Prepare for some great roasts. (Photo: Courtesy Grind City Coffee Xpo)
People have been drinking coffee since 800 A.D., so says the internet. But the Grind City Coffee Xpo is only going on its fourth year, so says Daniel Lynn, the event’s founder.
If you haven’t been to the event that has only grown each year since it’s been around, Lynn describes it as “really focused on education of the whole coffee experience, just trying to spread the coffee culture to people who maybe aren’t as familiar.” For the day, as in years past, more than 20 vendors, both local and from as far away as Wisconsin, will pass out samples — anything from cold brews to pour overs — and folks are encouraged to ask vendors questions. “I’ve heard from multiple vendors in the past, especially from our out-of-town vendors, that Memphis always has some of the best questions that they hear.”
Grind City Coffee Expo at Wiseacre HQ in Downtown Memphis on Saturday, November 5, 2022 (Photo: Mark Adams)
Being able to host both local and out-of-town vendors, Lynn adds, “really increases the value of the expo. I look at it as like showing people from around the country how cool the Memphis scene is. It’s really spreading our coffee community around. Everybody in the community around here is so cool. Like, that’s why I keep doing the thing.”
This year, for the first time, the expo will have coffee-infused cocktail samples, latte art demonstrations, and panels. The panels will be about sustainability around coffee, coffee’s journey from farm to cup, and an “Ask a Barista.” The panels, Lynn hopes, will lend themselves to creating a bigger picture of the coffee industry.
Sustainability itself is a theme within the event, with all the profits going to Protect Our Aquifer. “We like to say that you can’t have good coffee without good water,” Lynn says. “That’s why the coffee and beer in Memphis are so good. So, we gotta we gotta make sure that doesn’t change.”
Grind City Coffee Expo at Wiseacre HQ in Downtown Memphis on Saturday, November 5, 2022 (Photo: Mark Adams)
Additionally, Lynn says the expo plans to be as zero-waste as possible, thanks to the help of the Compost Fairy. Plus, tickets include a ceramic tasting mug made by Kelsey Berry.
Tickets can be purchased at grindcitycoffee.com and are priced according to entry time (i.e. $35 for 9 a.m., $30 for 11 a.m., and $25 for noon). After the expo, all are invited to the free Grind City Throwdown, “a latte art competition in a party wrapper,” at Comeback Coffee at 7 p.m. Guests can expect Grind City Brewery beer, food from Kinfolk, a live DJ, and, of course, coffee — and lots of it.
Having a spot of tea with Joel Borton and Matt Baudo at the Rishi Tea & Botanicals booth at Grind City Coffee Xpo
I’m proud to say I’ve attended and covered all three Grind City Coffee Xpo events since it began in 2019.
I love coffee. I drink it black like a film noir reporter. And I make it on the stove in an old-school percolator with the little glass thing on top.
So, attending Grind City Coffee Xpo, held November 5th at Wiseacre Brewing Co. downtown, was like being in coffee — and tea — heaven. I drank carbonated coffee at Comeback Coffee’s booth and tea at the booth for Rishi Tea & Botanicals out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And lots of little cups of hot and cold coffee at other stations.
Dante Baker, Joseph Jenkins, Noah Randolph, and Raegan Jenkins at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Ken and Mary Olds and Averell Mondie at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Amy McPherson at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)David Lambert, Drew Smith, Teagan Griffith, Kim Lambert at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Tamer Younis at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
This year’s event featured 18 vendors, says founder Daniel Lynn. “It was awesome,” Lynn says “I think we’re going to end up with around 600 people. It was incredible.”
He doesn’t yet have the final amount of how much they raised for their charity, Protect Our Aquifer.
Alden Schmidt at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)MIcah Dempsey and Daniel Lynn at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
They didn’t feature tea at their first Xpo, which was held at the old Memphis College of Art.
The event now features “anything in the coffee community,” including tea, Lynn says.
The Xpo also included Ounce of Hope. “I’m a big believer in wellness, health. And CBD in coffee is a really nice thing.”
Cat Brooks, Collin Bercier, Kyle McFarland at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Ounce of Hope at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
I asked Lynn what it is about coffee that gets people so excited. Besides caffeine, of course. “It’s so welcoming,” he says. “It not only tastes good, but there’s some incredible science behind it, too. Anyone can make a cup of coffee, whether you’re a novice and you just like your drip machine with your Community Coffee in it. Or you want to get crazy into it and you’re doing a Chemex pour over where you measure out the water and the coffee in grams. It’s a multi-step process. You put the timer on and start the pour and its super relaxing.”
You “let the coffee bloom and then come back and pour the rest of the water over the coffee.”
Making coffee is universal. “Anyone can do it. From the novice to the super nerd. I think it’s very approachable.”
Jessica Diaz, Scott Jackson, Erica Mathis at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Magnolia Pelous and John Cook at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Brian Miller and Wood Rodgers at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Bram Bors-Koefoed, DJ Superman, Eric Scott at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Julie Digeronimo and Evan Winburne at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Will Sexton, Johnny Dowd, Amy LaVere at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)Spencer Kaaz and Matthew Burdine at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue) Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)We Saw You
The Grind City Coffee Xpo roars back to life this Saturday at Wiseacre Downtown from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. The aromatic event was founded in 2019 by Daniel Lynn and Rachel Williams, who saw a need in Memphis for a day to celebrate all things coffee. The event is designed to be inclusive and educational, featuring local coffee shops, roasters, and food vendors; attendees will experience an array of coffee techniques and styles. Lynn and Williams say that the Coffee Xpo’s core mission is one of “community over competition.”
After a pandemic hiatus in 2020, the Xpo’s return will feature around a dozen coffee and tea vendors from Memphis and beyond. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about beverage technique (from pour-overs to latte art) and sample the end products. Local coffeehouse-meets-pottery-studio Belltower Artisans will provide sampling mugs.
