A HOUSEHOLD name in UK garage has turned his hand to roasting coffee after having a 'lightbulb' moment.
Former Artful Dodger Pete Devereux has switched focus to coffee beans and blends at his business Deveroast Coffee in Botley Mills.
Pete is known for the track Re-Rewind - featuring fellow Southampton musician Craig David's vocals - when in 1999 he was one half of Artful Dodger duo with Mark Hill.
Now he offers a selection of speciality coffee - with The Old Engine Room blend his main brand.
Pete, 50, told the Daily Echo he decided to embark on a coffee career during the first Covid lockdown when he received a bag of coffee bean supplies.
He said: “That was a lightbulb moment because I’ve always loved coffee.
"Everyone had a bit of time on their hands at the beginning of lockdown, and I thought ‘I can do this.’”
He was encouraged by his son on a lockdown walk. "We were out on a lockdown walk and my son was like you should sell your coffee, Dad, everyone loves it and we could call it Deveroast," Pete said.
Pete then enrolled in the Speciality Coffee Association intermediary course in February this year.
He then opened The Artful Roaster in September.
He added: “I only buy speciality coffee, which is the finest, hand-picked coffee cherries in their purest, ripest, perfect condition.
“It just means you’re roasting really good coffee from the get-go.
“My main coffee that I sell is a blend called The Old Engine Room blend.”
The unit the business occupies has been refurbished and Pete started by upcycling the old door and turning it into a table. The furniture in the coffee house is reclaimed.
Pete said: “It really suits the room. It’s got this really nice rustic feel to it, and it almost looks like 200 years ago, when they built it, they had it being a coffee house in mind.”
Looking ahead to the future, Pete said: “Everyone has said ‘go and get a coffee truck, put a set of decks in the back and you can sell coffee by day and just DJ by night' so I’m quite into that idea of doing something festival based.
“It really has been, and it still is, a real journey for me of discovery.”
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