Barista Of The Week… Tony Binning
Barista & Owner at Fix
Shop 2/134 Willoughby Road
Crows Nest, NSW
The Coffee Guide (TCG): What coffee do you use at work?
Tony: Double Roasters.
TCG: If you weren’t a barista what would you be?
Tony: Unemployed.
TCG: How do you have your coffee at home? How do you make it and how do you take it?
Tony: I always go out for it.
TCG: What’s the best thing about your job- the one thing that you really love aside from the coffee?
Tony: Money.
TCG: What is your favourite music? (For work or for play).
Tony: Cheesy 80’s for work. Gang* Rap in the car. A mix of all of it at home.
TCG: What’s your favourite food?
Tony: Share plates. There’s nothing to think about, order a few plates and graze with a glass of wine.
TCG: Tell us what your best (or first) coffee experience was.
Tony: Every morning when I make my self a latte.
TCG: If you’re not drinking coffee, what is your drink of choice?
Tony: Wine. To help me calm down after too many coffees.
TCG: What made you become a barista?
Tony: I can’t afford all the coffee I drink.
TCG: Do people often try and chat you up at work? Have you ever taken the offer up?
Tony: Sometimes, once or twice.
TCG: What food do you think is the best compliment to a really great coffee?
Tony: Chocolate.
TCG: How many coffees would you make in the average day?
Tony: Two hundred.
TCG: What’s the largest amount of coffees you have made in a day?
Tony: Five hundred.
TCG: Does your coffee style (or how you drink it) say something about you?
Tony: Yes, hot and strong.
TCG: Where do all the old baristas go?
Tony: Barbados?
TCG: Who would make a better coffee, King Kong or Godzilla?
Tony: King Kong… Godzilla’s arms are too small.
TCG: Where has your coffee making taken you? (Around Australia? Around the world)?
Tony: To work, every day.
TCG: What has been your favourite moment as a barista? Is there one story that only happened to you because you are a barista?
Tony: It’s yet to happen.
TCG: If you could make coffee for one other person of your choice (anyone- past or present), who would it be and what coffee would you make them?
Tony: Gary Coleman, short black.
TCG: As a barista, what’s your next big plan?
Tony: Open another shop.
TCG: Where is your favourite place to hang out in Sydney?
Tony: Devine wine bar, it’s the best place in the world.
TCG: What did you do on your last day off?
Tony: Slept in!
TCG: In a good cup of coffee, how much of it is due to the barista and how much is due to the beans?
Tony: There are so many links in the chain, one can’t happen without the other.
TCG: Is decaf a dirty word?
Tony: F… is worse.
TCG: Is specialty tea the new cappuccino?
Tony: No.
TCG: What is your favourite alternate brewing method?
Tony: None, espresso is the only way.
TCG: Where do you see alternate brewing methods going?
Tony: To hell.
TCG: What ever happened to the Clover?
Tony: Clover?
TCG: Will other methods fade away?
Tony: Yes. Gimmicks always do.