The aesthetics of this 50’s machine are just outstanding. It baffles me that 70 years ago, designers where taking more risks than we do now, which makes the machine look like a piece of art.

Giving customers the opportunity to have side-by-side espressos from the old world and new sounds almost worth a trip to London! Brilliant James. Thanks.

I want to see the baristas (or you!) make a coffee on this machine beginning to end! Also more B-roll of the machine please, I don’t feel like I had a good enough look at it.

This might sound obvious but I’d love to see James’ impressions from using the machine at the studio and his detailed review.

I would have loved to see a documentary about the restoration of the machine or hear more from Enrico on how he brought this machine back to life. Would that be possible?

I want to hear from Enrico how he feels seeing a machine like this in a cafe serving customers. I want to hear from the baristas how they feel to use it, like you said at the end of this that would be super interesting. I want to know how the customers felt about it all. Very cool to see this.

I cannot recommend enough the experience of getting your hands on an older commercial machine and having a play. I picked up a ruined Faema off eBay for next to nothing and coaxed it back to life (not perfect but able to pull shots) and learned so much about what an espresso machine actually is in the process. Also nothing exploded and I only flooded the kitchen twice.

Went yesterday morning! So much fun! My partner might have been a bit grumpy about traveling 30 minutes before our morning coffee or tea. But after seeing my shiny childish delight at watching that wonderful contraption handled like a Ferrari in the Scottish Highlands she was drawn in too. We are on holiday from Seattle and this was a fanboy highlight! Thanks so much to everyone who got this fantastical time travel experience created! The only thing that could have made this any better would be to do it again this morning maybe in a TARDIS.

I'd love to have seen more about the machine, how it is to use, the barista's and customer's opinions, etc. We had less than 1 minute of footage in the reveal of the machine and we didn't even see a full pour 😢 Fingers crossed for part 3!

I'm not sure how realistic it would be. But I imagine if you let other big names/known roasters around Europe borrow the machine and serve their own blends for some weeks, it would be interesting to see what everyone comes up with. Like Fuglen or Tim in Oslo vs Coffee Collective in Copenhagen.

A beautiful machine indeed. I was really hoping to see a clip of someone pulling a shot, that is using the lever, instead of just the coffee exiting the portafilter.

the restoration is superb! 😌

This video series was a little bit of a throwback to the initial vlogs on your channel which were more travel- and behind-the-scenes focused, and I love it. The machine isn't too shabby either ;) Great job James and co!

I think it would be interesting to do a blind taste test between this restored vintage machine, a new comparable commercial/coffee shop level machine, a high end home machine and a cheap home machine to see how they stack up and how commercial compares to home and cheap compares to expensive compares to vintage.

It would be nice seeing you in your studio actually reviewing and using the machine, not just a quick montage of it in action. But still, great video like always!! ❤️

I'm certain this has been said over and over....but this restoration is astounding, breath taking. It's a level of beauty and quality I wish were more accessible now.

Absolutely drop dead gorgeous restoration. As a thought on what to do next, how about making it portable and placing it in a van and deliver espresso at events around the area. A 1950's Lancia Appia Furgoncino for example ;-) Cheers from Canada!!

Saving this gem was a great decision to begin with. Making it available to (a small part of) the public is such a wonderful idea, I wish I would need to travel to London in the coming weeks. For sure I entered the coffee give away, but the real question is: now that you have gone through the process of creating a coffee blend, why not offering it as a regular product? You could start a renaissance of the classic espresso. As for the machine… a roadshow might be too much. But a historic coffee bar / working museum might be a tourist attraction!? Add a couple other machines from different periods to the collection and use them in a bar. You only would need a larger batch of your own very good coffee blend for that. ;)

I love how Onyx does their "Southern Weather" blend (others too I believe). They have a specific flavor profile they want and every 2-3 months they do a blind cupping to find the in-season coffee(s) that will continue give them that profile. Brilliant.

