I'm flipping through the new magazine offering from TWS: Transworld Coffee Making. The highlight spread is a sequence of Toronto-based celebrity barista Sam James performing a switch traditional cappuccino. His style is flawless: Clean but espresso-stained fingers working quick and smooth. Subtle movements that come not only from experience but from a true passion for the craft. There is a homemade looking tattoo on his middle finger that says "open".

Examining the background of this mythical sequence, it's the two things that aren't visible that make the biggest impact: a boss and a corporate logo. Sam James, a lifelong skater, is exploring the close correlation between skateboarding and coffee brewing with the opening of his shop, Sam James Coffee Bar.

Skateboarders work the machines, games of SKATE are played post-morning rush, the SJCB (Sam James Coffee Bar) skate team drinks coffee for free, and brands like Alena and Anti-Hero will soon be available for purchase behind the bar. Sam's coffee bar shares similarities with a skateboarder-owned shop. The store buildout was completed by friends and family, and the menu pays tribute to the eras of skateboarding with two varieties of drink selection: Old School and New School.

Sam James Coffee Bar, located on Harbord St. in Toronto, is proof that the determination and creativity of skateboarders knows no boundaries. He took a few minutes out of his hectic schedule to break down the business for us.

Sam James Coffee Bar is now open for business. I can only imagine it was a long road creating your own business. Give us a quick breakdown of the chain of events.
I started my path towards opening a business by working in retail, mostly skate shops, but some other stuff, with the intent of one day opening a skate shop of my own. I slowly started gravitating towards a passion for food, and the food industry, which landed me in a cafe where I started messing around with an espresso machine. After getting the hang of the machine, and having an interest in strictly making coffee, I took a job at a dedicated espresso bar where I was overwhelmed with how in depth the process, and craft of making espresso actually was. I've always liked skills and trades that demand attention to details, and espresso instantly became my passion.

I worked at the first espresso bar until I realized that I wanted to do more with it than I was limited to at that job, so I started looking at what other shops were doing differently, or better, and was soon connected with some of the barista competitions, which I entered and met some other like-minded baristas. One of the guys I met there was opening a shop with a completely new concept that didn't yet exist in Toronto, and so we partnered our ideas and passion for coffee together, and I became the manager of his store, Manic Coffee, which set a trend for how cafes would soon operate in Toronto.

After a year long term at Manic, I needed to learn more about the management of a finer establishment, so I took a job at celebrity chef Jamie Kennedy's restaurant, assisting in the launch of his cafe Hank's, next door to his well known JK Wine Bar, where I saw how a larger, more involved establishment could operate and still make money, until I started craving the fast paced atmosphere of a purely coffee-focused bar again, so I took a job as co-manager of the new Darkhorse Espresso until I found the location I wanted for my own place.

I was looking all along and trying to build up the experience I knew I would need do to my own shop until I felt I was ready, and the right location became available. I took a small spot that would allow me to focus strictly on coffee, so I wouldn't have to do anything else in order to pay my rent. It took my dad and I three months to build the store from scratch, and I finally have a bar that feels exactly the way I think a coffee shop should work in a perfect world.

Lets talk about your past briefly. How does one go from skateboarding to becoming an award-winning barista? Non-coffee drinkers may not have any idea there is a difference between someone like you, and from someone that makes their frappachino's at Starbucks.
I skated since I was 11, and what I can appreciate about both skateboarding and making coffee are the parallels of attention to detail: It's the accumulation of micro details that make both so enjoyable for me, and the fact that neither can be learned quickly... if you want to do it well. I remember looking at skate photos in the 90's to see if the skater was legit by whether they had orange Indy bushings, or trademark facial expressions, and the natural actions of their arms and fingers; those are the little things that make skateboarding unique to each person. Same with coffee: when I watch baristas and pay attention to how they make coffee, you see the micro actions in how they do it that make it their style, by how they pour latte art, to how they dose espresso from the grinder, everybody has their own way of doing it and series of putting it together.  

Why did you name the Coffee Bar after yourself?
I saw how much power in building a brand around a person there was when I worked for chef Jamie Kennedy, who markets himself as the brand -- Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar -- which people can really relate to, instead of just some stupid coffee reference or a random name. People like people, not stupid words for stuff.

Lets talk about the menu itself, which is also quite minimal. Why no frappachinos or Wi-Fi?
I wanted to have my store represent the product and focus we are about. A coffee shop that sells legit coffee that doesn't need to hide behind sugar, and blended ice, or whipcream and all the sissy frills that dilute what good coffee should be. We don't really have the space to be a sitdown second office/home/study for customers, so we stay away from being a wi-fi hangout. Nothing personal, it's just more about making it a comfortable place for people to come, enjoy a coffee, talk with friends, and continue on after a fuel up.

Lets talk about skateboarding. You are starting up a shop skate team as well as selling decks. What is the reasoning behind this?
I used to work at a couple of skate shops, and I'll always be tied in some way or another to skating, so now that I have my own shop, and most of the people who work there skate, I think it would be rad to continue my tie to skating by having a skate team for the shop. Its pretty low-key; the team guys get free coffee, and shop shirts, but while I was working at other cafes, they always sponsored a cycling team. A SJCB skate team just seemed more appropriate.

Who is on the team?
Tomas Morrison, Mike McCourt, Nick Genova, and Paul Liliani. They all skate the way skateboarding should be done, and for the right reasons, and all can drink coffee like champs.

What brands will you be carrying and why?
When we start pushing more skate product, I'd prefer to work with smaller independent brands, as well as some of the more recognizable brands that are doing it right. I'm psyched on Alena Skateboards out of Montreal; they make a good product, put out good graphics, and have good focus behind why they are in skateboarding. I'm of course forever indebted to Anti-Hero for staying rad in what seems to be an ever growing pool of shit in skating. They just do it their way, and don't sell out to how fashionable skateboarding has become.

Is running your own business cutting into your personal skate time?
Oh man, is it ever! Standing on my feet 12 hours a day is enough to make skating torture, but I still find time to have games of skate out front with Tomas and Mike. Running a business is also super stressful, and when I find myself totally wound up, going for a skate is one thing I can always count on for relief.

Skateboarders in general are a creative bunch. Any advice for fellow skaters who have dreams of doing their own thing?
Skateboarding gives you the initiative to leave your house and achieve something that people doubt you can do, socially or physically. If you really feel strongly about something, you just have to learn as much about it as possible, find a market for it, save up some cash, and you can do it. Even if you fail at first, or fail eventually, you at least tried something you love, and that's more than a lot of people can say they ever had the balls to attempt. You'll die a happy person knowing you did something you were good at, and were proud of.

Last Words?
Drink coffee or die.

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Related:
Who Likes Coffee? Manic Does.
Welcome To The Skate Oasis