The former owner of The Daily Press has a new pop-up coffee shop -- Hyde Brewing.
Lindsey Pitman, former owner of The Daily Press in NoDa, has reemerged on the Charlotte coffee scene as a partner of Hyde Brewing. Hyde is a brewing facility, café and laboratory coming to South End in 2017, and Pitman is operating a pop-up coffee shop at the Goodyear Arts building uptown as the prelude to the company’s opening.
She first bonded with Dan Hyde, head brewer of Hyde Brewing and an engineer, over a conversation about water quality.
“That’s going to be a big component of Hyde, is understanding that water is the basic element, and having good quality water,” Pitman said. “… We’re going to have an RO system that recycles water in our facility.”
In brewing, Pitman pointed out, “The mineral contents in water play a huge factor in what flavors are extracted from whatever you’re making an extraction with.”
That goes for beer as well as coffee, but these two beverage categories won’t be the only components of Hyde Brewing.
“Hyde is kind of a group of ‘yes’ people,” Pitman said. “…They liked the idea of creating a place where they wanted hang out but the more we talked and the more we put ideas together, it became so much more. We want to have a restaurant that is a culinary cafe inspired by the trend of where food is going now — of molecular gastronomy and pairings.”
You won’t find a steady menu at Hyde Brewing’s coffee pop-up, though there is currently a selection of filtered coffees, teas and espresso. Here, you’ll find coffee beans from Kenya, Colombia and other sources. The pop-up hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
“It’s constantly changing,” said Pitman of the menu.
She also creates new signature beverages for special events at Goodyear Arts, like pistachio rosewater coffee soda, pear green tea coffee soda with roasted pineapple bitters, house-made chai lattes and cascara tea made from the husk of the coffee cherry.
Once Hyde Brewing opens, Pitman said, “We will have so many different kinds of coffees. It will be a fun experiment. … We want to work with people who are interested in sourcing from farmers who are going above and beyond and sourcing ethically and being environmentally responsible. We will have a lot of Mountain Air Roasting out of Asheville.”
While Hyde Brewing’s pop-up coffee shop is at Goodyear Arts at 516 N. College St., complete with five spaces marking free parking for customers, the brewing facility itself is set to be located at 2911 Griffith St., near the New Bern rail station. Expect a coffee bar, culinary cafe and brewery conglomerate.
“Hyde really wanted to have that community outreach where anybody could walk in and feel comfortable and order something spectacular,” Pitman said.
For now, she’s also willing to share her pour-over coffee strategy, so people can create that concept of “something spectacular” in the morning, at home.
“A lot of people say they don’t have time in the morning to brew coffee like this, but the whole process takes 10 minutes and it’s nice, calming meditation,” she said. “So I feel like taking 10 minutes out of your day to have a delicious cup of coffee and meditate in the morning, it’s probably something that more people need.”
Photos: Katie Toussaint
This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 1:00 AM with the headline "The former owner of The Daily Press has a new pop-up coffee shop -- Hyde Brewing.."