That's a beautiful restoration! As a commercial lever machine user, and a fan of Italian espresso (blended) vs espresso 2.0 (generally single origin or weird blends), this was a wonderful project to follow so far. I absolutely agree that blending is an art that VERY few modern roasters know very well. We're lucking here in the Philadelphia region to have La Colombe, a local company that does an excellent job of roasting blends that make awesome Italian style espresso. There's also Fante's here, which has some blends they've been making for generations that I always enjoy, including blends of variously roasted coffees blended after roasting (a mix of medium and dark roasts, giving the blend a beautiful appearance). I would appreciate seeing more of the use of the lever machine, barista feedback, differences in dialing in grind, etc., but I don't have any better ideas than others for what should ultimately happen with the machine. Something tells me it should maybe make its way back to Italia...

It's absolutely beautiful. Who could have imagined it would turn out like that... I think it should become part of a coffee cart so you can take it anywhere and share the experience with people.

Brings back memories. It looks so much like the machines I used to get espresso from when I first started drinking espresso in the mid '60s.

I would love to see this beautiful machine from the 50s do a road trip visiting nursing homes to bring some warm coffee love and nostalgia to a generation that may remember such machines from their younger days. I recently bought a modern classic cafe racer motorbike, and love seeing the smiles from older gents and having a chat with them wherever I park up. Congrats on the machine, she’s a beauty 😍

it's certainly a gorgeous machine. I would've liked to see someone especially you James actually drink some coffee from this long awaited machine. I guess I was waiting for the Wow, that's Sooo good , smooth etc. but we didn't see that.

Oh my God, missed this project by literally one day! Devastated. In terms of the future, please do an episode from your studio showing us the ins and outs, showing you dialing in on it

I think this is amazing ! Those machines were built for cafes and seeing one being back into one is just epic.. That to me is Really different than having one at home. It's like owning an old rolls and having it sleeping all year long in the garage compared to really using it to drive people from fancy hotels to fancy restaurants, daily.

Congratulations! It's beautiful. You can hear and feel James' excitement with this machine, understandably so. Being able to restore something to it's former glory, and more importantly, put it back into use - fantastic! I hope it draws in the crowds. May not be using 70 year old coffee, but it's using 70 year old technology and methods to brew something that you cannot get at your average ****bucks (another good thing). What to do with it after the 6 week trial; showcase it, show it off, enable as many people to get a different coffee experience. When the weather is good, throw it on a bike trailer and travel around the City with it. I guarantee it will pull in the punters and maybe get someone new into coffee!

Just sublime. The original design that is perfectly of its time. It's resurrection into an engineered work of functional art. It's role in delivering a homage to times long forgotten. Thank you for taking us on the journey and I look forward to adventures yet to be discovered. Just buying a bag of Il Grifone now but I may need to (finally) buy the machine I want that will do it more justice than my current bean to cup - Silvia Pro X and predictably a Niche Zero. (unless any of the many experts on here recommend something else)

I cannot understand how you could make this video without including a clip of you pulling shots on your newly restored machine.

Why is this video not 3x longer?! You made your own roast for this?! Tell me more!!! Enrico did special training on the machine?!? Tell me more!! You did blind tasting for the Square Mile Team?!?!?! Tell me more!!!!! And yes, we want updates on what the baristas think. We want every ounce of detail about this machine! Every. Damn. Ounce. *Whoops, I mean Gram.

Hey James 👋🏼Greetings from South Africa, Long time since used to walk couple arches down to pick up some Tubes of Square Mile for Kichuli on the Corner of Kingsland & Bethnal Green, watching you and the team pass by headed to the post office to mail off orders. This absolutely transported me from the days of drinking Espresso at "Ace Cafe" on lower Marsh Market in the tiny Scooter shop and Garage. And being served Espresso from their Faima Lever Press it was magical. Thanks for this little treat, looks like your also expanded from the arches congrats Nicholas (formerly from Coffee & Antiques the old Sand Pit om the Corner 🙂)

I tried coffee once in my entire life, during my grandad's funeral (back in 1970's Baghdad), and I hated it ever since... The coffee was, super dark, super black, super thick, super bitter Arabic coffee, in a small ceramic cawa cup... I still love ground & roasted coffee smell, when passing the various cafes in Baghdad, and I think that's the reason why I'm watching your videos, to bring back those memories...

