The Zagreb Coffee Weekend, hosted in conjunction with the RNB Weekend, celebrates coffee and the restaurant industry in Croatia.
BY ASHLEY RODRIGUEZ
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of RNB Weekend
Croatia is getting its very own coffee festival! The Zagreb Coffee Weekend is taking place May 24-26, in conjunction with the second annual RNB Weekend. The RNB Weekend invites bartenders and restaurant professionals to mingle and learn more about their industry, and the addition of the Zagreb Coffee Weekend is a chance for coffee pros to join the conversation.
“It’s been a few years now that we at Cogito Coffee have been discussing with our partners Pepermint the possibility of doing a coffee festival in Croatia,” says event organizer Matija Belkovic, one of the co-owners of Cotigo Coffee. “The idea was to do a festival that is useful to the professionals in the industry, allowing them to get together, learn from each other, and have some fun along the way. On the other hand, we were hoping to attract the public [to] showcase the development of the coffee industry.”
The weekend, which will hosts panels, master classes, and an event hosted by The Barista League, will engage baristas on multiple levels—and it was soon after the organizers starting working on the event that the restaurant folks wanted in. “Once we started making this festival a reality, soon we heard from the restaurant and bar industry that it would be great to apply the same format to their segments and interest. So while we started with one festival, Zagreb Coffee Weekend, we ended doing another one, RNB Weekend,” says Matija.
“This is first year we decided to do them together; the idea being that we create a space where chefs, coffee roasters, wine and beer makers, etc. … can get exposure to what is going on in other specialized industries and hopefully be inspired and learn from each other,” Matija says. “We feel like this will be fun for the general public too, as they will have a lot of content to choose from and will get a picture of the hospitality industry at its best.”
At the Zagreb Coffee Weekend, you’ll find roasting classes taught by Scott Rao, a barista lesson from 2015 World Barista Champion Sasa Sestic, and a panel discussion led by Barista Magazine’s own Sarah Allen along with The Barista League creator Steven Moloney, and a workshop exploring what’s so great about coffee with Marko Marinkovic (Kava 37), Matija Hrkac (Cogito Coffee) and Oliver Oljica (Lively Roasters).
Tickets are still available here—and you’re going to want to hang onto your tickets even after the festival—your ticket stub will get you free entry into The Barista League event later on in the weekend.
