Even the door handle, a large chunk of wood, is shaped like the logo of a top hat.
The owner and lead barista of the Martines coffee shop, Alexander Martin Skrinjaric Reategui, or Alex, is tidying up behind the counter. He is young, tall, and slim, with a brown short beard. He looks at me and smiles warmly.
“Hey, man! Nice to see you! Would you like a coffee?”
I respond with a sleepy yes, and before I can catch my breath from my brisk walk to the café, Alex is already making me a thick and aromatic shot of espresso.
I look around and I see the exposed 19ᵗʰ century bricks around the wall — the same ones that have kept the building up for the past 200 years. There are tens of flower pots hanging from the ceiling, the green contrasting with the deep brick red.
There are only four tables in the entire café: two long bars — one looking at the rustic brick wall and another looking out the window into the chaos on the main Sofia center street. On each bar there is space for four people who would not look at each other throughout their stay.
The other two circular tables are small — maybe for three people tops.
Alex comes with two trays and lays them on the table. In each tray - the espresso, a cup of water, and a small chocolate coin with the Martines logo: that same top hat.
I take a sip of my coffee. It’s rich, balanced, and complex in flavor. Just as I like it.
“Wait, let me make some space so we can talk,” says Alex and takes the other small table outside the shop onto the sidewalk on the street.
He grabs a lone chair and puts it right in the middle of the gaping hole where the table was a moment ago.
It’s interesting to see Alex in a café setting, right in the middle of the city. The first time I met him, he was working at the Martines roastery, which is a big warehouse outside of the city, in the middle of a field.
“It is different to be in a coffee shop, yes.” says Alex, while blissfully sipping his coffee.
“In the roastery, I work mostly by myself with the machines, and talk a lot on the phone with business clients.”
For a long time, Alex was not only a lead roaster in Martines but also the main contact for business clients who want to buy coffee. Being a businessperson was actually the main reason why he joined Martines in the first place.
Alex studied business in his home country Peru, as well as in Germany for his last semester, which is where he met his wife Anes.
During this short semester, they got married.
At that time, Alex received an invitation to move to Bulgaria with her.
“She invited me to come to Bulgaria to help her family grow the business, and I said I don’t mind, but this is a huge responsibility, and I don’t have much experience in that field.”
This is why he flew back to Peru and spent a full year working for a superfood distribution company, all the while maintaining a long-distance relationship with his wife.
“I actually started getting to know her better when I moved to Bulgaria.”
He explains that a whole new side of her came to the surface when she was surrounded by her culture, friends, and family.
Despite being so far from home, Alex shares that the love and openness he received from his in-laws made the adaptation to the new country much easier.
After moving to Bulgaria, he immediately started working in the family business Martines, which, despite its Latin name, is a fully Bulgarian operation, with the name coming from the founder’s daughter’s names: Martina and Anes.
As he is finishing up the story of his international travels, I finish up my coffee. I ask him for another one.
He jumps up from the lone chair and starts preparing another two cups.
His hands move like lightning, going from the coffee grinder to the espresso machine.
He brings two trays again: one for me and one for him.
“This is coffee from Uganda.
The last cup you drank was our house blend. We have the blend tuned to be generally liked by Bulgarians, while we also have the coffee of the week, which comes from a different place every day.”
We take a sip of our coffee. The Ugandan coffee was noticeably more acidic, with a stronger and fruitier taste.
“When I started in Martines, it was all about the money.” continues Alex.
He was working on improving internal processes and ultimately, generating more sales for the business. His experience with coffee was zero.
He goes on to explain how new ideas and processes introduced by him and his wife first met a lot of resistance from his father-in-law, who had decades of experience behind him. Alex shares that ultimately, both sides gained knowledge from this process.
“There are some things that can be learned only from experience.”
While working on the business side of things, though, he explains he was constantly surrounded by coffee and it slowly started interesting him.
“I was asking how a machine worked and what that button did… Without realizing it, I slowly started getting interested in the process of coffee roasting.”
He started reading books about roasting and started seeing areas in which the Martines roasting team was lacking. The process so far had been cycling through testing and messing up until they got the process right.
Alex’s interest in roasting and goal to improve company performance pushed him into starting professional courses for coffee roasting, green (raw) coffee, and tasting, while his wife took on barista and brewing courses.
With time, he graduated from the highest tier of the course, making him a certified coffee roasting teacher.
As he is telling his story, his phone rings.
He picks up.
“Hello. ¿Que tal? Yeah, ok… Да… да… Добре, чао.”
After this multilingual break, he keeps on sharing his current vision and goals.
He now wants to share his knowledge of coffee to spread the culture around Bulgaria.
“Instead of working for money, I realized we need to educate the people.”
The Martines team started organizing events, coffee tastings, and writing educational content on their website after this revelation.
The peak of the company’s educational message is now transmitted through the coffee shop, where now they are able to communicate directly to the people.
He and his wife only had enough money to either buy a new home or start a business. But they’ve dreamt of owning a coffee shop for so long, they decided to invest in it.
“Everything you see here, we did by ourselves.”
He points to the exposed wall, the rustic white walls, and the rest of the decor.
The little bell at the door rings and a customer comes in. It is now well into the working hours of Martines.
Alex jumps up again.
“Hi! Espresso?” he says to the client.
“Hi, Alex! Yes, espresso. Hey, how are you, did you get the car?”
“Yeah! We did! It’s the yellow one parked out front.”
For the next two minutes, Alex and the regular customer keep talking about their lives.
Alex prepares the man’s coffee in a travel cup.
“Bye Alex. See you tomorrow!” says the man and leaves the shop.
Alex sits down again and continues right where he left off.
“I want the Martines coffee shop to become a reference point on the market, as a place where people can meet the community, create the culture and find their own taste in coffee.”
Despite the ambitious goal for the cafe, his personal goal is to be an open resource for people who want to get into the coffee business themselves. He shares that being protective of your knowledge in this industry might make you money, but it stops the culture from spreading.
Alex foresees that in a decade Bulgaria can match the coffee culture of Western Europe, and perhaps one day become a global destination for coffee lovers.
With that, I shut off my recorder, but I have more work with Alex.
I need a pack of coffee for home.
I ask him what he would recommend, and he energetically starts showing me around the different types of coffee he had showcased.
“How do you like your coffee? Acidic or balanced?” he asks.
He goes on to ask me about my tastes. I answer with abstract answers that make sense to me, but somehow he seems to get what I mean immediately.
Without hesitation, he grabs a pack of Guatemalan coffee from the middle of three stacked shelves.
Earlier he had shared that the packs on this shelf were meant for people who want to feel the richness of the flavors, but still don’t want to pay too much.
“You’re going to love this. It is a little acidic, but not too much, while also keeping the complexity of the coffee.”
He was absolutely right.
Leo Vacavliev is a senior at AUBG. He enjoys hearing and sharing other people’s passions.