I'm supposed to be working right now!!! Aah well, this is waaaay more interesting :o)

I always enjoy the softly geeky quality of the videos on this channel. For me, in this episode, James revealed his romantic attachment to coffee perfection which I find utterly engaging.

Bellissima! ...but the journey from it's sorry abandoned state to its glorious rebirth is what I wanted to see... I hope you captured that journey and can share it with us in the future...

This came in just right for my coffee pilgrimage to London. What a surprise! Can't wait to watch this piece of craftsmanship at work. See you at Prufrock.

So happy to see this sequel!! It’s gorgeous and inspiring!

James: goes into intricate detail about making an Italian espresso blend Me, an intellectual: duh, 1950s machine means 1950s coffee

Ideas for future content: 1. Get an equally impressive vintage italian grinder and/or roaster restored and pair them up together - ideally in a small italian motorcycle themed cafe space 2. Deep dive on roasting for blends / making more blends besides il grifone - maybe interview a 2nd wave coffee guru who made a famous blend 3. Video "debrief" with the baristas after using it for 6 weeks - what did they love / hate if anything 4. In-depth review from James - show more of the internals and ideally make newer specialty coffee with the old machine & il grifone with a modern machine to a/b them

Love it, bought the book and signed up the drawing. What fun thank you for sharing your talents and experience! Always a joy.

It's my day off and a new James Hoffman video comes out. It's going to be a great day

Could the machine become part of an ongoing collaboration with some of the “old school” coffee shops/roasters in and around London? A semi-permanent pop up sort of thing? It’s absolutely beautiful, by the way. Would love to be able to visit and try the coffees side by side.

It's beautiful!! Fantastic that you roasted a special coffee for it. The machine comes out, along with your specialty coffee for it, during the week of Valentine's Day, each year.

Thanks for the bag of coffee! Brewed first cups on a Flair classic (with gauge upgrade) today and 12g in 26 out worked a charm. The 14% Yemen really peaks through - quite interesting. So fare it has been shared with 5 people and all was happy with the result. - even saved the first try that was more like a turbo shot and quite under extracted by taking the puck in a Hario Switch and adding 140g 85 degree water (Celsius) and steep for 1 minute and then combine the shot with the V60 for a nice full extracted pour over - however had to add a touch of cream to really enjoy the cup - but better than wasting it. - Will share with a few other and try a few other machines over the week - but so fare really enjoying the blend and roasting level.

Here's an idea: have a pop-up bar do a tour of the country (or at least a feasible section of it) with the Faema in tow! Gorgeous machine at any rate.

I'd love to see more about this machine. How it operates and how different the process is, how espresso machines evolved over time, etc. Manual espresso machines are so interesting.

I would love a video of it actually being used and talked through the operations and actually see shots being pulled. Maybe compare the actual operations of it to a newer machine.

I've been looking forward to this video, and I look forward to hearing the baristas feelings after working with this beautiful machine for a few weeks. I fell in love with lever espresso machines the first time I saw a La Pavoni, over 15 years ago when I was working as a barista. It became a dream of mine to one day own one. Last year I made that dream a reality when I bought a 30 year old La Pavoni and restored it myself. Before that I hadn't had home espresso, just French press and pour over. Over the past year I've fallen even more in love with my little machine and I love the results I get. I can't imagine using it in a busy commercial setting, however! Of course, it was never designed for a commercial setting and your machine was so I expect that'll make a difference. Still, though, it'll be different and, as I said, I'm really interested to hear how it goes!

So cool seeing this old machine get a second life! I would have enjoyed seeing the restoration process.

This is such a cool project, and it's wonderful that the public gets to enjoy it too.