Co-organizer Lynn said, “Being able to bring the Xpo back this year means so much to us! The last year and a half have been so hard for so many small businesses, and the coffee community is no different. It is so important for us to be able to show Memphis how amazing the people in that world are, and to be able to help them share their passion. Every time we talk to any of our coffee friends, we are reminded of how kind and community-driven they are. Everyone just wants to help each other and be good humans.”
Proceeds from the Grind City Coffee Xpo will benefit Protect Our Aquifer, because, as the organizers note, “You can’t have great coffee without great water.” Additional information and tickets are available at grindcitycoffee.com.
Michael Butler, Jr. accepting his award Best Hometowner Narrative Short award for ‘Empty’ at the 2020 Indie Memphis Virtual Award Ceremony.
In normal times, the Indie Memphis awards ceremony is a raucous gathering, full of self-deprecating gags and boozy cheers. This year, things were different.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the awards ceremony was virtual. The ceremony was broadcast from the auditorium at Playhouse on the Square, where it would usually occur, with about a hundred filmmakers calling in on Zoom. As befitting the times, it was a more somber affair, but it produced moments of unique magic.
Many more of the awards recipients were able to accept in person than in a normal year. Executive Order writers Lázaro Ramos & Lusa Silvestre accepted the Duncan Williams Screenwriting Award from their home in Brazil. I Blame Society director Gillian Hovart, at home in Los Angeles, introduced her cat, who co-starred in the film, when she accepted the Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award. And most remarkable of all, director Michael Butler, Jr. accepted his Best Hometowner Narrative Short award for “Empty” from Methodist Hospital, where he was on call, cheered on by his fellow nurses, who looked a little bewildered. It was a uniquely 2020 moment.
The Best Narrative Feature went to Emily Seligman’s coming-of-age comedy Shiva Baby, while Best Documentary Feature went to Cane Fire, director Anthony Banua-Simon’s story of colonial exploitation and labor struggle in Hawai’i. When Deni Cheng accepted her Best Narrative Short award for “Paradise,” the astonished first-time filmmaker revealed that she had not been accepted into any other festivals. Kyungwon Song won Best Documentary Short for “Jesa”.
The Hometowner Feature prize went to Lauren Ready for We Can’t Wait, her cinéma vérité portrait of Tami Sawyer’s 2019 mayoral campaign. Best Hometowner Documentary Short was awarded to “Road to Step” by Zaire Love, which documented a season of Black fraternity life at the University of Mississippi. Best Hometowner Music Video went to The Poet, Havi for “You’re My Jesus”.
The Indie Grant program, which awards production packages worth $13,000 to short film proposals from Memphis filmmakers, went to G.B Shannon for his documentary short “Here Be Dragons,” to Justin Malone for his narrative short “Beware of Goat.” The first ever proof-of-concept Indie Grant, intended to help a filmmaker produce a short film that could sell a feature film concept to potential investors, went to Daniel Farrell for “Beale Street Blues.”
The Festival Awards, selected by staff and board members, are enduring traditions at Indie Memphis. The Soul of Southern Film Award, which stretches back to the origin of the festival, went to Lawrence Matthews’ Memphis labor documentary “The Hub.” The Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award, which honors the festival’s DIY roots, went to “The Inheritance” by Ephraim Asili. The Indie Award, which honors a Memphis-based crew member for outstanding service, went to Daniel Lynn, sound engineer at Music + Arts Studio. Lynn, who was mixing sound for the ceremony live stream, was one of the few people to actually accept their awards in person at Playhouse.
The most emotional moment of the night came courtesy of the Vision Awards. Kelly Chandler founded Indie Memphis in 1998 while she was a film student at the University of Memphis. Chandler no longer works in the film industry, and has lived abroad for decades. For years, journalists such as myself and Indie Memphis staff have tried to contact her to clear up details about the founding of the festival which have been lost to history. Finally, earlier this year, Indie Memphis staffer Joseph Carr, with the help of the U of M alumni office, tracked her to South Korea. Chandler gave a moving speech accepting the Vision Award in which she recounted the first night of the festival, which was held not in the Edge coffee shop as legend had it but instead in an empty Cooper-Young warehouse owned by the same people, and encouraging filmmakers to follow their dreams.
More winners from Indie Memphis 2020:
Best After Dark Short: “The Three Men You Meet at Night” by Beck Kitsis
Best Departures Feature: My Darling Supermarket by Tali Yankelevich
Best Departures Short : “The Return of Osiris” by Essa Grayeb
Best Sounds Feature: Born Balearic: Jon Sa Trinxa and the Spirit of Ibiza by Lily Renae
Best Animated Short: “Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad” by Camrus Johnson and Pedro
Piccinini
Best Music Video: “Colors” by Black Pumas, directed by Kristian Mercado
Best Poster Design: Pier Kids
Tonight, Indie Memphis 2020 concludes at the Malco Summer Drive-In with One Night in Miami. Regina King, who won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for If Beale Street Could Talk and recently took home an Emmy for her work on HBO’s Watchmen, makes her feature film directorial debut with this adaptation of Kemp Powers play about the night Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) celebrated winning the Heavyweight Championship with his friends Malcom X (Kingsely Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.).
Indie Memphis 2020: One Night In Miami, and An Awards Ceremony Like No Other
Then the festival closes with a little Halloween spirit. House is a legendary 1977 horror film from Japan’s fabled Toho studios. Directed by experimental filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi and featuring a cast of all-amateur actors and some truly eye-popping special effects, it has had huge influence on the horror comedy genre.
Indie Memphis 2020: One Night In Miami, and An Awards Ceremony Like No Other (2)
