Jose Rarael Fine Coffee

Jose Rafael Fine Coffee – Davao’s Boutique Coffee Shop

Finally, after 7 years of planning and preparation, Jose Rafael Fine Coffee was born, the brainchild of husband & wife team. It’s been Dennis’ dream to settle back home where he was born. Ever since he came to Australia, he has dreamed and planned to go back and retire to the familiar place he grew up, with the lifestyle and surrounding where he’s more comfortable and close to people he cares about.

The family has previously tried to do just that 8 years ago. They left their full time jobs, sold their house in Sydney, went back to Davao and started a small business. Having been away for a while, not knowing much about the venture they got into and not being paid by their debtors, money started to run out. The only option left was to head back to Sydney and start to build life for his family from square one once more.

With Dennis’s dream still burning in his heart, this set back did not at any time let Dennis down; he’s not the one to be easily deterred. In fact, he was even more determined, only this time more cautious after learning his lesson the hard way.

After a couple of months since going back to Sydney, while having coffee at the newly opened branch of an international coffee chain at the suburb where the family was living, took their attention to this industry. Dennis really like the idea of entertaining and talking to people while doing your job is perfect for him.

One of Dennis’s work colleagues who happened to own a coffee shop invited them to show first hand how to make a perfect cup of coffee. The only problem was, his coffee shop is up at the Blue Mountains, two and half hours drive from Sydney. They made their way there on a winter night at 7 pm just when the owner is about to close shop.

The only coffee the couple really knew before was instant coffee; Nescafe while in Philippines and then Mocconna when they got to Sydney. At the coffee shop, they were shown how to get the perfect shot of espresso. They were advised it’s best to taste coffee on its purest form, single origin. They can’t remember now what it was but they were each given short black, long black, latte, and cappuccino. Talk about caffeine overload. Luckily they didn’t get heart palpitation that night. Their energy was put into good use by helping the coffee shop owner to clean up which was his only request in return.

It’s with a lot of research, late nights, traveling to coffee expos and fairs, coffee tasting and lots and lots of questions to people in the trade. They both have read the book “POUR YOUR HEART INTO IT” by Howard Schultz (We’re sure many coffee lovers would have read this book). Dennis took the Barista Course and Edith took her annual leave to do the Cafe Management Course. Dennis also took the Latte Art Course and Coffee Roasting Course.

It has been 6 years and at this point the couple believes they are now ready (but they also know they still have a lot to learn). Dennis took a trip to Davao early 2008 to test the waters, and found people who are trustworthy and willing to help. After a few months, they are just about to sign the Lease Contract for a perfect place they found when the world recession hit mid 2008. By September, the value of their Australian dollar went down, really, really down and so there wasn’t enough money now to start. It’s another major set back. After holding off the plan for a few months, Dennis’s gut feeling took over and decided to start, but start small. This they did.

Going back to Davao in late January of 2009 Dennis found this place at Lanang, far from where the coffee shops congregate and normally set up shop. His reasons; with excellent coffee, excellent service and comfortable homey, cozy place, people will know and will come, and will come back for more with their family and friends.

Registering a business name alone was a nightmare. After weeks of submitting different business names that kept being rejected, they were running out of names that will suit their business. At last, a name was approved and Jose Rafael Fine Coffee was born and on 6 March 2009 their coffee shop had their soft opening.

YES..... There’s a lot… A LOT, of effort put into this. Only shows that when you want something, don’t wait for it to happen; you work on it, pour your heart to it, immense your self with it, keep a positive outlook and surround your self with people who have the same vision that will support and help you. All these, while not forgetting of the more important things: family, love ones AND a good relationship with your CREATOR.

The family wants to specially mention: friends, people and the staff who all made these possible. They have been warned many times by concerned family and friends the danger of being away from the business and not being personally there to manage and supervise. It's just hard to find people you can trust, especially these days. The couple both has previously had their share of bad and sad experiences. But because they also had nice and good ones, they choose to believe the latter (that they can find trustworthy ones, that this can work out) and believe they made the right choice. They would also like to thank Bloggie of Davao Delicious (and his group of Davao bloggers and friends) who wrote about their coffee shop, it sure help brought people to their door.