With four locations already in the city, Boxcar Social’s coffee-and-cocktails concept has good claim as one of the city’s go-to’s for uninterrupted, day-to-night relaxation. However, their fifth and latest location, Boxcar Laneway, is a little different. Besides taking alcoholic drinks off their menu, the new coffee-focused location is entirely run by its employees.
“The concept of the Laneway location involves a flat hierarchy within the shop, with select employees from all of our locations working 1-2 days a week in the space,” explains the owner team. “We wanted to test out a management model where each employee has the same level of authority, and is given the autonomy to create and execute programming they come up with.”
With this “flat hierarchy,” employees of the Laneway location also receive 50% of profits on top of their wages. This model gives their experienced baristas a chance to run the management side of things, including analyzing financial statements, improving profitability with actionable changes, choosing which products to carry in-store, and deciding on their hours of operation.
“Our hope is this location becomes an incubator for staff to learn on the job alongside their team members, and become more prepared for a management role in the future,” says the team.
Since opening Laneway and implementing this new concept in November, the owner team has been getting more hands-off and have spotted pleasant changes in the staff atmosphere.
“The employees involved in the project seem to be taking great pride and a sense of ownership in the space,” says the team. “It's been great to see everyone get excited as the traffic has increased steadily, and coming to the table with ideas on how to improve service and offerings.”
While it took a few months for customers to find this rather hidden spot, the staff is anticipating their first distribution of profits this quarter, to be split amongst themselves.
While employees reap their own benefits from this flat hierarchy, customers of Boxcar Laneway can just as easily feel its effects.
Created with the aesthetics of a Japanese listening room in mind, the Boxcar team saw the potential for this space as soon as they walked in, and took on the rest of the designs themselves.
“In addition to wanting to warm up the feel of the space (which was all brick, iron beams and concrete floors in an alleyway, creating a cold environment), the use of red oak cabinetry covering the walls created a beautiful sounding space—especially with vinyl,” says the team.
Tucking various sound equipment and vinyl records into natural oak shelves, it’s difficult not to feel at ease as soon as you enter the closed, warm space.
What turns this “listening room” into an experience is the fact that every staff member here has a say over which vinyl they want to play during their shift. Depending on who’s in charge that hour, you could be sipping a cup of coffee to a different vibe each time you visit.
Unlike their previous coffee-and-cocktail locations, at Boxcar Laneway, there's a much more intense and inventive program that’s singularly focused on coffee and its craft. The Laneway store also offers a great opportunity to showcase Boxcar’s own careful roasts through Subtext.
“Due to its size, it's not as high volume as our other locations,” says the team. “This allows our drip coffee menu to be entirely done with pour-overs—resulting in our ability to offer even more experimental coffees than other locations.”
While alcohol isn’t strictly on their day-to-day menu, Boxcar Laneway will soon be launching a series of intimate, evening music events where drinks and cocktails will be served. The store can also be booked for private events any day of the week.
Find the co-owners of Boxcar Laneway—Rose, Antoine, Zach, Mackenzie, Britt, and Huamin—at 298 Markham Street, every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Keep an eye on their upcoming evening events by following them on Instagram, or host your own soirée by emailing them at events@boxcarsocial.ca.
