When Richard Agudelo was working with Stefano Della Pietra on the design of his bespoke Officine Fratelli Bambi Strada X, he was inspired by La Marzocco models from the 1930s and 40s. “I saw some older version of the La Marzocco lion, and I fell in love with the detail,” says Richard. He knew, right then, that he wanted a hand-carved lion to be at the centerpiece of his new machine.
Agudelo is the founder and co-owner of Terrmoto Coffee in New York City and worked as a professional photographer before he started to become obsessed with coffee. When he was ready to pick out a new machine for Terromoto, he knew he wanted to work with Officine Fratelli Bambi. Says Agudelo, “My background is in the creative arts, and design is very important to me. It’s a representation of what we do at Terremoto.”
The body panels for the machine were all custom-designed by Della Pietra and the OFB team, who then had to hammer and bend each panel by hand to create the cascading interlocking shapes. The machine details are inspired by traditional discontinuous design that mixes different shapes and colors. The back panel is rounded for the lower and upper parts with an edgy insert that breaks curves with shape and color. The general shape takes inspiration from a streamlined design with big curves and dynamic lateral lines. The raw starting material for the whole machine is stainless steel, and the final colors are obtained by polishing all the components by hand as a base to apply galvanic treatments. This machine was also the first Strada X to get the Officine Fratelli Bambi treatment.
Agudelo chose the Strada X because his coffee bar, Terremoto Coffee, always offers five different espresso options daily and wants to ensure that the baristas can showcase each unique flavor profile. Building new profiles with the Strada X has let his staff explore how to find new expressions of each coffee, but he also really likes how easy the Strada X is to use. “We really like how intuitive the system is to change the profiles on the fly. The dial being able to switch between each profile easily is fantastic,” says Agudelo.
The mass-based profiles are also key for Terremoto to offer as many coffees as they do. Says Agudelo: “After a week with the machine, we see the repeatability of the shots we pull with custom pressure profiles. We are noticing different flavors coming from this new smart saturation feature in the Strada X. The ABR feature for the scales helps tremendously in rushes, and being able to go into manual mode to play with exotic and rare coffees is a wonderful feature to have.”
All in all, Terremoto’s bespoke Officine Fratelli Bambi Strada X is the perfect marriage of design and function. And while it truly is a piece of art, it’s also a tool. Stop by anytime and Agudelo and his staff are happy to pull you a shot from it.
Terremoto Coffee is located at 328 W 15th St, New York, NY 10011.
You can visit their website and follow them on Instagram.