Using older technology, learning a forgotten skill, is extremely satisfying. I drove an old tow truck for a while whose wrecker unit was made before hydraulic tow trucks became popular. It was direct drive from a pto shaft from the engine. Two winches, 5 controls. One control for each winch to engage it to the drive shaft, another to each winch for the ratchet to keep the cable from upspooling, and the last to work the clutch in between the pto and the drive shaft. Engage the clutch and the cable for the selected winch(es) to wind the cable in, feather the clutch to control the speed the cable winds out, and never, ever engage the ratchets when the cable was unspooling or the gear teeth would break off. All with a couple of thousand pounds of weight at the cable end. And if there was no weight on the cable, make sure there was some kind of tension on it or you'll end up with a rat's nest of the first couple of layers of cable around the drum. Seriously, a lot of fun. And I believe most cranes back in the day worked the same way.

It's just so cool to see your take on application of craft coffee, coffee culture and development, etc. I feel like you are putting your money where your mouth is and following your inspiration. Hard work really shows and flows into others. Amazing job

When you drop everything to watch this.

Congrats on the restoration!!! Make an alive coffee museum, where people can come in and taste of coffee and understand how it would have tasted from these machines (considering you will have more).

Looking forward to the update on how it went!😊

We just happened to be in London (on holiday from Australia) when part two of this video dropped! So we had to go to Prufrock Cafe today. What a beautiful machine! I'm normally a latte drinker, but the flavours from that espresso. Quite amazing! Great experience and fantastic staff in the cafe too.

What a beautiful machine. Love his restoration works and glad it can do what it deserves to do - make espresso for the people. What to do with it next? Road trip around the world!

I really wish I were living in the UK to experience it in person. What a beautiful looking machine!

Been looking forward to the restoration of this beautiful machine. If There's any coffee bags left I'd love to try it. But understand if it's all gone 😁. Keep the video's coming. Love them.

As an avid cyclist with a great love for vintage cycling heritage (in which Faema has a beautiful legacy), espresso lover, enthousiastic owner of a Cafelat Robot (the modern interpretation of a Faemina Baby) and admirer of vintage styling in general, this video tugged at all my heartstrings. A tour of Europe in pop-up coffee bars - maybe with references to the Faema Cycling Team from the 50s and early 60s?.. - would be the stuff of dreams. I would definitely make a trip to, say, Brussels for that!

Gorgeous machine ! Top notch restoration, 10/10 Would love to experience a shot from it!

This machine looks sooooo beautiful!

My suggestion for what to do with the machine going forward is to leave it at the café, but only have it operating on certain days, like "way-back Wednesdays". Every Wednesday patrons can visit the café and have an espresso from a beautiful vintage machine - this way the machine is used regularly, but not daily. Whatever you do going forward, hopefully the machine will be used and not left to deteriorate. Beautiful restoration by the way and great to see people enjoying the fruits of your and Enrico's labour!

Yesterday, I was making an espresso and started to wonder - why there was no follow up on your vintage machine. And here it is... Thank you!

Amazing project! Beautiful machine! This may be a far too ambitious idea but what about a tour around the world? For a year or so send the machine to diferent locations around the world and let it serve coffee for a couple of weeks in each location. This community and this channel has such a global reach that it would be very interesting to allow access to this piece of history to a wider audience. I believe that the patina gathered from all the use and from the traveling would make this even more interesting and would also be a unique story to tell. Something shared by so many people around the world.

Whatever the experience may be for the baristas, no denying it's an incredibly pretty machine that oozes style and ... well .. coffee.

I think adding it to the studio setup to occasionally use coffee-related things would be nice. When reviewing a grinder or something else James could be feeling vintage that day.

Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing all this. Can't tell you how much joy this brings. I was wondering what type of recipe you are using for the Il Grifone (temp, dose, yield etc). I have ordered a bag and look forward to trying it on my 1968 La Pavoni Europiccola (and possibly even on my GS/3). I'm not as well versed in the preparation of Italian style blends. Look forward to hearing more about the machine as well. Thanks for all you do!

