They didn't knock, they didn't ask permission, they just opened the door and came in like that, as if they were at home!

It was this absurd thought that crossed my mind when the first customers of the Stray Bean, a New Zealand family of four, walked in. Getting people in was the goal, after all, and I had just succeeded for the first time!

Absurd, but maybe not so surprising. I had spent a year launching and carrying out this project, with all the plans, permits, construction, equipment purchases, and everything else that it entailed. I had done everything to build a space where people would feel good and comfortable. Like a home.

If it were a house, we would put locks on the doors and control who comes in and who doesn't. And if we had a lot of money, we would choose a quiet and affluent neighborhood, with little noise or disturbance that human life can bring. And the wall around the house would be higher, and the security system more secure. We protect ourselves. We isolate ourselves.

The Stray Bean is the opposite of all that. Anyone on the street can come in, sit down and have a good coffee for just a few euros. No checks, no reservations, no judgement. We welcome people from all walks of life: artists and accountants, business owners and the unemployed, grandchildren and grandparents, locals from the neighbourhood we’ve known for five years now and tourists from all over the world we’re seeing for the first time.

You are all “strays” to us, people who wander and who are brought to us by chance.

If you want a good coffee, come to us. Or if you want something else, we have plenty of other drinks and treats to offer. That's what we do. But the most important thing is that once you walk through our door, you're glad you came. We will be too.

That was always the idea – it just took me a few minutes on that first day of opening in 2017 to realize it for myself.