#4REALFRIDAY IS WHERE I ASK 5 QUESTIONS TO SOME DAMN REAL, DAMN AWESOME PALS WHO ARE LIVING AND DOING DOPE STUFF 4REAL!

THEY'VE INSPIRED me OR BEEN A SUPPORT IN SOME WAY AND I WANNA SHARE THEM WITH YOU.

Alexander Hall

WHAT COFFEE DO YOU DRINK?

I drink a 6 oz cappuccino in the morning using a single origin coffee we have rotation from Counter Culture Coffee.

Throughout the day i drink a small single origin black filtered coffee out of a Fetco Brewer again on rotation from Counter Culture

WHAT WORK DO YOU DO?

Firstly i like to think of myself as a Hospitality Professional. Secondly I am a small business owner

COOLEST ACHIEVEMENT?

I’m proud I was able to move to NYC with nothing and start a new exciting life fulfilling a life long dream of opening my own cafe. 5 stores later I am still enjoying at. I also love being self employed, I love being able to be free to do what I want when I want.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE?

Biggest challenge is to trust yourself! Set high goals and achieve them. Never say your going to do something and not do it. Your integrity its your most important asset!

BEST ADVICE?

Try your best at everything you do, give everything 100% Take risks and be prepared to follow through with things you commit to. Be nice to people and especially animals!!!

I met Alex when he too was working as a barista in Melbourne and managing cafes. He used to come in to the café I managed on his days off for coffee and breakfast and always liked to ask lots of questions. He liked my coffee and I liked his chatty, enthusiastic and inquisitive nature. It’s been years since those days but I distinctly remember one day noticing his lone “NYC” tattoo stamped on his forearm near his wrist. I remember asking him about it thinking he would reply telling me of some significant experience there… But he simply said “I love New York City and I’m gonna go there one day and open up my own café”. When I asked how? Did he have a visa? When was he going to do this? He replied, “I don’t know that yet, but I will.”

It left me thinking, how incredibly ambitious of him.

Low and behold in 2008 he moved to NYC and managed a café called The Corner Café on Blecker St. I actually visited him there once and Jarvis Cocker was in for breakfast which was pretty cool. It was a nice place and I could already see his Auzzie influence creeping into the menu. He was full of enthusiastic energy and was clearly in love with NYC. Though it was tempered with some uncertainty (like most immigrant expats) because he was still finalising his visa at the time but he was hustling hard and slogging it out to make his mark in the big apple.

Make his mark he has done. Since opening his first café, Milk Bar (2009), in New York’s trendy Brooklyn, it seems that Alex has taken over the city, opening another four cafes both in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Yep FOUR more cafes! All Auzzie inspired; three called Brunswick and the one called Blue Bird. They’re all really beautifully fitted out and have different personalities. They’ve been hailed by many publications for their great Auzzie breakfasts and coffee.

Alex was a great host to me one year when I went to New York for a film festival I was featuring in. By chance I happened to be staying in an AirBnB apartment right on the same street as one of his cafes. The café was beautiful and I was thoroughly impressed.

It was too early to get the keys to my apartment so he let me put my luggage in the cafe office, fed and caffeinated me (most important), charged my phone then even lugged my outrageously over packed suitcase up the typically narrow NYC staircase into the apartment. Now thats a true hospo professional! It was great to see an old friend do what he said he was always going to do.

It feels like I’m constantly seeing pictures on his Facebook and Instagram of new builds and projects. NYC suits him. Its vibrant and shiny. I always admire his tenacity and vision – an unwavering determination to achieve his dreams. I now understand and love that he had the foresight and conviction to permanently stamp his dreams in the flesh all those years ago.

This guys #4Real