What to do with it next? Keep it there. I've had the il grifone from it and it was fantastic, quite a bit nicer than the red brick from the VA machine

there is a really popular shop in my hometown that stays true to a kind of second wave coffee shop experience and does that extremely well. they're very good at roasting coffee, but they generally roast a little bit darker than specialty, and they offer both blends and some single origins. it is a vintage and used bookstore and record store and I think that this kind of vibe would be the perfect model for a shop using this machine. there are still people who love coffee of that kind and not a lot of people are doing it supremely well

Great job everybody! This project definitely warrants a series of videos Covering the different aspects as many other commenters mentioned

Really hope you consider make this a permanent installation. I'm sure many international viewers would love to come by when they next have a chance to travel.

Just a little feedback: I rarely watch the sponsor ad part, but here I really like your justification to why there is an ad, and I'm okay to not skip!

The machine should travel the world and do a book tour for you... Instead of just the author touring the world, the machine goes to different great cafes around the world and do a tour, you sell the experience and the book along with it

This is one unforgettable video to watch! I had a goose skin the moment the crate was open - instantly recognized FAEMA! We chose FAENA E61 for our small vintage coffee shop in China, and the design of E61 hasn't changed a bit since 1961! The one Mr.Hoffmann has chosen is almost identical in design, but, of course, the modern one is less fun to play since the water supply is automatic! (might think different during rush in the shop) FAEMA is truly a piece of art! I'm not paid to advertise it, but my heart skips a beat when I see it!

I'm from Melbourne, and naturally fall into the coffee nerd category. As luck would have it, I ended up in London this week and was able to have espresso from the Faema (yes it was delicious). James - please please send this to Melbourne next!!! There are so many roasters like Axil, Seven Seeds, St Ali, Market Lane, Parde... that would love to put a limited blend together and host the machine, as much as there would be so many people in Melbourne that would love the experience. Send it our way James!

Logistics aside, i think it would be really fun to follow this machine travel the world. Like one month with a modern coffee shop, another month with a more traditional one, next with a roaster to develop and even in someone's home setup (like a supporter for example) and so on.

I know logistically it could be a nightmare, but I would love to see the machine on a UK tour all around the country so that it’s not just London which gets all the fun from experiencing it

That looks fantastic. I feel like there's at least one video in doing a back to back three way comparisson: a modern roast in an old cafe machine, an enthusiasts home setup, and a new cafe machine. You could continue this further with a more old fashioned roast, and maybe your grifone roast in the same way. I'm really very curious as to how your customers experienced their coffee through this older machine, whether they noticed an appreciable difference and how the older way of doing things might open up possibilities like longer draws or different ratios. You're well placed to answer whether the maths of an espresso translates directly to the consumer experience.

I love the machine. My father's family is from Brescia, right by the Guarda Lake. I also love Italian traditional espresso, and would be thrilled to try a bag of the blend you mentioned if I could get one here in California.

You mean, you’re not going to be serving coffee from 1958 from it?? You mean I’ve been practising my James-Hoffman-Drinks-Old-Coffee face for nothing!

G'day mate. Greetings from Melbourne, OZ. 👍

Italian barista from Naples here! I really enjoyed espresso with Indian monsooned coffee, dark roasted. I don't like lever machines, yeah their pretty but you need to use more coffee, you need a teaspoon to stop your coffee, you can't make a perfect milk foam because the pression is very high. My first coffee machine was a Faema E61 ❤️

I have been running this same machine in my house for 8 years (also using VST baskets). It handles modern single origin specialty coffee quite nicely actually. For pure quality in the cup I'd put it against pretty much any modern machine. There are many, very good online communities full of people using lever machines, even vintage lever machines, with modern coffees; they pair quite nicely.

As someone that left the whiskey world for the coffee world, he’s right about the blending. Whiskey blenders go through rigorous tasting tests (triangles, picking the odd one out, etc) and are paid big money to create a consistent product. Hopefully things change and continue to evolve in the right direction.

Wow that is a great restoration :) had a Elektra A3 because it was a modern older in a sense :) I love the older machines !

Amazing to see the follow up vid. Been waiting for this day for what seemed an eternity.

