Beyond Coffee: Creating the X Factor
In March 2026, I was invited to speak on a panel at MICE in Melbourne about a topic that feels more relevant than ever in hospitality:
What is the X factor, and how do you create it?
I was lucky enough to share the panel with Sergio Londoner from Jack Murat Coffee Farm and Luke Floyd from Artisti Coffee on the Central Coast. I was invited to represent The Grounds as Director of Coffee, and this article is a reflection on that conversation, along with some of the ideas I’ve continued to think about and develop in the months since.
What made the conversation interesting was that the answer was never as simple as saying “make better coffee” or “post more on social media.” That was really the heart of it.
What actually is the X factor? Is it the coffee, the food, the service, the design, social media, storytelling, community, or simply the feeling people get when they walk in?
Maybe it is all of those things. Or maybe it is how all of those things come together.
Great coffee matters, of course. It always will. Food and service matter just as much. But in a market as competitive as Australia, those foundations are increasingly expected. So what makes people choose one café over another? What makes them remember a place, bring their friends, take photos, talk about it and come back?
That is where I think the X factor lives.
Experience is not everything, but it is almost everything
As coffee professionals, it is easy to believe coffee should be everything. For a long time, I probably believed that too. There was certainly a period in specialty coffee where amazing coffee could carry a very simple venue. A small espresso bar, a hole in the wall, a few milk crates, a good machine, great baristas and incredible coffee could be enough to build a following.
But hospitality has moved on.
Today, good coffee is expected — although it can still be surprisingly hit and miss. It is the entry point, not the finish line. Customers still care about quality, but they also care about how a place makes them feel. They notice the service, energy, music, lighting, story, design, staff and sense of connection.
Experience is what makes people remember you and, perhaps more importantly, remember how you made them feel.
Learning from experience led hospitality
I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to work around some incredibly creative people and to spend time in very different styles of coffee and hospitality businesses. From busy espresso bars to more immersive hospitality environments, each has taught me something different about what creates an experience.
In a great espresso bar, coffee, speed, precision and service rhythm can be everything. Every movement matters. The baristas, workflow, consistency and interaction with regulars all become part of the experience.
In other venues, the experience can be much broader. Design, lighting, music, food, coffee, service and hundreds of small details can work together to create a completely different feeling. The best hospitality experiences understand that people are not only consuming a product. They are experiencing the whole place.
The smell, lighting, people, service, design, food, coffee, energy and tiny details all contribute to that feeling.
Coffee is part of that theatre.
The X factor is not just social media
One part of the panel discussion was around social media, and people were curious to hear our thoughts on it.
Social media is obviously a massive part of modern hospitality. It can create awareness, promote products and events, tell stories, build community and give people a sense of a brand long before they ever walk through the door.Luke Floyd from Artisti Coffee spoke about how social media became an important part of his business during the COVID period, which I thought was a really interesting point.
Social media can be incredibly powerful, but I still think the real X factor has to exist in the venue, product or experience first. Social media can amplify what is already there, but it cannot replace it. A beautiful post might get someone interested enough to visit or try the product once, but the feeling they have when they actually arrive is what makes them remember it.
The social media post is the invitation. The experience still has to deliver.
Stepping into another world
For me, one of the clearest examples of the X factor is when a venue makes people feel as though they have stepped into another world.
That world does not need to be extravagant. It could be a tiny neighbourhood espresso bar where the barista seems to know everyone who walks through the door. It could be a polished dining room, a bustling bakery, a quiet minimalist coffee bar or a playful venue full of colour and energy.
What matters is that the place knows what it wants to be and how it wants people to feel.
That does not have to mean a grand concept or an expensive fit-out. It might simply be a clear sense of identity. A café might want to feel calm and considered, energetic and social, highly focused on coffee craft, deeply connected to its neighbourhood, or somewhere people can slow down for a while.
Once that idea is clear, the decisions around it start to become more coherent. The music, lighting, service style, menu, design, uniforms, coffee program and even the language staff use can all reinforce that identity.
I think this is where philosophy becomes important. Not philosophy in an academic sense, but a simple understanding of what the place believes hospitality and coffee should be. When that philosophy is clear, customers may never consciously identify it, but they can often sense when everything belongs together.
There is probably a psychological layer to this to. People often want to feel part of something larger than simply the transaction. They identify with places, brands, communities and ideas that reflect something about who they are or perhaps who they want to be. Sometimes that connection is obvious, but often it is much more subconscious. A certain space, style of service, type of coffee, music, language or atmosphere can make someone feel, this place is for people like me.
That sense of belonging can be incredibly powerful. It turns a café from somewhere you buy coffee into somewhere you identify with, return to, talk about and sometimes even make part of your routine or identity. Some of the most memorable hospitality environments I have experienced understand this well. The room, service style, music, food, the coffee philosophy, design and small details all reinforce the same idea rather than competing with one another.
Experience does not happen simply because somewhere looks good. It happens when people actively think about how the customer feels.
And that is the point.
People are not always just walking into a café or purchasing just a bag of coffee.
Sometimes they are walking into a story.
One thing I’ve come to appreciate through my experience in coffee is how much more powerful it becomes when the story behind it is brought to life. Coffee already carries an incredible story of place, people, farming, processing, roasting, brewing and hospitality but much of that can remain invisible unless we choose to tell it.
