Brewing a new cafe culture in Kushtia

For a long time, the cafe experience associated with specialty coffee, carefully prepared drinks and spaces made for lingering felt like something largely confined to Dhaka or Chattogram. But outside the country’s biggest cities, people are also finding their own reasons to gather around a good cup of coffee.

In Kushtia, one such place is Dark Roast Specialty Coffee & Sweet.

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For founder Faysal Ahamad, bringing that experience to his hometown was the result of a dream that took years to brew.

At 19, Faysal moved to Bahrain and started working at a small cafe. He learnt the trade gradually, making coffee day after day and spending years understanding the craft. After around a decade in the business, he began thinking about opening a cafe of his own.

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He knew where he wanted it to be. Kushtia.

Making that happen took another 10 years. During his trips home, Faysal would bring back coffee equipment from Bahrain, particularly items that were not available in Bangladesh or that he wanted for his future cafe. Over time, he assembled the setup he needed.

After 17 years in Bahrain, Faysal returned to Bangladesh on August 4 last year. Within about a month, the interior was complete, and after roughly another 10 days, Dark Roast held its soft opening.

The idea came from what Faysal felt was missing in his hometown. Kushtia, he says, had plenty of people who loved coffee, but not enough places where they could have coffee prepared in the way he had learnt during his years in Bahrain.

His answer to that gap was Dark Roast.

Its menu includes espresso-based drinks, slow cold brew and signature coffee beverages, alongside crepes, waffles, pancakes and brownies. More than the menu, Faysal wanted to create a place where people could experience coffee as something to sit with, talk over and return to.

The response has given Faysal ambitions beyond his first outlet. He hopes to take Dark Roast to other districts and eventually Dhaka, but for now, his focus is on Kushtia and on building the coffee culture he once imagined from afar.

For someone who first learnt to make coffee at 19 in a small cafe in Bahrain, the journey has come a long way. Seventeen years later, he is no longer making coffee for someone else’s dream. He is finally serving his own, in the town he always wanted to call home.