You could auction it and donate the proceeds to a local small coffee grower community (there are plenty in Latin America) or any other charity. The machine could be exhibited at a design museum. Or used to train new baristas not just on old techniques but the mechanical equipment allows for a different learning experience. You could set up a slow-coffee shop. Similar concept to the slow-food (opposite of fast-food), where things just take time to be prepared because there is a pleasure in going slow.

Oh hell yes I'm in the UK (from Canada) for the first time in 30 years this week and I'll be in London next week (AFTER the funeral thank goodness) AND I'm staying within walking distance of Prufrock Coffee so I will most certainly be there.

Fantastic video James! Love seeing old technology restored the esthetics and functionality of older machinery is mind blowing.. I'm sure we've devolved rather than evolved as a species over the last 100+ years and when you see machines like this or electric cars from the 1800s that looked great and had longer range than those now it makes me wonder tbh.. Seeing a machine like this brought back to New condition REALLY gives me a great feeling and I think we ALL should be striving to do things like this before these things and technology are lost to time along with the knowledge how to use them. The same with old tool from the days of REAL artisan stone masons and carpenters joiners furniture makers etc which has mostly been lost its all relevant I think from great days of art form, beauty and function in the past.. Well done! Cheers from London 👍😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🙏

It would be interesting to see its operation by different baristas at the cafe profiled and compared to their operation of a modern machine to see how it differs from a modern machine and varies from user to user, including how people feel about using it and why they choose certain workflows. Maybe even comparing profiles from when people first start using it to when it is taken out of service at the cafe. I love seeing how people develop a relationship with tools that provide subtle feedback through things like noises and handfeel. Qualitative and quantitative! I would also be interested to learn about the kinds of coffee supply chains and drinks that would have been most common when that machine was first sold, and compare the drinks it produces from an approximation of those beans to what a contemporary machine would make of them. Maybe its particular pattern of extraction is desirable when all the beans are rubbery and stale? I have no idea! Doesn't have to be ACTUAL 1950s espresso unless you want to punish yourself again!

Enrico really did do an amazing job. Those classic espresso machines really had a range of aesthetics, but some of them just transcend a functional piece of equipment into becoming a work of art unto themselves. It's a work of art with permanence, being made of polished steel and plastic, that makes very ephemeral works of art for the customer to enjoy and consume. Truly stunning.

Suggestion for your consideration James. Get hold of or obtain a few other “old/older” machines of a similar vintage (2 or 3 in all), and open a coffee house specifically serving coffee from vintage machines with a blend style of coffee possibly used in those machines. Retro style decor and seating. Old fashioned biscuits and pastries served as well. Got to be a winner.

You could do a version of a supper club, but a morning or mid-day version, once a month, using this machine. Maybe even a 50s dress theme!

Had to swing by Prufrocks for the head-to/head challenge. Both delicious but (tasting blind) preferred the simplicity of the old school. Gorgeous machine too. Thank you for letting us play!

I actually stopped the video to check if it was playing at 1.25 speed :D This video left me wanting more. This machine deserves more. A video about the technical aspects of the restoration and how to work it. Benefits and chalenges. Plus, a note on the espresso it produces.

u could make a full length documentary of the restoration process including traveling again to meet with Enrico, showing what kind of work goes into a restoration, browsing for machines and asking random questions until you come across something interesting or particular and decide you want to buy it, documenting the actual process of restoration-- especially including any significant or unexpected repairs and crafting during the process -- maybe you can even show his collection at the museum, and when the restoration is complete, what it's like to organize the transportation of the machine and showing the complexity/simplicity and expenses related to transporting the machine, traveling back to your shop to dial in a blend on the machine

This is the best serie ever 🤩 Looking forward they journey with this machine!

what a fab video as always. really interesting and amazing restoration. thanks for sharing! love my coffee and your blend sounds amazing

You folks are incredible! I have a bag of Il Grifone in my hand today, Sept 16, in Florida that was roasted on 14 Sept in London! Awesome! Thank you!❤