In the only house of Urbe, in baixo Augusta, the Pereira brothers sell about 6,500 cups of espresso a month
Imagine this scene: a couple chooses a point of sale to open their cafeteria and, on the first day of operation, the house is full, with an endless line at the door. The success was so big and fast that it scared the couple to the point of deciding to discard the deal.
Those who were interested in the point of sale were brothers Renato and Fábio Pereira, whose family already owned a coffee farm, the Paraíso farm (located in Cajuru, about 300 km from São Paulo). At first, 11 years ago, the cafeteria was a Vanilla Café franchise and the farm only produced commodity coffee.
After five years, they left the franchise, renovated the property and renamed the house as Urbe Café for obvious reasons: one block from Paulista, almost at the corner of Antônio Carlos Street, the cafeteria is in the busiest part of the city. “The Urbe Café is the most pulsating, cosmopolitan, eclectic and democratic cafeteria in São Paulo, thanks to our audience,” says one of the partners, Renato Pereira, responsible for new business and who joined brothers Ricardo and Fábio earlier this year .
Renato Pereira, um dos sócios do Urbe Café
With 64 seats, a modern decoration and graffiti on the wall by artist Loro Verz, the Urbe Café is currently a mix of coffee, bar and restaurant that sells about 6,500 cups of espresso a month, as well as drinks prepared with specialty coffees produced at the family’s property. “We made Urbe more rustic, more urban, just like São Paulo,” he explains.
All the brothers have very well defined roles: Fábio is responsible for operating the cafeteria and for the quality of the products, Ricardo, for the finances and Renato, as already said, for new businesses. In a certain way, all of them followed their father’s engineering profession, and Fabio is a veterinarian too. Before engaging in agriculture, he was responsible for producing milk from the family’s Dutch cattle. He worked with the implementation of property certifications all over the country, and when he met specialty coffees, he fell in love with it and convinced the family to change the profile of the coffee plantations planted in the farm.
Own Kitchen
Due to its location and customer requirements, the coffee shop opens at 10:00 am and continues until dawn, serving breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, distilled beverages, coffee and even brunch on weekends. With such a complex operation, last year they inaugurated their own kitchen, where they produce all that is consumed in the house, thus employing 25 employees, among them, eight baristas. “Our proposal is to keep pace with the city. And honestly, we owe the success of the Urbe to this wonderful place,” says Renato. “Our customers are the best possible, vibrant, demanding, trend-setter, which forces us to stay tuned all the time,” he explains.
Oito baristas se revezam na cafeteria.
With the success of Urbe, Ricardo says they are greatly harassed: “every month we get a proposal to open another point of sale, and we always analyze it. We are looking for something special, but it has not come up yet. If it appears, this time we wish to have a partner in the operation. It could be another version of Urbe. We are looking for a partnership with a cinema brand or a museum, as it has everything to do with us,” he says. The Urbe is a sponsor of several important cultural events, among them, the São Paulo International Film Festival, which is the most important of its kind in South America.
Just over two months ago, they created the brand’s marketplace www.urbecafe.com.br and a specialty coffee subscriptions club. The next step is to produce their cold brew in scale to be sold at supermarkets, as a natural energy drink. “In the store, we sell 10 liters a day. We are finishing the new packaging and the label, and we are already producing the smooth, the intense, the concentrated and the flavored cold brew that has capim-santo, ginger and passion fruit in its formulation,” he explains. The idea is to sell about 600 units per month. In this way, I will make my dream come true, which is selling the cold brew in the aluminum can.
And they are preparing to launch branded coffee liqueur. “All this is only possible because we have a great experience in the cocktail house in the house,” explains Fabio.
The cold brew
The idea is to launch the product in the new versions next summer, as the demand has been high. “Many of our customers end up consuming the cold brew as a natural energy drink. There are people who come here and buy a big lot of it to drink at the gym every day. It is more natural than the regular energy drinks and, as of January 2019, I wish to sell our cold brew at the beach,” says Renato. Those responsible for the development of the new product are Fábio and the head barista of the house, Danilo Bananeira.
Another project is to offer the Urbe brand mate. “We’re going to release a high-quality mate. Hence, I’ll make my choosing between two suppliers whose mate is exceptional. We already offer the Urbe mate, in three versions of the Rio de Janeiro mate, sold at the beach, but now our project is to sell it in other points of sale, for end consumers,” explains Fabio. Few people know it, but Brazil produces high quality mate in the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina, which has nothing to do with the mate bought at the supermarket.
Other Releases
With Renato coming to take advantage of the opportunities, Fabio became freer to create. “Soon, we are going to launch the Urbe granola brand, with granola made here, guava ketchup, our own jelly and the barbecue with coarse coffee,” he says without giving much details.
From grain to cup
Thirty years ago, the family patriarch, Dárcio Martins Pereira, a training engineer, bought a small estate in Cajuru, in the countryside of São Paulo, to produce various crops and milk from Dutch cattle. The dream was to produce cheese, but the operation had to be discontinued. At first, there was also a small production of coffee, but it was not a quality one.
Over time, and due to the increased interest in specialty coffees by Fábio, who is the agronomist, the 70-hectare estate began to change its profile. Today, its production is mechanized and irrigated.
About 50 hectares of the property are dedicated to specialty coffee, with a production of three thousand bags of four species, such as Catuaí and Paraíso. They plant them between 800 and 1000 meters of height.
The small shop
The Urbe Coffee customers are already accustomed to find in the emporium of the house four different types of specialty coffees to buy: Urbe 01, 02, 03 and 04. The first one is a specialty coffee with 85 points of the SCAA scale, essentially acid, with Lemon notes. The second one is the specialty entrance coffee, with 83 points, with sweet notes, caramelized, without bitterness and very well roasted. The third one has 87 points and is a sweet coffee, with notes of garapa, having yellow and red fruits. And the fourth have more than 89 points, fermented, with a different acidity. Of all, it is the most complex and, therefore, the most expensive one.
Pacote de 1 kg de café especial de entrada da marca Urbe
All are sold in 250 or 500 grams packs and the 1kg pack is intended only for legal entities or offices. Prices range from R$ 22 to R$ 39, in 250 gram packs. To shop through the site, visit www.urbecafe.com.br, which also offers a multitude of products for fans of specialty coffees.
Offered by: Urbe Coffee Bar
Rua Antônio Carlos, 404, Consolação, SP
Open from 10 am
