Relic Coffee, a new café and bakery specializing in Ecuadorian coffee, has been open in Summerville for some two months. A late Saturday afternoon has the small eatery bustling with customers, many of them neighborhood regulars, some even within walking distance.
Those patrons, who have been frequenting the shop since it opened, are its bread and butter, says owner César Schettini.
“This is special to us, because we already know them,” Schettini said. “We know them by name, we give them hugs when they come in, we interact with them on social media, they know my mom, they know my sister.”
The tiny bistro, tucked on a hill along Monte Sano Avenue, is a true family affair. Schettini runs it alongside his fiancé, Mona Acosta. His mother, Mercedes does the baking; his sister, Nikole Gonzalez, is a barista.
“We grew up eating and experiencing all these flavors,” said Gonzalez. “ We’ve been able to bring a little piece of Ecuador here.”
Relic’s unique draw, Schettini says, is likely the methodical process of preparing its coffee beverages, particularly its pour over “flash brew,” which he calls the shop’s “biggest superstar.”
“It’s all about the process,” said Celia Gary, a server at Relic who started working there a month ago after discovering and patronizing it.
Customers ordering can watch the method before them, as servers concoct any of Relic’s signature beverages, such as the Leopoldo Andrade, with its notes of peach and roasted almond, or the Nacional National, with graham cracker and citrus.
The sandwich menu boasts selections like the Galápagos, with smoked salmon and cream cheese or the Mindo, with sundried tomatoes and basil mayonnaise — made in-house.
The Sierra, comprised of prosciutto, arugula and Manchego cheese, with the house made mayo, on a sourdough baguette, has proved the shop’s most popular lunch item so far, says Schettini.
But Schettini also traces his vision of opening a bistro like Relic to when he was a child in Ecuador, seven years old, making and selling sandwiches outside weekend soccer games.
His original idea for Relic entailed offering coffees from various nations and cultures. That changed, however, when he and his fiancé stumbled upon Condor Chocolates, an Ecuadorian-owned factory, coffee roaster and shop based in Athens, Ga. The business produces the chocolate and the coffee from cacao beans grown in Ecuador.
“I bought like three or four bags, and when I took them back home, I started working with them, and it just blew my mind,” Schettini said. “I started understanding what they’re doing over there in my country, in the place where I grew up.”
He and his family’s approach to preparing the coffee and developing the various brews is the source of the café’s name, Schettini says. He likens the consumption and appreciation of coffee, both comparing it to and contrasting it from, various religious traditions in that it’s a unified phenomenon, something in which so many people consistently take part.
“It goes through, this a personal ritual, every morning,” he said. “So the way we treat it with the way we measure everything. We are very precise with the coffee and we the way we treat it is that where the name comes from: it’s a relic of humanity.”
Relic Coffee is located at 1504 Monte Sano Ave. To learn more, visit its website at https://www.caferelic.com/.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
