Local specialty roasters Broom Wagon bring coffee culture to West Ashley with new café
Several years ago while traveling, Jeremias and Rachel Paul stumbled upon a café that served a cup of black coffee so sweet and full of flavor it changed everything they thought they knew about coffee. And thus began the couple’s quest to recreate the perfect cup of coffee.
The Pauls quickly realized that amazing coffee was rare and had to be sought out. So with their two young kids in tow, they began a journey that led them up and down the West Coast, where they visited as many cafés as they could. They met and chatted with many friendly shop owners, baristas, and roasters who shared their knowledge, passion, and innovation with them.
While still based in southwest Utah, the Pauls’ thirst for good coffee soon turned from passion to professional as Jeremias left his 10-year career as a photography professor and began focusing on roasting coffee. He trained under several master roasters and in 2015 became a Q-grader, the prestigious certification awarded through the Coffee Quality Institute, most closely compared to becoming a Master Sommelier in the wine industry.
After stints in Boston and Savannah, the Pauls discovered Charleston and instantly became excited about the opportunity to bring their knowledge and skill to a city that they felt clearly had a passion for food, but still a lack of a true “coffee culture,” like they experienced on the West Coast. “We could have moved anywhere. We looked around. We did our research,” says Jeremias. “Charleston just seemed like it fit,” adds Rachel.
In particularly West Ashley was a good fit. It’s also where they live with their two children, 7 and 9. And West Ashley is where they started Broom Wagon Coffee, a specialty coffee roastery, located off of Ashley River Road. Since 2016, Broom Wagon has been selling its micro-batch, specialty-grade beans wholesale to different places around the country and directly to consumers online. They have sent coffee to Iraq, Kuwait, and the far reaches of the Canadian wilderness. You can also find their coffee at several local places, such as Mercantile & Mash, Harold’s Cabin, and Daps downtown. In West Ashley, you can find the creamy Nitro coffee at Charles Towne Fermentory in Avondale.
Continuing their West Ashley presence, the Pauls have recently opened Broom Wagon Coffee shop, located at 1630 Ashley Hall Road. The new café, which officially opened in May, has created quite a buzz, both with its carefully-crafted caffeine-fueled beverages and with its stylish and sleek aesthetic and small but thoughtful menu that includes a variety of toasts, ranging from savory to sweet.
Of course, there is an Avocado Toast option; it’s topped with pink Himalayan sea salt and oven-dried tomatoes. There’s also a Hummus Toast with roasted garlic, lemon, and sliced radishes. The sweeter options included toasts topped with either cinnamon sugar butter or mascarpone cheese and seasonal preserves.
The toasts range from $4-7 and are served on heritage grit bread from the Tiller Baking Co., which is located in West Ashley, right down Savannah Highway, and is made with naturally-leavened durum flour and locally-milled Geechie Boy grits.
The other main food offering at Broom Wagon is the incredibly tasty house-made waffles, which are actually gluten-free, but one would never know it. Like the toasts, the waffles range from sweet to savory.
On the sweet side there is a traditional Maple Glaze waffle, served with real maple syrup. There’s also a Cinnamon Apple waffle, which consists of a cinnamon apple compote and vanilla sauce. There’s a Mango Coconut waffle, which is inspired by the Thai dessert favorite mango sticky rice. The waffle version is topped with fresh mango, coconut drizzle, and toasted coconut flakes. There’s also a Peanut Butter Banana waffle, topped with organic peanut butter, banana, honey, and toasted pecans.
On the more savory side, there’s the Deviled Egg waffle, which is topped with a “deconstructed” deviled egg and paprika. There is also a Prosciutto & Arugula waffle, which has Prosciutto, arugula, lemon vinaigrette, and is sprinkled with Parmigiana-Reggiano. And last but not least, there is the Lox & Cucumber waffle, which has smoked salmon topped with a dill cream cheese, cucumber salad, and red onion. The waffles range from $5.50-11.
“We wanted to keep the food very simple. I hate lots of choices,” says Jeremias. “And we wanted to control what’s in the food. We wanted it all to be a made from scratch … So a waffle is going to take four-and-a-half minutes to make.”
While the food offerings are delicious, thoughtful, and beautiful presented, the real star of the Broom Wagon show is, of course, the coffee itself. With a focus on sourcing and roasting high-quality, single-origin coffees from around the world Broom Wagon takes great care to ensure that every cup that is brewed showcases each coffee’s maximum potential. Broom Wagon roasts its coffees to bring out the coffee cherry’s natural sweetness, eliminating or reducing the need to add sugar or flavorings.
“We roast in smaller batches to bring out the most of the flavor of each coffee bean,” says Rachel. The couple works carefully with select importers to source the highest-quality, sustainable coffees and provide their farmers with a fair wage.
Last year, Jeremias qualified to compete at the U.S. Roasters Championship in the coffee mecca of Seattle. He placed as the eighth best roaster in the entire country.
“It was a great learning experience. It was really cool to be recognized nationally,” says Jeremias. “But we’re so focused here. We want to grow this locally.”
Things like “local,” “sustainability,” and “fair trade” are more than industry buzz words for Jeremias and Rachel. They are part of their philosophy. A philosophy that permeates everything at Broom Wagon, from the coffee and food to the tables, benches, and countertops, which were hand-crafted by Hillary King of pH Reclaimed.
“We’re a little bit obsessive about things,” admits Rachel. But it’s this drive for perfection that has helped make Broom Wagon Coffee an instant success and will likely continue to propel them to the top of the local coffee scene.
Broom Wagon Coffee is open Monday-Friday: 7 a.m.- 3 p.m., Saturday: 8 a.m.- 3 p.m. and closed Sunday. It’s located at 1630 Ashley Hall Road. For more information, call (843) 633-0311 or visit www.broomwagoncoffee.com.