That is one of the things I find humbling about coffee. A single cup can represent the work, knowledge and decisions of so many people before it ever reaches the person drinking it.
When those stories are shared well, they can also help people connect more deeply with the café or brand presenting them. Customers begin to understand not just what you sell, but what you value. Over time, that can create a sense of identity and belonging, a feeling that this is a place, or a brand, that represents something I connect with. Packaging, traceability, producer stories, origin, processing, education and customer engagement can all help turn a cup of coffee into something more memorable. Education can be a huge part of that experience.
When people begin to understand how coffee is produced from seed to cup, it can change the way they connect with what they are drinking. They start to see that coffee is not simply a product, but the result of farming, processing, roasting, brewing, training and hospitality all coming together.
For many people, coffee is still just “coffee.” They know what they like, but they may never have had the opportunity to understand how wide and exciting the world of coffee can be.
Part of the opportunity for us in coffee is to open that door.
When someone learns where a coffee comes from, who produced it, how it was processed, how it was roasted and why it tastes the way it does, the experience can become much richer. It stops being only a product and becomes a connection.
Training turns coffee into hospitality
Training was another part of the panel discussion.
In any strong coffee program, training plays a huge role. When staff understand origin, processing, roast style and flavour, they can guide customers with more confidence and create a better experience.
That takes time, effort and repetition, but it matters. When someone can confidently explain a coffee, understand what a customer is looking for and connect them with the right coffee and the story behind it, the experience becomes much more powerful.
Throughout my career, some of the most rewarding feedback has been hearing someone say they have never tried a coffee like that before, or watching someone become interested in a part of coffee they previously knew very little about.
It has also made me think differently about the question of quality. As someone involved in coffee, I often ask myself:
What kind of experience is this coffee going to create for the person drinking it?
Will it surprise them? Will it teach them something? Will it challenge what they thought coffee could taste like? Will it create a moment they remember, or perhaps even trigger a memory from the past?
That is where coffee, education, training and hospitality begin to connect.
The coffee is not separate from the experience. It is one of the most important parts of it.
Could the X factor be everything around the foundations?
The best cafés understand that coffee, food and service are the foundations. They have to be strong. Without them, the rest does not really matter.
But maybe the X factor is what happens around those foundations.
Is it the way a venue makes people feel? The story they step into? The staff, energy, details, education, music, design or sense of discovery? Is it the little moments that make someone want to come back?
That was really the heart of the panel discussion. We were not trying to reduce the X factor to one simple answer. We were asking whether it could be social media, experience, community, storytelling, training, design, service or something less obvious.
My view is that the X factor is rarely one thing. It is usually the way all of those things come together.
Coffee, food and service give people confidence in a venue. But the X factor is often what makes them feel something.
And feeling is what people remember.
Themes matter
Another idea I’ve become increasingly interested in is theme — although I do not necessarily mean “theme” in the theatrical sense.
A strong theme or identity gives a venue direction. It helps the design, menu, music, uniforms, signage, product range and customer journey feel connected rather than accidental.
Without a clear idea, a café can easily become another nice room with good coffee. With a strong identity, it can become memorable.
The theme does not have to be extravagant. Not every café needs animals, chandeliers, copper pipes or a theatrical fit-out. But I think every great café should understand what kind of world it is inviting people into.
Is it calm and minimal? Loud and energetic? Nostalgic? Local and community-focused? Premium and refined? Playful? Educational? Built around coffee craft and innovation? Built around connection?
Once you understand that, the details start to make sense.
The little details become the big thing
A lot of people look at successful venues and notice the obvious things first: the design, menu, branding or social media. But often the real magic is in details people may not consciously notice.
The way someone is greeted. The smell when they walk in. The lighting at different times of day. The uniforms. The packaging. The playlist. The way the coffee is presented and executed. The language staff use. The way the venue feels as it transitions through the day.
Individually, these things might seem insignificant.
Together, they create feeling.
And feeling is what people remember.
What I took away from MICE
One of my biggest takeaways from MICE was the opportunity to step outside the technical side of coffee for a moment and think more broadly about hospitality.
My career has given me the chance to work with and learn from some incredibly talented people across coffee, service, training and experience-led hospitality. Those experiences have shaped the way I think about what we are actually creating when we serve someone a cup of coffee.
When you work in coffee, it is easy to see coffee as the main event. But the customer rarely experiences coffee in isolation. They experience the space, service, story, people, energy, education and feeling around it.
Since the panel, I’ve also been reflecting on how powerfully coffee connects to memory through smell, flavour, sight, ritual and feeling. That idea probably deserves an article of its own, but it also reminds me why experience matters so much.
People do not just remember what they drank.
They remember where they were, who they were with and how the experience made them feel.
The future of cafés is not only about quality. Quality will always matter, but increasingly I think it is also about connection. Customers want more than a transaction. They want places with personality, places that feel like something and places that make them feel part of a story, a community or a moment.
The X factor is not one single trick. It is the combination of intention, detail, creativity, education and great hospitality.
Ultimately, it is the feeling people leave with.
And if you can create a feeling that people genuinely want to experience again, you have something much more powerful than simply a good café.
You have a place people remember.
These are my personal reflections based on my own experience in coffee and hospitality. Coffee Anarchy is an independent project, and the views expressed here are my own.