Man Met Bril Koffie has been a Rotterdam roastery and café for more than ten years, on a mission “to make great coffee in an unique way for the people around and close to us”. It now runs from the Man Met Bril Koffie Hotel in Crooswijk, across from the Rotte, opened as “the world’s first Coffee Hotel”. The building holds 15 rooms, the roastery, a coffee bar, meeting rooms, a training area, a terrace and a kitchen, and the 1,200 square metre site also has an outdoor cinema, a residency wing and a cupping room. Paul Sharo founded the business, and Igor Isoni is head roaster.

In the café, guests can watch the roasters at work, order a filter coffee from the brew bar or an espresso from Frank, a five-group espresso machine designed by Kees van der Westen with two lever groups, two touchpad groups and an adjustable pre-infusion cylinder. Through the Residency Programme, eight coffee and hospitality professionals from around the world live and work at the hotel at any one time, behind the bar, at the tables and in the kitchen.

The kitchen cooks with seasonal products and turns leftovers into new dishes, Pizza Palace runs a sourdough pizza counter inside the hotel, and Bar Dertien serves dinner. The café takes no reservations and no cash, and it is wheelchair accessible. Its coffees include Hotel Blend, the blend poured in the café, and House Blend, the roaster’s first blend with robusta, from India’s Elkhill Estate, beside single origins from Ethiopia, Colombia and Peru bought through partners such as Trabocca and The Coffee Quest.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Man Met Bril Koffie