This Black History Month, Blavity is looking at community institutions that are Buying Back the Block.
Patrick Weaver has blended his love for coffee and vinyl to create a new community hotspot with Le Cache Dulcet.
Inspired by the cafes and record stores he’s visited all over the world, the Richmond, Virginia, business is coming up on its one-year anniversary. Weaver admitted that he’s overcome with emotion at the success of the idea he once had, which has now blossomed into a music and coffee lover’s dream.
“It’s kind of unbelievable,” he told Blavity. “It feels like it went by very quickly, and it’s like I really don’t feel like I’ve done 50% of what I really want this space to be about. I’m glad everybody loves it.”
He has regulars
After being a regular at various places while he was a Los Angeles resident, Weaver cannot believe he has people who swing by the shop on a weekly, sometimes even daily, basis to grab their favorite cup of joe or to go digging for music to add to their collection.
“I remember being a regular at shops that I became a very big fan of in LA,” Weaver said. “I’m bad with names, but that’s only because when I make people’s drinks, I don’t ask their names. I don’t know what it is about me not doing that; I don’t know why I don’t do it. It’s not that I don’t care, but it’s one of those things where I kind of do everything from memory, so I don’t remember a lot of customers’ names. But seeing people come back day and day, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m doing something right.”
There would be no Le Cache Dulcet without LA
As a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur, Weaver said he didn’t really start embracing the beverage until 2015 or 2016, when he would go to coffee shops simply because they were cool and where people always looked to connect for meetups.
“It wasn’t until I had a dirty chai, iced, that changed my life,” he joked. “I think I drank iced dirty chai for a year straight, and I was trying them at all the coffee shops I could. One of my favorite spots in LA is Paradocs [Coffee & Tea], in Little Ethiopia, run by this Japanese dude named Taka. He was also one of the people I give credit to for my wanting to do this and for how I run it. He had no employees. His s**t was booming every day. Every day, he opened very short, it was like 7 a.m. to like 2 or 3 p.m., but when 7 o’clock hit, it was a line down the block, and it was just him running the bar, literally at the register, turning around, coffee machine, everything’s there. He was also a roaster. He roasted coffee in the back, which is kind of crazy, you really don’t see that.”
After spending time in that particular cafe and doing loads of his own research, Weaver got himself a La Marzocco, and the rest is history.
Establishing a home for Le Cache Dulcet
A native of Virginia, also the birthplace of acts like Pharrell, Missy Elliott, Clipse, and Timbaland, to name a few, Weaver settled on Richmond, Virginia, on the city’s well-known Broad Street, as the home for Le Cache Dulcet.
“Yes, it’s French,” Weaver explained when asked to break down the name of his establishment. “But cache and dulcet? Those are English words. When I did this, I didn’t want the word ‘coffee’ or ‘café’ in the name. I wanted to build this thing from a brand standpoint, because eventually we’re going to expand, you know. Lord willing, I get to keep this space and have this as the flagship store,” he continued. “I started playing with the word cache. Why? Because I like the idea of stuff being approachable but secretive. Basically, a cache is a hidden place to store provisions. So for me, that was always the records.”
He added, “When I got this space, it became both. It became coffee and the records. Certain people like coffee as a provision, so it could be both. Dulcet, I really liked just how the word looked. I was looking for something that had something to do with having taste, or, you know, playing with the taste of something. So the book’s definition of dulcet is pleasing to the ear, sweet to the taste. So you got both, coffee and music that plays on that, so basically, it translates directly to ‘the sweet hidden place.’”
Envisioning what lies ahead
Currently, Le Cache Dulcet is a place where coffee, music and culture collide.
Along with swinging by to pick up a cup of joe, handcrafted by Weaver himself, or to add to your collection of physical media through his selection of vinyl and CDs — also hand-picked, thanks to his eclectic music taste — patrons can also swing by for various events centered on the arts, community and beyond.
“It kind of shifts,” he said when asked what the future of Le Cache Dulcet looks like.
“It changes a lot, but I would like to have, when it’s all said and done, I want multiple locations in different, interesting places,” he said. “When we were in Paris the other week, I definitely think I want to really start thinking about putting one in Paris at some point, sooner than later. It might not be the next location, but maybe the third. Every space moving forward, or whatever we do next, there’s always going to be some trace of beverages and music. Maybe we do a listening bar at some point, still under the brand. I definitely want to keep those two things forever evolving.”
Le Cache Dulcet is located at 109 E. Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia.
The post A Neighborhood Hotspot And Community Haven In Richmond Is For Lovers Of Coffee — And Vinyl appeared first on Blavity.
