Justin Fox Burks
Walk through the doors to the main atrium of the Crosstown Concourse building, and the aroma of fresh-roasted coffee beans from French Truck Coffee welcomes visitors with a fragrant and hospitable embrace.
Started in New Orleans in 2012 by former chef Geoffrey Meeker, French Truck prides itself on brewing the freshest possible cup of coffee from fair-trade beans sourced worldwide.
“One of the things people forget about is that coffee is a crop, just like any other,” says Meeker, a New Orleans resident since 1999. “If you don’t buy it when it’s fresh, you’re not going to have a good cup of coffee.”
Justin Fox Burks
Although the company is headquartered in New Orleans, the Crosstown location roasts all the French Truck coffee beans sold locally. “Everywhere we have a location, we have a roaster, so we can roast the coffee and either brew it immediately or put it in a bag and give it to the customer immediately, so they have the same experience at home,” Meeker says.
Meeker began the company after sampling a cup of coffee made with a gift from his cousin. “I have been working in five-star restaurants my entire career,” Meeker says. “I had this coffee, and it was the best cup of coffee I have had in my life.”
He learned that roasting and freshness are the keys to great coffee. “There’s a significant difference in flavor between coffee that’s less than 10 days old and coffee that’s older,” says Meeker.
To start, Meeker bought a coffee roaster and set up shop in the laundry room of his home, delivering his freshly roasted beans to friends in the restaurant industry. He bought a small, yellow, French-style truck for the deliveries and now operates two coffee shops in Memphis and four more in Louisiana.
“There are a lot of similarities between Memphis and New Orleans, whether it is the music or the food or the people or the culture,” Meeker says. “It feels like home.”
Jimmy Lewis, owner of the former Relevant Roasters in Memphis, contacted Meeker to ask if he would like to join forces to open a shop in the new Crosstown building. The two companies merged initially, but Lewis sold his share to Meeker in the fall of last year.
Meeker is exceptionally proud of how his company contributes to the personal growth of employees, like self-proclaimed “coffee nerd” Jeff Pates, now head roaster of the Crosstown location. After working for a church and traveling to play music, Pates joined French Truck as a barista and delivery worker.
Pates says the Crosstown shop currently has coffee from 10 different countries, including Nicaragua, Kenya, El Salvador, and Peru. The shop’s decaf coffee is from Mexican beans, and Memphis Premium Dark Roast, made from Brazilian and Colombian coffee, is Crosstown’s best-selling blend.
Company representatives visit every coffee growing site, and Pates particularly likes the company’s focus on fair-trade practices. “You can go to the farm, and you can talk to the famers, see their practices, their farming methods,” he says.
(Editor's Note: A multi-story package on the restaurants at Crosstown Concourse appeared in the February issue of Memphis magazine. For the online edition, look for individual stories, including an interview Todd Richardson., and stories on Mama Gaia. and Next Door Eatery's Kimbal Musk. Up next: So Nuts and Confections.)
