Colin Harmon was working in finance when he began to lose patience with the coffee he was served in Dublin. Not the lukewarm office filter, but the coffee from the handful of places that, in the late 2000s, claimed to make good espresso in a city where coffee culture could still be counted on the fingers of one hand. Rather than complain, he quit his job, rented a corner of counter in the lobby of the Twisted Pepper, a city-centre nightclub, and started making coffee under the name 3fe, for "3rd Floor Espresso", a nod to the third-floor flat where the idea was born. This was 2009. Dublin was barely emerging from the financial crisis, and setting up a coffee shop with five thousand euros in a nightclub lobby was hardly an orthodox business plan. But it is precisely this mix of nerve and pragmatism that has defined 3fe from day one.
Harmon did not arrive alone. From the start, he partnered with Steve Leighton, founder of HasBean Coffee in Stafford, England, one of the most respected roasters in the UK. Each put five thousand euros on the table, and 3fe became HasBean's exclusive distributor in Ireland, placing their coffees in some twenty accounts across Dublin. In the early years, Harmon split his time between the counter and barista competitions. Four consecutive Irish champion titles and fourth place in the World Barista Championship final: the record gave 3fe an international profile that few coffee shops of its size could claim. But Harmon always kept a clear-eyed distance from the competition circuit. "The first year, I was a bit obsessed with competing," he admits. "The shop was just a place to hang out and make coffee while waiting for the next championship." The realisation came with fatigue and growth: he had to choose between being a competitor and building a business.
From the Twisted Pepper to the Roastery
The turning point came at the end of 2013. After four years serving coffee roasted in England, 3fe set up its own roastery in Dublin, equipped with a 15-kilo Ambex. Pete "Petesy" Williams, trained directly by Steve Leighton in Birmingham, became head roaster. Leighton stayed involved in green coffee sourcing and quality control, with every roasted lot sent back to Stafford for approval. The first coffee out of the new roaster, a Colombia La Esperanza from producer Isaias Cantillo Osa, set the tone: traceable origins, already spotted by roasters such as Stumptown and George Howell, but now roasted in Dublin, for Dublin. In January 2014, 3fe launched its subscription programme in partnership with Makers & Brothers, an Irish design studio. The shift from distributor to roaster was complete.
What is striking about 3fe is the absence of grand talk about method. Harmon says little about roast profiles or development curves. He talks about deviation. "We spend more time checking not how good it is, but the gap between the worst and the best." The obsession is not the perfect lot but consistency, the ability to deliver reliable coffee at scale. Today, the roastery runs seven days a week and can handle up to a thousand kilos a week, roasted exclusively to order. The roasting team, now led by Simon, applies a rigorous quality control protocol to every lot before it ships.
Addresses All Over Dublin, Two Books and Rugby
3fe has spread across Dublin with remarkable density: Grand Canal Street, Sussex Terrace, Phibsboro, Clancy Quay, Pearse Street, Harold's Cross, Ranelagh, the IFSC district, The Triangle. As many cafés, each rooted in its neighbourhood, without trying to reproduce a single model. Harmon has always insisted on delegation as a condition for growth. "I haven't been behind the bar since December [2013]," he told Sprudge. "It wasn't fair. I'd have to step away to take a call or send an email, and I was letting people down on the bar." He set out this philosophy in "What I Know About Running Coffee Shops", self-published in 2017 and distributed by coffee shops around the world. A second book, "What I Know About Growing a Coffee Business", extends the reflection on moving from a coffee shop to a multi-site business.
The mantra has stayed the same since the Twisted Pepper: "Make nice coffee, be nice to people and they'll come back guaranteed." No manifesto, no ten-point charter. Just a logo designed to be legible even upside down on a cup, a partnership as official coffee of Leinster Rugby and the Irish national team, and a simple conviction: specialty coffee is not built in industry speeches, but in the cup served every morning to the customer who walks through the door.
