The Grind & Co.

Jessica Rayner
22nd Sep 2015

A year ago, Christine Ousman was drawing up plans for a shipping container cafe and now, standing in front of the 20-foot, beautifully decked out structure, she can't quite believe it.

'It's been such a long time coming,' she said, 'I had a really strong vision of what I wanted The Grind & Co. to look like and now everything's come together and we're open... it's all very exciting.'

Christine, along with her husband Rani have been wanting to open their own place for a while now, especially since they've been in the biz for such a long time. Utilising Rani's 15 years barista experience and inspired by their mutual love of good coffee, the couple set up Deluxe & Co, a beverage catering company who's focus is on serving good, ethically sustainable coffee alongside 

The result of these years of caffeine fuelled passion and hard work is The Grind & Co.

Tucked away in the Heritage Business Park in Alexandria, the kooky space will be serving up a range of gourmet sandwiches, salads, juices and sweet treats to get busy workers through their lunch hours. The coffee will also be pretty special, of course. Whipped up by coffee-maverick Rani on a state-of-the-art La Marzocco three-group coffee machine, The Grind & Co. brews will be made from Deluxe & Co’s premium, 100 percent Arabica blend in hot, cold drip and iced varieties for when things heat up.

All the food is prepped onsite and made with crazy fresh and locally sourced ingredients - some so local and that they're grown off the side of the shipping container itself in their vertical herb garden. In addition to Middle Eastern wraps, beef and horseradish baguettes and quinoa salads, on Friday's, The Grind & Co. gang with fire up the barbie and host themed weekly cookouts serving up gourmets sausages, burgers and other meaty treats - the perfect end to a summery week.

Sprawling across a particularly leafy section of the park, there's plenty of chairs, tables and even the odd outdoor sofa for diners that can seat up to 40 hungry business men and women but, if you can't make it down to Alexandria, never fear, Christine and Rani have big plans. Over the next 5 years, keep your eyes peeled for at least 3 more of these shipping container cafes to pop-up near you. This is an alfresco dining trend we could get behind.

thegrindandco.com.au

deluxeandco.com.au