Love Brisbane: Rise and grind in Brisbane - Fonzie Abbott

Updated: 9 May 2022

Fonzie Abbott founder Dan Pappas is fuelled by a passion for good coffee, cool beverages and the Brisbane community. 

In 2010, Dan Pappas was looking for a way to bring his love of surfing, travel, good times and amazing coffee together.

He discovered great waves and great beans were often found in the same vicinity, which has taken him to interesting surfing and coffee cultivation locations around the world from Ethiopia to Timor-Leste, Indonesia to Mexico and Brazil.

The former race car driver founded Fonzie Abbott as a hole-in-the-wall cafe in 2011, which has become a beloved Brisbane institution and a wholesale business based on more than a decade of refinement and dedication.

Over the years, Fonzie Abbott has evolved and added to its Albion coffee roastery to include a brewery with a lineup of award-winning craft beers and a distillery for Wishbone Spirits gin and vodka and Long Rays soda and tonics.

In short, the Fox Street headquarters has become a one-stop libation hotspot and lifestyle beverage company that lays claim to being the world’s only roastery, brewery and distillery under the one roof.

“Our biggest achievement at Fonzie Abbott is seeing our customers drinking our beverages in the cafe and taproom on site and our wholesale customers serving our beverages throughout Brisbane,” Dan says.

“We enjoy being a part of the local community and Brisbane’s desire to support locally made products has been a part of our success.

“We now have more than 150 wholesale customers across South-East Queensland, which we are really proud of.

Dan says one of his most memorable moments at Fonzie Abbott was marking 10 years in business last year and still thriving despite COVID and supply chain challenges.

“We saw a decline in premise sales associated with our brewing operations during COVID, so online sales have been a saving grace in what has been a very difficult couple of years.”

“We had to adapt very quickly in order to trade, supply to our wholesale customers and survive. It is something we could not have done without our amazing community and dedicated staff.

“The 2022 floods is one of the moments we will remember as well, for different reasons,” he adds.

Fonzie Abbott HQ was submerged during the recent floods with the team setting up a pop-up store for beer and coffee sales outside the premises once the rain subsided.

“Mayhem is one way to describe our business experience with the floods,” Dan says.

“No matter what happens you can choose to deal with it in a positive way. Our team acted very quickly and we survived both COVID-19 and the floods.”

Looking forward to the future, Dan’s aim is continuing to grow a sustainable business through engaging with customers and providing coffee, beer and spirits to the Brisbane community through retail outlets across the city.

“We hope to keep serving our customers and manufacturing our great coffee, beer, gin and vodka and watching everyone enjoy our beverages made in Brisbane.”