If you see coffee cups with yellow lids around town, they could only have come from one place—Routine Coffee & Supply.
Routine Coffee was started by partners in life and business, Garrett Olson and Marley Reburn as a way to meet people and share their love of hand-poured coffee with the community during the latter days of the pandemic.
Together they would pop-up at local markets, and soon enough, they decided to build a custom coffee bar with an espresso machine in the back of a compact truck—which they could use at the events they were serving coffee at.
Word of mouth and social media saw their pop-up coffee operation grow to the point they started dreaming about opening a brick and mortar cafe location.
They found a space at 1036 Fort Street while serving coffee to a commercial realtor at a pop-up market next door and their dream soon became a reality.
Before they moved in, the space was a retail location, which meant they had to do some intensive work to get the place up to current codes and standards for serving food and beverage.
From September 2024 to January, Olson and Reburn were hard at work, spending every free minute they had building the cafe and planning for their opening date.
They decided to do a soft open on Monday, January 27th and Tuesday January 28th, which ended up being so busy they nearly ran out of everything they had stocked up on for their opening day.
On Thursday, January 30th, they had their official first day open and said the community has blown them away by their levels of support.
“We were overwhelmed in the best way possible,” Reburn told Victoria Buzz.
“We had 1,000 yellow lids and we ran out of them on Sunday. It was an absurd amount of coffee, which is really cool.”
Routine’s mainstay roaster they have been working with (even through their pop-up days) has been Regard Coffee Roasters in Nanaimo, but they are also bringing in coffee from some other roasters that cannot be found in Victoria at other cafes.
They also have coffee on order from Traffic Coffee Co. in Montreal, Subtext Coffee Roasters in Toronto, Cape Coffee in Newfoundland and even some beans from Process Coffee in Ireland.
Routine’s menu is a unique one as well, having much more than just drip and classic espresso-based drinks.
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In addition to all the well-crafted drinks they offer, Routine is sourcing baked goods from three bakeries in Victoria in order to provide a diverse array of treats, depending on the day.
Olson says part of Routine’s business model was to bring in the treats because it was too much for them to have a kitchen, and they wanted to focus all their attention on the coffee and hospitality once they opened.
They have GoodSide Pastry House bringing in baked goods on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays; Leela Bakes bringing in cardamom cinnamon buns on Saturdays; as well as Wildfire Bakery bringing in treats on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Now that Routine Coffee & Supply is officially open, Olson and Reburn say they are filled with excitement and are thrilled to be a permanent fixture of the Victoria coffee scene as well as the myriad of small businesses that surround their new cafe.
“Routine is solely a product of the community in Victoria,” Olson told Victoria Buzz.
“It wouldn’t have turned into the thing it turned into without the people who have championed it over the last two years. Like, I am just so grateful.”
“Its been really cool to meet a ton of people and just see people be so excited about our space,” he added.
Routine Coffee and Supply is now open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays; however, they are closed on Wednesdays.
Go get a cup of coffee, a special treat and say hi to Olson and Reburn behind the bar!
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