DECEMBER 9, 2015 BY RACHEL GROZANICK

In the revitalized neighborhood of Liberty Heights is a small grocery store peddling locally-sourced, organic food and, just outside, locals were drawn to an unassuming hand-built coffee cart--Three Pines Coffee—that operated there for the last several months. A labor of love from Nick Price (formerly of Handsome Coffee Roasters and Blacktop) and his partner, Meg Frampton, Three Pines Coffee was born out of two musicians’ adventures in Los Angeles and their decision to take those adventures back home, to Salt Lake City.

​Frampton and Price originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue their musical careers. Price started working in coffee—at the now defunct Handsome Coffee Roasters—after his handyman skills landed him a job offer. Frampton hand-crafted jewelry and sold it at local art and craft fairs. Both continued to play music, but as Price got deeper into coffee, he and Frampton started to notice that a specialty coffee scene was budding back home each time they returned to Salt Lake City.

Pointing to The Rose Establishment as one of the places pushing the coffee scene forward, Price recalls, “I was like, man, this is so cool that this exists in Salt Lake…the coffee scene must be catching on here!” Price made the decision to found Three Pines in Salt Lake, rather than Los Angeles, noting that L.A. had already watched the coffee scene progress well beyond the incubation stage. “Salt Lake seemed like a good idea. It seemed like a place where I could make a mark and sort of do my thing—which is essentially the Handsome way, but bring that here [where] that would be a really cool and fresh new thing—and it is.”

​The duo started out catering at events. Their mobile setup serves strictly espresso-based drinks for now—exclusively using beans from Heart Roasters. The Three Pines cart, crafted by Price in his father’s auto garage with the help of his brother, sports a La Marzocco GS3 and aNuova Simonelli Mythos One Clima Pro Grinder. After about a month, the owner of Liberty Heights Fresh approached them about establishing daily hours outside his high-end organic grocery store. The pair felt the store, its clientele, and the cart were a good fit, and their business has rapidly grown from there.
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Price and Frampton have joined the specialty coffee scene in Salt Lake before it’s completely taken off, which comes with its own rewards and challenges. Pioneering a food or drink movement before it’s fully caught on somewhere is exciting, but there may be a heavier onus to acclimate customers to a new approach. “It was kind of tricky to ask people their opinions but at the same time kind of educate them,” said Price.

​Price welcomes the friendly dialogue he has with his customers and is confident that SLC is prime for good coffee. “This city is so ready for it. People are so curious about it and so intrigued. Every time they come to the cart they’re like – You’re weighing everything? What does that do? What’s that thing? Everyone’s just really interested.”

That Salt Lake City is now jonesing for good coffee, having had its first few tastes, is evinced by the overwhelmingly positive response Three Pines has received. In mid-November, they shuttered their regular stint at Liberty Fresh to focus on fitting-out a brick-and-mortar shop to open in 2016. Price would like to be able to offer drip coffee and food options in a warm space where customers can relax. He also wants to run with the educational aspect of his business.
“I want to do public cuppings and brew classes,” said Price, musing on plans for his future space. “I want to be able to offer more.”

​Rachel Grozanick is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. Grozanick has contributed previously to Bitch Magazine, 90.5 WESA in Pittsburgh, and 90.7 KBOO in Portland. Read more Rachel Grozanick on Sprudge.

Howard Bryman | October 15, 2015

​Nick Price has a habit of working with the right people at the right time. A skilled musician, handyman, barista and now entrepreneur, Price’s collaborative whirlwind over the past decade or so is culminating now with the Three Pines Coffee cart in Salt Lake City, Utah, which commenced operation this past June.

Co-owned with his girlfriend and longtime collaborator Meg Frampton, Three Pines aims to raise the bar for specialty coffee in Salt Lake, a scene which Price describes as in bloom but not quite at fruition. The cart, custom built by Price himself, is decked out with a paddle-actuated La Marzocco GS3 and Mythos Clima Pro grinder for espresso and a towering EK43 grinder for cold brew and pourover. It’s a set-up befitting the former Handsome Coffee barista, whose association with Handsome co-founder Tyler Wells yielded not only friendship and experience but also an ongoing, dependable and profound resource for consultation and connections.

Wells, now at the helm of Blacktop Coffee in Los Angeles, has been integral to Price’s development in specialty coffee. “He really helped connect me with everyone that I needed to be connected with,” Price told Daily Coffee News. “I talk to him weekly about what’s going on, what he thinks I should be doing and if he has any advice for me.” As Three Pines is currently zeroing in on location for a brick and mortar café, input from Wells has proven invaluable. “He has been hugely helpful in that,” said Price. “I talk to him often.”

Price met Frampton back in their days at the University of Utah, where Price played drums for the pop rock outfit Meg and Dia, fronted by Frampton on guitar and her sister, Dia, singing. Meg and Dia had a considerably successful run from 2004 to 2012 that included extensive touring, several major label record releases and videos shown on MTV. When Dia decided to pursue a solo career that capitalized on attention she received after appearing on the Fox reality TV show The Voice, Price and Frampton moved to Los Angeles to pursue other projects in music.

