Barista on a bike: This Corner Brook man uses pedal power to brew up a mobile café
Electric bike-meets coffee cart has been popping up around Corner Brook for a week
One of Corner Brook's newest small businesses is on wheels — literally.
Colin Fowlow sells coffee and spins records at his mobile café, the Gooseneck Coffee cart.
The caffeine-slinging contraption has been seen around town for the past couple of weeks, setting up shop on Mount Bernard Avenue, the Reid Street community gardens, and the Majestic Lawn on West Street.
No stranger to the bike saddle, Fowlow is a former competitive cyclist. He won't be setting any speed records on his coffee cart but he says he's enjoying the social aspect of his mobile café.
"My goal was to make a little bit of a coffee community," said Fowlow. "I genuinely just started doing this for fun. I'm not the most business-savvy person, I just enjoy serving coffee to people."
It's a one-man show using battery power to steam up his onboard espresso machine, pump water in the sink, and play music from his vinyl record player while outboard solar panels help soak up some extra juice. In the hopper of his grinder are beans from nearby roasteries, including Brewed Awakening.
When it's time to move, Fowlow simply packs up the cart, hops on the seat and pedals away while the electric assist motors help push the heavy cart along.
He's worked as a barista in brick-and-mortar shops before but says he chose to open a cart for the sake of having lower overhead costs while his business builds up steam.
Fowlow says he's earned himself some regular customers already, with people coming from the university campus for a brew, along with the folks who just stumble across his shop around town. For the near future, he's just hoping to keep his pop-up coffee business rolling.
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