With a documentary premiering on October 30 and a brand that now spans a roastery and a James Beard-nominated cocktail lounge, Ryan Castelaz is as energetic as ever.
BY VASILEIA FANARIOTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT
Featured photo: A still from Discourse: The New Art of Coffee.
The first time I interviewed Ryan Castelaz, roughly three years ago, I didn’t anticipate how much ground we’d cover the next time around. A lot has happened since—a James Beard nomination, a Chicago expansion, a roastery, a second book on the way, and not one but three documentaries simultaneously in production about him and Discourse Coffee.
When we got on a call to catch up ahead of the October 30 premiere of Discourse: The New Art of Coffee, Ryan spent the first ten minutes giving me a full breakdown of why Seoul is one of the best cities in the world to visit. I genuinely don’t know how we got there. I do know that if I hadn’t eventually steered us back toward the interview, we’d probably still be on the phone.
The documentary, directed by Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based filmmaker Max Kinstler and sponsored by the Pabst Theater Group, runs about 40 minutes and covers the last 18 months of Discourse’s growth: the move into Chicago, the opening of roastery Guest Coffee Collective, and the people and values that make the whole thing work. It premieres October 30 at The Argo in Milwaukee, and admission is free.
We spoke with Ryan about zero-to-one thinking, the Mountain Dew menu that changed everything, and what he wants the world to understand about what Discourse actually is.
Barista Magazine: You describe yourself as a “zero-to-one” person. At what point did you realize that about yourself, and how has that self-awareness shaped every decision you’ve made since?
Ryan: Recently, I had an incredible conversation about entrepreneurship with a dear friend, and she surfaced this idea that there are two types of people in the world: zero-to-one people, and one-to-ten people. Zero-to-one people are alchemists, tremendous at taking nothingness and making it into something beautiful, creating novel solutions to common problems, and designing indelible products and experiences. One-to-ten people are builders who can take this beautiful little something and transform it into a remarkable enterprise.
I have always been a zero-to-one person, and have known this about myself for quite some time, but I never had the language to describe it until this conversation. This self-awareness has enabled me to further empower our leaders, and to seek partnership with individuals who live most naturally in the world of one-to-ten. It’s given me permission to focus more fully on zero-to-one, and the knowledge that trusting others to do the one-to-ten work doesn’t mean I’m shrugging off the hard stuff. It means that I am building a world in which everyone is empowered to play to their strengths.
Agency got a James Beard nomination four months after opening in its new home. You said it felt like a toddler on a tricycle being looked at like an Olympic cyclist. What did that level of recognition do to you internally, and did it change anything about how you operate?
When we were nominated as a semi-finalist at Agency, we had just launched an entire menu celebrating Mountain Dew—following the adventures of a young astronaut named Astra who crash-landed on Planet Baja, a planet with an atmosphere made entirely of Baja Blast.
We had no idea we were even eligible for an award, as 2025 was the inaugural year for the Best New Bar award. When I got the call from my business partner Kat, she was crying. After she told me, I was crying. That menu led us to our finalist nomination, and nearly a year’s worth of spin-off menus where we followed Astra around the galaxy.
While I remain immensely grateful for the recognition, Agency had never been about anything aside from being true to ourselves as drink makers, creatives, and storytellers. Before and after the nomination, we strive to create a warm and welcoming space, dripping in hospitality, and fully accessible to everyone, whether or not you choose to consume alcohol. It’s amazing that when you put truly caring and creative people in a room together, and allow them to express themselves with wild abandon, recognition seems to follow along effortlessly.
The second book is 50 cocktails with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions—100 recipes total. You opened a non-alcoholic cocktail lounge, then reconcepted it as hybrid. How has your thinking about non-alcoholic drinking evolved?
When we first started serving non-alcoholic cocktails in Milwaukee, it was at The Counter, our fully N/A cocktail bar in Crossroads Collective. What I learned at The Counter is that it wasn’t enough to build an experience for sober drinkers if it meant ostracising their friends and family, many of whom fancied an alcoholic drink.
The hybrid model was born to address the reality that many individuals who have chosen sobriety, whether it be for a day, a week, or a lifetime, have friends who drink alcohol. Our goal had never been to separate people, but to bring them together—to create one environment where both guests feel equally seen, heard, and catered to. That idea evolved into Agency.
You mentioned three documentaries were being made about you simultaneously. How did that happen, and what is it like to be the subject of something rather than the creator of it?
I’m still asking myself the same question! I had the tremendous honour of meeting Nes and Darla, the producers of Coffee: The Universal Language, through my dear friend Alden Kelley at Hollander. They told me they were working on the new season and that they wanted Discourse to be one of the featured shops. I was stunned. Obviously I accepted. We produced this episode over the course of three days, and it’s now live on YouTube, soon to be on Amazon Prime.
Around the same time, I had two local documentary filmmakers approach me about working on similar projects. While one of these projects is currently on the shelf, the other—Discourse: The New Art of Coffee, by visionary filmmaker Max Kinstler — is set to premiere this coming month.
While these pieces may focus on the Discourse story through my eyes, I think it’s important to state that I don’t view myself as the subject, because the Discourse story is not mine alone. It is the collection of many voices, and countless hours. From Sean Liu, my amazing business partner and our Chief Operational Officer, to Jenna Karsten, who has led every workshop we’ve opened in Milwaukee, the subject stretches far beyond me. It takes a village.
If someone watches the documentary and wants to understand what Discourse actually is—not the cafés, not the bar, not the truck, but the idea at the centre of all of it—what do you want them to walk away knowing?
Discourse exists to inspire and empower coffee creatives. The joy and wonder of inviting creativity and adventure into the traditionally rote and mundane is available to all of us. Discourse doesn’t exist to serve coffee—it exists to inspire the act of fearless creation. There is no wrong answer. Make the weird thing. We want the entire world to embrace the magic of what it means to drink different.
Discourse: The New Art of Coffee premieres on Friday, October 30, 2026, at The Argo, 334 E. Silver Spring Drive, Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee. Admission is free. The episode of Coffee: The Universal Language featuring Discourse is now live on YouTube.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vasileia Fanarioti (she/her) is a senior online correspondent for Barista Magazine and a freelance copywriter and editor with a primary focus on the coffee niche. She has also been a volunteer copywriter for the I’M NOT A BARISTA NPO, providing content to help educate people about baristas and their work.
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