It was then that the pair fell into another pop group, Springtime Carnivore, while Price made ends meet and got bitten by the coffee bug in league with the Handsome Coffee crew. Price rode along through the swan song of Handsome in its acquisition by Blue Bottle, then followed Wells over to Blacktop Coffee in April of 2014, while also assisting Wells by training the staff at his coffee counter in the Venice, Calif. establishmentSuperba Food + Bread.

Superba serves coffee roasted by Portland’s Heart Coffee Roasters, which was Price’s first professional connection to a company he’d already grown fond of on the road. “We used to tour all over the US, and every time we’d get to Portland we’d always go to Heart,” said Price. “It kind of became our special place, our home away from home while we were on the road. It was always consistent, it was always delicious and the vibe there is great. We’re just obsessed with the whole Pacific Northwest vibe, anyway.”

Through visits back home to SLC for holidays and family events, the small but promising developments he found in the specialty coffee scene indicated signs of golden opportunity. “There was a lack of anyone doing really good third-wave specialty coffee,” said Price. “It was on its way, and there were some places that I really liked, but I wanted to bring that here.” Price also noted the absence of a mobile espresso cart in the city, which was a niche his experience in charge of Handsome’s “Handsome Traveler” cart program made him particularly well-suited to pursue.

“Being back in Salt Lake and having my own coffee project has been the funnest thing that I’ve done with my life,” said Price. “I’m super stoked and really excited for the future.”
With offerings by Heart in Three Pines’ hoppers, the cart provides an experience to SLC coffee drinkers unlike any they can get elsewhere, although Price reports that his local clientele often asks why the business doesn’t serve coffee roasted locally in SLC. “We get this question a lot from locals, because Salt Lake has this thing about everything being local,” said Price, who ultimately just prefers Heart’s style over what’s available closer by. “There’s some good stuff but it’s just not there yet.”

Yet even if a new roastery were to open in Salt Lake that offered everything Price looks for in the cup, he wouldn’t be swayed. “I think I would still stick with Heart,” said Price. “They’ve just been so helpful and they roast coffee the way we love coffee. I don’t see any reason why we would change.” Only upon starting their own roastery would Three Pines consider breaking ties with Heart, and though an expansion of that magnitude is the dream, Price doesn’t see that happening for a good number of years.

In the much shorter term, Three Pines is close to a deal on a space in the 9th and 9thcommercial district, where a building is currently undergoing renovation and a street fair recently brought the cart a strong wave of business. Currently the cart operates on the patio outside the Liberty Heights Fresh market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, as well as at farmers markets and special events around town. Price reported that if all goes well, a small brick and mortar “grab and go” Three Pines café could be open as soon as the first quarter of 2016.

You might have missed the quiet opening of Salt Lake’s newest member of the specialty coffee scene. But for those of us who have been wishing for a specialty coffee shop in Liberty Heights, the Three Pines Coffee cart has been a revelation and a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

Three Pines’ co-owners, Nick Price and Meg Frampton, both met over coffee, when Nick was working for Handsome Coffee in Los Angeles. “Handsome was so special to me,” says Nick. “It really shaped how I feel about coffee.” In addition to working the coffee bar during the week, Nick was in charge of the “Handsome Traveler” coffee cart on weekends. “It was the best of both worlds,” he says.

When Meg and Nick noticed the absence of a mobile coffee business in the Salt Lake specialty coffee community, they seized the opportunity to start their own. Nick channeled his experiences with Handsome when selecting their equipment and calibrating grinds and shots, and built the coffee cart to his specifications (“I’m a tall guy!”). Meg, as a visual artist, developed the Three Pines logo and branding. Meg also runs their social media and marketing activities, including their popular Instagram feed.

The resulting concept has a cohesiveness and effortlessness that belies extreme care and consideration. The menu is simple and focused, with options for espresso drinks or pour-over coffee. “We’ll probably add some things over time,” says Nick. “But for now, we want the focus to be on really good espresso and great coffee.”

As they’ve expanded their customer base, Meg and Nick have also developed relationships with other local specialty coffee businesses. “Salt Lake is such a small [coffee] community, which I love,” says Nick. “Since we opened this summer, we’ve gotten to know almost everyone, and they’ve all been incredibly supportive of us."
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The Three Pines Coffee cart is located on the patio of Liberty Heights Fresh on Wednesday through Monday mornings, where customers can enjoy drinks to stay at the patio tables, or take their coffee to go on the way to school or work. Three Pines is also available for hire, and is a fixture at public events such as farmers markets at the 9th and 9th Street Fair. “We’ll probably always do events,” says Nick, “Even if we open a brick and mortar location, we’ll always have a cart.”

Nick and Meg both say expansion is likely in their future. “Salt Lake likes it!” says Nick. “The response has been good. But I will always be tasting the coffees and sourcing the coffees and working on the bar and pulling shots. I just really care about that stuff.”

To learn more about Three Pines Coffee, including hours and event packages, visit threepinescoffee.com. Three Pines is open on the Liberty Heights Fresh patio from 8:00am-1:00pm Wednesday through Monday. 

Rachel Sanders is a Utah transplant who has fallen hard for the local, sustainable food scene. She likes to talk about food, think about food, and make food, both for work and for fun. Find her writing, recipes, and photography atfieldandforestfood.com.