Written by Jordan Michelman.
Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors co-owners Ryan Hall (a Seattle native) and Kathleen Carmichael are celebrating 10 years of their iconic Austin, Texas third wave coffee bars here in 2024. Across the last decade, Figure 8 has seen the neighborhood around them change enormously, and though I doubt they’d say so themselves, an informed outsider might credibly opine that Figure 8 was one of those catalysts for change, resulting in an East Austin arts, business, culture, food & beverage milieu that is utterly dazzling, supportive of new and old businesses simultaneously, and welcoming both guests and locals by the truckful.
Now, with multiple cafes and a catering business, Ryan Hall has used La Marzocco espresso machines exclusively throughout his career (Figure 8 currently has a La Marzocco GB5). “Gimme one good grinder and a Marzocco,” says Hall, “and I could crush a line in no time.” He even credits a single group La Marzocco for saving the company during the dark days of COVID.
Read on for more on the story of Figure 8, plus a crucial list of where to find tacos and drinks the next time you’re in Austin.
For folks who haven’t been able visit Austin recently, tell us about Figure 8 — how do you describe your cafe to someone who is unfamiliar?
I think Kathleen and I opened Figure 8 under the auspices of offering really beautiful, well-sourced coffees with familiarity and a lack of pretension. We exist in a fairly old building on the Eastside of Austin, a neighborhood that, until recently, was very neglected by the City of Austin. Having our cafe open in 2014, there was a sense of isolation from the rest of the city, and I think we rightfully felt like honoring the residents around us with good music and a nice conversation and a great cup of coffee. The plan was pretty simple, and I’ll say after ten years, I’m very honored that they’ve supported us this long and continue to do so. As one of our long-time baristas would say ”Have fun, be yourself,” and I think we’ve managed to stick to that motto.
Tell me more about the gear set-up you’re using — has it changed and been refined over the years?
Both of our cafes use GB5s. Those are machines that haven’t changed very wildly for a long time, and Kathleen and I both have many years of experience with them. It made the most sense to have machines that our staff could go cafe to cafe and understand how to use easily, as well, from a support perspective, having one group of parts to have a back stock of made a lot of sense. The only change is a brand new wine focused cafe we are opening, called Strangelove, that cafe is using a new Linea AV.
What is it you feel connected with about La Marzocco equipment? Why do you choose to use this gear?
I had the pleasure of first working with brand-new La Marzocco gear in 2005, and I loved it. I still do. There’s a lot of familiarity with the gear; I can work with most of the models very seamlessly and work on most models very seamlessly on my own when I need to. There is a lot of nice stuff out there these days, and while I value the new stuff out there in the world, I’ve routinely had very well-disciplined baristas say ”Gimme one good grinder and a Marzocco, and I could crush a line in no time.” They’re just reliable machines that put up with a ton of demand.
I’ll even credit a humble La Marzocco GS3 with saving Figure 8 during the Covid era of 2020. That one group machine we posted up at the front door pulled thousands and thousands and thousands of shots, and it’s still ticking. Lastly, as a Seattle native, it’s always nice to swing by the LM showroom and see which cafe is pulling shots in there, etc. It’s a unique experience that we don’t often get down here in Austin.
I know catering is a big part of what you do — what’s your catering rig like? What challenges does catering present for Figure 8?
We run a pretty simple catering rig currently: a Marzocco GS3 I snagged off of my buddy George for a song a few years back and a couple of Mazzer Roburs. We don’t actually cater too much; rather, we do offsite gigs at the Jester King Brewery outside of Austin in Dripping Springs. (We actually just co-won a pretty cool award from Rolling Stone magazine with them earlier this month).
It’s a really beautiful spot that offers sours, farmhouse ales, saisons, lighter bodied beverages that I think are advantageously served in our very hot subtropical Austin climate. I suppose most of the challenges we face out there really just involve the difficulties of running an espresso machine in the middle of a field in the Texas Hill Country, surrounded by goats, making sure we have a consistent power supply. We’ve been known to flip a lot of breakers. So it goes. We always find a way.
It’s your perfect day off in Austin — where are you eating? Which tacos? Which bars?
Ooooh, tacos. There are many kinds, so I’m moody about them. Do you want incredible tacos from a trailer on north Lamar? Rio Grande Valley-style tacos? CDMX? Breakfast tacos? Tex Mex? Upscale versions or not so much of any of these variations? There are no wrong answers, really.
However, when I want the right answer every time, I go to Cuantos Tacos and Discada, both of which are really close to our cafe and roasting space on Chicon. Both trailers are minimal; they only serve a few things, and they serve those tacos very well. They’ve never once disappointed me, and they continue to blow out of towners’ minds, rightfully so. I think they helped elevate the Austin taco experience in the last handful of years, and I like, in my mind, to think that they do with tacos what Kathleen and I tried to do with coffee and espresso. We wanted to create a fun, unpretentious space with really beautiful, clean coffees that we hoped everyone would be comfortable enough to enjoy.
Cuantos: the Suadero and the Longaniza slay me. Discada only offers one taco: get many of them. And do not pass on the Esquites.
Bars. Lord, we have no shortage of those around town, especially near our roasting space. So I will admit, I’ve always tended to gravitate towards wine, but really, as a true Austinite, I’m an equal opportunity quaffer. Lolo is a great space offering a lot of low and no-intervention (yep, natural) wines. They have a good crew, and I have a lot of respect for what they’ve done. Community Garden does something similar in the neighborhood, and they’re just a walk away from my house. King Bee is a beautiful all-around bar; anyone can go and have a great time. They’ve been putting on some old bluesmen that have been playing around town for decades, and I think that means a lot to the Eastside community that’s been in Austin for some time. And I would be amiss to not mention Whisler’s. While it can get a little hairy getting in there on the weekends, the staff there seem to have a lot of appreciation for Figure 8 and Kathleen and me, and they have a quiet, little mezcaleria upstairs that’s highly worth checking out. That’s something I’ve only ever really seen in Mexico and Guatemala, and I think their version of it here in Austin does the original wonders.
Visit Figure 8’s official website and follow them on Instagram.
