the Kickaboom story

We were featured on Concrete Playground! For a short version of the Kickaboom story, read about it here. Otherwise, read on…

Kickaboom is owned by husband & wife team, Dylan and Alisha. Both mountains people from the beginning, Dylan grew up in Springwood and Alisha grew up in Glenbrook.

Coffee and hospitality were not their chosen career paths from early on, in fact they came to it quite late. Originally they both went to uni and studied the Psychology and Health fields. But these careers were short lived, after about 2 years in their respective industries Alisha and Dylan got married and set off around the world on the trip of a lifetime. They spent 6 months travelling through South-East Asia and then lived in the Netherlands. When they returned, Alisha did some further study in graphic design while Dylan landed a job at the then-named Pink Papaya (now Cassiopeia) in Springwood.

Dylan set his mind to learning as much as he could about the coffee industry from farming, roasting to brewing. He had a crack at the NSW Barista Championships in 2012 & 2013, with a best placing of 2nd. In 2013 Dylan landed his dream job running the coffee bar at Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills, a brand new project by Russell Beard (Reuben Hills), Mark Dundon (Seven Seeds) and Jin Ng. A year in Dylan moved into the role of managing all areas of the cafe. The goal of PCP was to be a platform for the coffee industry in Sydney, showcasing coffees, roasters and international guests in order to introduce and entertain customers with the quality focused side of the industry. It definitely achieved it’s goal with numerous overseas guests running week-long residencies and was also awarded Cafe of The Year by Good Food in 2017. In 2014 Dylan won the Australian Aeropress Competition, earning him a trip to Italy to compete at the World Aeropress Competition.

After all this, Dylan and Alisha wanted to bring all their creativity, love for coffee and hospitality back to the mountains. And amazingly, a shop became available in the middle of Glenbrook. They jumped on it and in March 2017, Kickaboom opened its doors, so happy to have found an awesome place in their hometown to share what they love with their community.

Our aim and focus has been to bring to our community a quality focused cafe. A place that serves unique, travel-inspired dishes that’s not the usual fare seen on a cafe menu, with so much of what we make being made in house. Everything from sauces, harissa, banana bread, liquorice bread, butter, milkshake syrups, soda syrups, almond milk and soft serve.

At Kickaboom, we bring in coffee from a variety of quality focused roasters who focus on ethically sourced and fairly traded beans. We hope to be a starting point of conversation around coffee that brings the idea of quality back to the people that produce the coffee and not the brand on the shiny package or the barista behind the machine.

And it’s a place where you can start, pause or finish your day in a friendly, positive atmosphere and take that feeling with you as you head out into the rest of the day.

So please, come check us out and say hello. We hope you enjoy what we’ve done!