Written by Jordan Michelman.

The influence of Dayglow Coffee cannot be understated. In 2017, the LA-founded brand helped pioneer a resurgence in the multi-roaster model, which had all but been left for dead by the wider specialty coffee industry. Now with multiple LA locations, plus spots in Brooklyn and Chicago, and a thriving roasting brand all of its own, Dayglow represents one of the great success stories of the last decade in American coffee. 

But an interesting facet of this story is how closely the Dayglow brand has become associated with Modbar. Launched in 2013 with R&D investment by La Marzocco, and wholly acquired by LM in 2016, the Modbar undercounter espresso machine system has ushered in a new approach to cafe bar design, and I’m not sure there’s another company that has embraced this more creatively than Dayglow.  

I spoke with Dayglow Coffee founder Thom Ifergan to learn more about how his company uses Modbar in all of its cafes nationwide—and what’s coming next for the brand. 

Hey Thom! Let’s start at the start—talk to me about the earliest days of Dayglow Silverlake, and how you started working with Modbar in your cafes.

“When we first opened the Silver Lake cafe, we actually used a La Marzocco GS3 and a Linea Mini. This was really like a financial thing for us; we didn’t have any money, and we were bootstrapping everything. But a few years later when we opened our Chicago shop, I was talking with Chad Little at LM a lot and telling him about how I had come to really be intrigued by what the Modbar could do from a concept standpoint. That Chicago cafe was the first time I’d designed a whole bar by myself, after having worked at a ton of different cafes before we opened Dayglow in the first place, and also working as a bartender. The Modbar was so interesting to me because it just felt more in line with that level of beverage service. We took a chance with Modbar in Chicago and from there I just kind of fell in love with it, and never looked back. We’ve used it in all our cafes ever since.” 

That’s quite a lot of cafes now, yes? 

Yes. We redid our two original LA cafes with Modbars, and they’re on bar for us in Chicago and Brooklyn as well, plus our new Venice location in LA. We have six open cafes at the moment, with six more under construction.

Six under construction?

Correct. More cafes in New York, plus new cafes in Miami and Washington DC, and more in LA as well. 

I want to ask about that new Venice cafe, which seems really intriguing form a design perspective, and also a bit different for Dayglow. Tell me more about it—it’s much larger than your other cafes, yes?

Well it’s a shared space, and it has 1500 square feet total, which we share with our ice cream concept, Anwan. The Dayglow footprint is more like 700 square feet, which is actually a little bit smaller than the Silver Lake or Chicago cafes, but in Venice, there’s an open-air component and way more outdoor space, so it feels different. It’s on Rose Avenue in Venice, just a four-minute walk to the beach—closer to the beach than it is to Abbott Kinney. 

How does designing a cafe around Modbar present design opportunities? And what challenges are you solving for that guests might not see? 

I think there’s a learning curve to designing the perfect undercounter set-up. These days, we work really closely with Modbar through the schematic design process, and I think we’ve learned how to really maximize space along the way. Something a guest might never notice, but we certainly think about, is that cafes with a classic espresso machine most often have a refrigerator placed right underneath it. That’s not always possible with a Modbar, and so we’ve played with other uses for space; in Venice, we installed a flush built-in ceramic shelving unit under the counter, and things like that have really helped us improve the use of space. 

Are people still surprised by it when they walk in? 

You know, people who are familiar with Dayglow are accustomed to the Modbar system by now. Sometimes I get asked if the Modbar is actually like a Dayglow exclusive machine, or bespoke to us somehow, because I think we’re one of the only cafes in LA to use them exclusively. But for common customers, I do think there’s still some surprise around it; they don’t immediately comprehend that it’s an espresso machine, which I think to me is actually pretty cool. The Modbar allows us to fill the rest of the space more evenly, and for us to create a connection in our space in a way that feels very us. We’re all in on it. It changed our entire service model, and the more we use them, the more I know it feels good. 

Visit Dayglow Coffee at their website and on Instagram.