Julius Delacruz (Photo by Fred Turko)
Julius Delacruz
Co-owner of Afterglow Coffee Cooperative (1719 Summit Ave.)
Julius Delacruz was on a nine-month trip to South America in 2016 when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something familiar. At a coffee shop in Medellin, Colombia, 2,000 miles from Richmond, Delacruz spotted a person wearing an Ardent Craft Ales T-shirt. Small world. He struck up a conversation with the man, who turned out to be Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co. founder David Blanchard. He didn’t know it at the time, but upon returning to Richmond, Delacruz would go to work for Blanchard at each of his area cafes.
“What inspires me about coffee is the connections,” Delacruz says. “Some of my closest friends are co-workers from Lamplighter, Blanchard’s and now Afterglow.”
Delacruz helms the employee-owned Afterglow Coffee Cooperative in Scott’s Addition that took over the former Lamplighter space (the owners are all alumni) on Summit Avenue. The Jacksonville, Florida, native started in the industry as a dishwasher, fell in love with the world of coffee and eventually worked his way up to become a barista.
In addition to his role as a barista and co-owner, the 33-year-old serves as graphic designer, content creator and social media manager at Afterglow. Add to that list product development — Delacruz created a coffee concentrate that’s used behind bars across the city, including Virago Spirits, The Jasper, Cobra Burger, Alewife and Brenner Pass. “Baristas and bartenders have a lot in common, so I’m glad that we each recognize better ingredients, more often than not, yield better results,” he says.
Better ingredients, specifically beans, are the backbone of what the co-owners of Afterglow practice. The cooperative sources specialty coffee, which means it scored over 80 points on a 100-point scale, according to the Specialty Coffee Association.
“We buy coffee that is produced in smaller lots from farmers that do not grow commercial grade. ... Oftentimes their growing practices exceed the qualifications of being ‘certified organic,’” Delacruz explains. “This makes it more expensive for us, but it’s important to us to buy carefully grown coffee that is unique, traceable, tastes good and [is] pretty affordable, all things considered.” —Stephanie Ganz
Claire Millon (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Claire Millon
Head roaster at Riverbend Roastery (2623 E. Broad St.)
Barista and roaster Claire Millon, 34, first started brewing coffee while in high school in her hometown of Lexington, Virginia, where there was not a single Starbucks. She had to move to Richmond for that, but when she did, she opted for independently owned shops including Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream and Lift Coffee Shop & Cafe. “It was always just what I was going to do until I figured out what I was going to do,” Millon says. “And then 20 years go by, and I was like, ‘Oh, I think I might be doing coffee. Coffee is what I do.’”
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Millon was pursuing another interest, nannying, but with most kiddos at home, Millon had little going on. That left her available when Liberty Public House proprietor Alexa Schuett reached out to see if she would be interested in joining the opening team of Riverbend Roastery. Schuett debuted the Church Hill coffee shop in 2021, taking over the former Captain Buzzy’s (and briefly, Riverbend Coffee Co.) space.
Once the cafe was open and leaning into its new identity, Millon stepped back from her management role to focus on her passion, roasting. She was trained on the shop’s aging Probat roaster, which is older than she is. “It’s almost like learning to drive on like an old International truck with no power steering and kind of screwy brakes,” she says, “because now, if I ever use anything newer, it’s gonna be easy breezy.”
The elderly roaster, lovingly dubbed Zelda, demands focus, and that’s just fine with Millon. “I actually really appreciate that I feel kind of closer to the process,” she reflects. “There’s a lot of sounds and smells and nuances that I have learned that I think I wouldn’t normally be aware of on one of these newer digital things.”
Beyond roasting and brewing the perfect cup of coffee, Millon is interested in breaking barriers around the beverage. She makes a distinction between sparse, single-origin coffee shops she calls “third wave,” as compared to Riverbend’s “second wave,” style, which leaves room for flavored coffee drinks, something the new kids can be quick to dismiss as passe. So, Millon sought better beans, choosing organic, fair-trade varieties with which to make the kind of hot and iced coffee creations the neighborhood regulars want in their mugs, boasting housemade syrups and bold flavors with dried spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg.
“I don’t think coffee needs to be an elitist thing,” Millon says. “My most paramount philosophy is that I want to create a space where people feel comfortable, no matter what they like to drink, because it’s just coffee.” —SG
Mary Doerr (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Mary Doerr
Head roaster at Roastology (3015 W. Clay St.)
A neat row of porcelain white V60 coffee drippers stand like chess pieces on the counter at Roastology. Aromas of sweet barley, blueberry and mocha tickle the air with a fruity, woody scent. Other than the tap of fingers hitting keyboards and water hissing through coffee grounds, the shop is quiet. A barista takes my order, then loads a pour-over with house-roasted, anaerobic natural Ethiopian Gera, which drips strawberry notes through my cup of morning magic.
“I was one of three baristas when Dan [Allen, owner of Roastology] started out in Midlothian [under the name Adbibo] in 2013,” says head roaster Mary Doerr.
“Back then, we weren’t in the grocery stores, and we wanted to get our coffee in the door at local restaurants. One of the other baristas was our baker. I was the coffee person. As we started getting off-premises placements, Dan needed help roasting. I wanted to learn.”
Allen and Doerr got their start in the kitchen, using home roasting equipment and another common appliance — a popcorn popper. Air roasters are less expensive, but they blow air around inconsistently. Now, the pair rely on drum roasters, which offer a more constant heating style. Doerr says the shop’s “tried-and-true” machine is from Coffee-Tech Engineering, though she will occasionally air roast smaller batches when making blends for local restaurants such as Hobnob or Lolita’s. “Though not on a popcorn popper,” she says, laughing.
Working with distributors and directly with coffee farms is Doerr’s key to consistency. She also cites in-house care for the beans. “We store our beans in airtight barrels that are kept around 66 degrees,” she says. From there, single origins are laid out for her to profile.
“Dan and I went to Vermont to coffee school [at Coffee Lab International] to continue our education,” she says. “We spent 10 hours a day for a week learning new and different techniques for roasting and conducting cuppings.”
Past training has supplemented Roastology’s ethos of respecting the inherent nature and origins of the bean, a compass that guides Doerr. For the shop’s Ethiopian Gera, she believes it demands a lighter touch.
“I taste throughout the process and in the final roast to determine if it hits,” she explains. “I wanted the Ethiopian Gera to taste more delicate, like one of those Godiva chocolate cups with the berries in them. What we want is a fruity sweetness with a depth of flavor.” —Genevelyn Steele
