Schat when Janga came around. Janga served as Schat\u2019s signature drink guinea pig, and later became part of his team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked me to go with them to the Worlds, in London 2010, just as a polish guy\u2014to help polish their jugs and stuff,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where it all started.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2012, <\/span>Janga gets crowned<\/span><\/a> Dutch Barista Champion himself, headed to the <\/span>WBC in Melbourne<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>placed 24th<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not long after Janga returned to the Netherlands, however, the Sirens of Antipodean cafe\/restaurant culture called not only him, but Blejaars too. Seeking new employment, the duo sallied southward. Janga was most drawn to popular Melbourne espresso bar Patricia Coffee<\/span><\/a>. Unable to find an opening there, he became a barista at <\/span>The Kettle Black<\/span><\/a>, where Beljaars eventually joined him, working the front of house. That position followed her floor manager stint at cafe <\/span>Manchester Press<\/span><\/a> and preceded a supervisory role at Kettle Black sibling <\/span>Higher Ground<\/span><\/a>. Then, <\/span>two and a half years later,<\/span> ready to be their own bosses\u2014along with missing family (Beljaars) and Dutch dairy (Janga)\u2014the pair boomeranged back to Rotterdam.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"harvest<\/p>\n

Janga and Beljaars, with daughter Mia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Open from 7:00am to 4:00pm most weekdays and 9:00am to 5:00pm weekends, Harvest is dedicated to dayfare. Beans come from a rotation of roasters\u2014for example, citymates <\/span>Man Met Bril<\/span><\/a>, Amsterdam\u2019s <\/span>Friedhats<\/span><\/a>, Aarhus\u2019 <\/span>La Cabra<\/span><\/a>, Seoul\u2019s <\/span>Fritz Coffee Company<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Hunt Brothers<\/span><\/a> in <\/span>Norderstedt,<\/span> Germany. Pour-overs are handled with a <\/span>V60<\/span><\/a> and, as witnessed on recent visits, studious TLC from staff barista Michael Chow. A <\/span>FETCO CBS-2131XTS<\/span><\/a>\u00a0produces the batch brew, orders of which are bottomless\u2014a totally far-out but welcome notion in the Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Janga and Beljaars take turns cheffing in their well-appointed kitchenette. Sourdough, brioche, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and maple syrup repeat on the menu in classic breakfast and brunch combos. Some flairs are also delightfully n<\/span>on-indigenous to these parts:<\/span> chia pudding with kumquats, a half-avocado as a side, \u201cBig Brekkie In A Pan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"harvest<\/span><\/p>\n

Janga, now 27, and Beljaars, now 28, both moved to Rotterdam about a decade ago. He had left his native Aruba to attend maritime school, hoping to become a ship captain, though quit that plan on realizing he wanted a job with more human interaction. She had come from the Dutch village of Stramproy. At FG, she worked the front of house while studying hotel management and, in between, interned at Librije\u2019s Zusje<\/a>, another Michelin-starred restaurant (then in the city of Zwolle and since reincarnated at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam).<\/p>\n

Comparing their experiences in upscale Dutch dining rooms to Australia\u2019s elevated cafes, Janga notes how during a typical shift at FG, \u201cWe used to do 70 persons a whole night and give all the energy to those 70 persons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have your own section and you\u2019ve got five tables of two and you take care of them for the whole night,\u201d says Beljaars, completing Janga\u2019s thought. \u201cIn Melbourne, you\u2019ve got 10 tables, but every half an hour, [new customers at each] table. It goes faster.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So does being home in less hurried Holland bring some relief, I asked?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she replies. \u201cWe kinda want the busyness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The local industry is appreciating how busy the couple has been. This past fall, Harvest was nominated for HORECA trade publication Entree Magazine\u2019s 2018 <\/span>Best Coffee Concept<\/span><\/a> award. And in terms of more personalized awards, like barista competitions?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"harvest<\/span><\/p>\n

Janga foresees a reentry into the ring.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll definitely be competing in the future again. I just wanna set this up first, have a stable life,\u201d he laughs, acknowledging the inevitable totters that come with having a new cafe and a newborn. \u201cThen I can go and be unstable again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, with Janga and Beljaars as its co-captains, Harvest seems set for smooth sailing.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Harvest Coffee Brewers is located at Glashaven 107, Rotterdam<\/a>. Visit their <\/span>official website<\/span><\/a> and follow them on <\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Instagram<\/span><\/a>.<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more\u00a0Karina Hof on Sprudge<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Rotterdam With A Flair For Melbourne At Harvest Coffee Brewers<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring 2018 was a season of harvest for Zjevaun Janga and Loes Beljaars. April 1st marked the official opening of their first business, a central Rotterdam cafe called Harvest Coffee…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[63,27,65,33,61,32,59,31,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}