How ex-AFL footballer Nick Stone turned a passion for coffee into multimillion-dollar business empire Bluestone Lane

AN EX-AFL Melbourne footballer who brought Aussie cafe culture to the United States has landed a multimillion-dollar deal that will take his coffee empire worldwide — here’s how he did it.

NICHOLAS Stone never imagined he’d be successful, let alone in hospitality.

The ex-AFL footballer hadn’t even worked in the industry before opening one of the most popular Aussie cafes in New York City — Bluestone Lane.

“This is my first hospitality job,” Stone said.

“I was a banker, then I was sportsman, then a banker, I never spent any time in cafes.”

In 2013, Bluestone Lane became one of the first to introduce Australian coffee culture to the United States.

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Bluestone Lane cafe founder Nicholas Stone.

Last week, Stone signed the largest partnership his company has seen so far — a $20 million deal with private investment firm RSE Ventures to grow his brand in the States and abroad.

But the Brighton-boy’s success didn’t happen overnight.

Before moving to the Big Apple, Stone was forging a career as an AFL footballer in Melbourne.

He’d played with Hawthorn and St Kilda, but after six years on the field the buck stopped when he wasn’t signed to play on.

Luckily Stone was already working on Plan B.

“The day my contract wasn’t renewed at St Kilda, I finished my final (business) exam at Monash,” he said.

Eager to get to New York, Stone was dealt another setback with the Global Financial Crisis.

“I was trying to get across in 2009, but I started going out with my now wife (Alexandra) around the same time,” he said.

“I had interviews in New York and London and wasn’t going anywhere.”

But as fate would have it, Alexandra landed a gig at Ford Models in New York — allowing the pair to finally move abroad.

Nicholas Stone and Alexandra Knight.

After moving to New York, Stone quickly learned there was something different about the cafe culture.

While studying an MBA at University of Melbourne abroad and dependent on coffee, he noticed Americans drank coffee for need, not enjoyment.

“The consumption of coffee was so high, but the focus was on it being a transaction, not an experience,” Stone said.

“At Bluestone we are really trying to export the Australian way of life. We want to use coffee as a social medium and provide that element of escape.”

“That’s what I missed about Australia and Bluestone was almost built out of that necessity.”

Bluestone Lane opened its first shop in August 2013, in the atrium of Midtown’s iconic Meredith Building.

Another coffee shop was opened a short time later in the financial district, steps from the New York Stock Exchange.

Bluestone Lane on the Upper East Side.

But it was Bluestone Lane’s West Village cafe, which allowed people to enjoy food with their coffee, that put the brand on the map.

Now there are 30 Bluestone Lane stores across six cities in the United States.

Celebrities like Hugh Jackman, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Leonardo DiCaprio, Selena Gomez, Margot Robbie, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and James Franco as well as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have paid a visit.

Now with RSE Ventures capital, Bluestone Lane will grow to 60 stores across 10 cities — with Stone hoping to break into European and Asian markets soon.

Chief executive Matt Higgins said the investment would bolster Bluestone Lane’s presence as a premium lifestyle brand.

“The speed and efficiency with which Stone is scaling the business is truly incredible,” he said.

Bluestone Cafe

Stone isn’t intimidated to launch his business globally.

“The scale of the United States is so much bigger than Australia,” he said.

Stone said Bluestone wasn’t trying to be the best individual cafe, a standard hard to emulate across 30 stores, but wanted to provide consistently great Melbourne-style cafe experience.

“When I go to Melbourne I am always blown away with the innovation and the quality of the product,” he said.

“We want to take the best elements of what Melbourne does and build a bigger business.”

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