Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Walsh
Hi Mike, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve pretty much been in coffee my entire career. My first job was making the donuts at Dunkin. While that was not experience in specialty coffee, it’s where I got hooked. In 2015, I took a trip to London and after experiencing European style 3rd wave coffee from street food carts, I was inspired to build coffee carts for events. In particular with European style coffee, is the emphasis on espresso. At the time, cold brew was all the rage, so I felt it was unique to build a cart outfitted with a full espresso machine, grinder, and water system but that had a small footprint, could wheel in and out, and could easily plug and play at most office buildings, convention centers and wedding venues.
In 2019, I had the opportunity to attend Barista Camp in Greece where I furthered my education and passion for 3rd wave coffee. I was able to deeper understand dialing in espresso, creating an espresso recipe and improve my latte art. In 2023, I opened my first brick and mortar coffee shop, called Venster Coffee in Portland, OR. Another milestone, was starting my coffee roasting journey by attending Roaster Academy in Mexico City. I returned recently and visited a coffee farm in Puebla Mexico to gain more in depth education of the process and work that goes into coffee farming and production.
As we enter 2025, my goal is to keep providing the same great service with our coffee carts for events of all types. In addition, we now have our very own coffee available for events and available on our website. We have no active plans to open up a coffee shop at this moment but are open for the opportunity that matches our passion for serving customers, roasting and supporting our catering events.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
2019 was my first full year in business and showed promise but 2020 hit and put a stop to the progress.. Fortunately, I had a pop-up at a brewery that allowed me to shift my focus away from events and connect with the community. I was approached by a neighborhood to sell coffee on Sundays and another on Saturdays. It was really fulfilling to get back to basics and focus on my business one drink at a time. I worked with a couple convention centers in 2021 but events started to make a strong comeback and I decided to put my focus back on catering events.
My coffee shop in Portland was a struggle as well. I found an amazing small cafe with a tiny pick up window. It was truly a dream spot and reminded me of some cafes that I visited in Europe. Unfortunately, the location was not ideal and I made some critical errors in personnel. Upon closing, I moved back to my home here in Atlanta and returned to form in the way of coffee cart events. I got to work some really exciting opportunities like the Masters Tournament, Shaky Knees Music Festival and
Petit Le Mans as well as working as a traveling barista in Austin, TX.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Created in 2018, LiveWire Coffee is a barista service/coffee cart company based in Atlanta GA. We love coffee and our customers do too! What sets us apart, is our ability to handle volume without compromising on flavor. We roast our own coffee and seek to be a leader as a truly authentic specialty coffee brand. We strive to stay committed to our European style with a heavy focus on espresso. Our clients love we can we get in and out very quickly, have a minimal footprint and offer a full coffee shop menu including espresso based drinks, matcha, chai, hot chocolate as well as non-dairy and iced options for every event. We provide it all. No guess work required.
We also provide additions like Pastries, Breakfast Wraps and Yogurt Parfaits as well as branding options like our Latte Logos (your logo on top of the coffee), brandable coffee carts and cups.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We have seen a major increase in competition in the last 5 years. Even some popular coffee shops are seeing the benefit of having a cart available for a wedding or corporate occasion. We seek to keep adapting by roasting our own coffee and offering wholesale coffee to our office clients, local restaurants, and online. We also have expanded our menu to offer up breakfast options so we can handle a variety of our customers’ needs. As we build our roasting brand, we would love to provide support and roasted coffee to up and coming coffee cart business owners.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.livewire.coffee
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livewirecoffee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livewirecoffee
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/livewirecoffee
