‘I was just a regular flat-white type of guy’: Meet the man who sold Australian coffee to New York

Ex-footballer Nicholas Stone took on Starbucks to build a multimillion business selling Australian cafe culture to New Yorkers. This is how he did it.

Australian businessman Nicholas Stone who founded US-based cafe brand, Bluestone Lane. Picture: Tony Gough

Exclusive. Nicholas Stone is far from a “hardcore coffee snob” but the ex-AFL footballer turned entrepreneur has taken on Starbucks in the lucrative American market.

The hustle and bustle of New York – and the city’s infamously bitter, black drip coffee – played a key role in the inception of his US cafe empire, Bluestone Lane.

The business, which Melbourne-raised Stone runs between Orange County, California, and New York, is turning over $US45 million ($A62 million) in 2021 and projected to make $US90 million ($A122 million) in 2022.

Upon moving to Manhattan more than a decade ago, Stone missed the “personalised” coffee experience he was used to in his home city.

Working in corporate finance, he examined the success of caffeine conglomerate Starbucks, which has a $US150 billion-plus capitalisation of the coffee market.

Bluestone Lane founder Nicholas Stone in the place that inspired his New York and Los Angeles coffee empire – a Melbourne laneway. Picture: Tony Gough

“I had a very myopic view on Starbucks,” Stone said. “But Starbucks is the most incredible success story.”

Stone saw the potential for an Australian-inspired cafe to take it on.

In 2013, Stone opened his first Blustone Lane on Third Ave in Manhattan’s mid-town, naming it after Melbourne’s iconic blue stone-paved laneways.

“(New York) is the capital of the world, so you’re not just competing against your fellow citizens – you’re competing against the best talent in the world,” Stone said.

“To be successful in NYC you need to be brutally objective in how you assess your value proposition and how you differentiate.”

Stone – who played 20 games for clubs spanning Collingwood, Hawthorn and St Kilda – took unlikely inspiration from New York beauty salons and dry cleaners in building the brand.

“In the West Village, there’s like 30 beauty places but everyone has their own beautician,” Stone said.

Not a coffee snob! Nicholas Stone founded the hugely suggessful US cafe brand, Bluestone Lane. Picture: Tony Gough

“Everyone has their one place that they have developed this trust and relationship. We have done that with coffee.”

Stone saw an “opportunity to bring (to the US) what we do in Australia so well”.

“I was not this hardcore coffee snob, I was just a regular flat-white type of guy,” Stone said.

“What I missed is that socialisation and that’s what we wanted to bring.”

Known for Australian-style barista coffee, a healthy menu (featuring its signature avo smash, “brekkie burrito” and “green baked eggs”, of course), and sleek and chic interior design, Bluestone Lane now has nearly 50 stores across the US, including in West Hollywood and Venice.

“It’s better quality coffee product, it’s better quality food which is made to order, made fresh, not just pre-prepared,” Stone said.

“(The word) ‘customer’ is homogenous, it’s transactional, it’s impersonal. We have locals. Everyone has their local.”

Bluestone Lane is the “local” cafe on Perry St in the West Village, located next door to a popular spray tan salon and draws celebrities including Victoria’s Secret models and Taylor Swift.

It’s the personal touch that sets Bluestone Lane – a regular destination for Aussies in the US – apart from others.

“The Venice one looks nothing like the West Hollywood one,” Stone said, as he ordered an oat milk “piccolo” at a busy inner-city cafe.

“We dissected what needs to remain consistent and what needs to have individuality.”

Stone’s business faced significant challenges due to the Covid pandemic. Locations shut, some temporarily, and about 20 per cent closed permanently. “I couldn’t wait for the business to come back. I had to get on the forefront,” Stone said.

“We changed our model in 12 hours to be 100 per cent contactless.”

And major expansion is on the way. “We went from 51 locations to 14 and we’re back now with nearly 50. We’ll finish the year with over 60 and then next year, straight shot to go to 85-100 locations,” Stone said.

Former Starbucks executive Denny Post praised Bluestone’s ability to rebound in the wake of Covid.

“The future belongs to the agile and Bluestone Lane demonstrated tremendous agility through the pandemic,” Ms Post, who was previously chief executive of American restaurant chain Red Robin, said.

“They moved their base of young locals seamlessly to digital ordering, maintained their connection to the community and optimised all components of their business.”

Given Stone’s success in the US, would he ever bring Bluestone Lane to the place that inspired it – Australia?

“No,” Stone said, before glancing around the bustling Melbourne cafe, oat milk piccolo in tow: “I’d never say never”.

Originally published as ‘I was just a regular flat-white type of guy’: Meet the man who sold Australian coffee to New York