Square One: Lava Coffee

Posted on 19 January, 2024

3,660,000. That’s how many coffees Lava Coffee has brewed, poured and served across its 14-year history.

It’s a number that brings a smile to Lava owner Lincoln Fairleigh’s face as we both struggle to wrap our heads around exactly how many flat whites, iced lattes and espressos have made their way across Lava’s counter and into the hands of happy Canberrans.

While this number is testament to Lava’s cult following and the quality of their product, for Lincoln it’s all about the simple pleasure of providing people with an exceptional coffee.

“I just love making coffee for people every day, so waking up and being able to do what you love every day and to be able to continue growing has been really lovely.”

From a single café in Weston that opened in 2009, Lava has expanded to Phillip and most recently, Kingston’s Eyre Street Precinct, where we arrive to find Lincoln behind the sleek La Marzocco coffee machine. Clearly, you can take the lad out of Weston but not out from behind the coffee machine.

“It’s so great going to each of our cafés because you see regulars at everyone,” says Lincoln. “People just start coming in for their regular coffees and suddenly you know them all by name.”

While 14 years is a long time to be in business, the pandemic highlighted to Lincoln and his team just how special a café can be to its community.

“When we were open during lockdown, so many people would come to our cafés – and for a lot of people, that would be their only five-minute face-to-face interaction for that day. Then as lockdowns eased, people were always running into people they hadn’t seen in a while or meeting friends and loved ones there, so it became a real community hub. Coffee really does bring people together.”

A steady stream of people flow through the café’s minimalist interiors as Lincoln and I chat, and it’s clear that Lava has already found devotees in its new Inner South home. Naturally, this welcoming community atmosphere is something Lincoln would like to bring to even more suburbs, but for Lava, all growth is carefully considered, with sustainability front of mind.

“We want to continue that slow and steady, steady growth…we don’t have massive expansion plans,” says Lincoln. “We just want to focus on what we love doing and never deviate from our vision of just making great coffee for people.”

This considered growth is obvious in his approach to the back end of the business too. When Lincoln couldn’t find a Point of Sale system that suited Lava’s unique needs, he approached Square.

“We wanted a modern system that took us away from the banks and gave us a lot of online cloud resources too,” explains Lincoln. “We’re part of the Square Developer Program, so we’ve built some custom software solutions that allow us to integrate into the Square POS architecture.”

“I did a little bit of programming in high school and have learned a lot in building our POS system. Square also gives us instant reporting so that we can make smart choices about our business.”

As for the future of Lava (and whether you’ll find one in your suburb next), Lincoln says in five years, the goalposts will be the same.

“We’re 14 years into making coffee and we still love waking up every day and making coffee so we’ll be continuing to do that. Maybe growing to another store or two but just making excellent coffees for people.”