Milwaukee's Ryan Castelaz Brews Coffee Experiences One Cup at a Time

Ryan Castelaz is partner and chief executive officer of Discourse Coffee, a popular coffee shop with locations in downtown Milwaukee and in the Radio Milwaukee building in the Walker’s Point neighborhood. 

According to the Discourse website, Castelaz is the best selling author of “the new Art of Coffee: From Morning Cup to Caffeine Cocktail” (Rizzoli, 2023), resident mixologist at Fox 6 news, and creator / co-host of the podcast “Hot Coffee for the Creative Soul”. He has served as a brand ambassador for Espro, apothekary, and Free Spirts, and has hosted workshops on drink making and creative thinking throughout the us, France, and Canada. 

Castelaz was one of the guests on “Milwaukee Made.” The following Q&A is from his chat with show host David Caruso. 

Q: Do you remember your first cup of coffee? 

Castelaz: “The first was on a road trip and I was in a little shop in Texas. I was not expecting to be blown away by the coffee. And I got this coffee that they described as peach pie. I was like, ‘okay, it'll taste like coffee and I'll have notes of peach pie and it'll be great.’ I take this into my lips and it literally taste like I'm drinking a slice of country peach pie, and my mind was just like annihilated. I was like, I can't believe this is real. And so that was the first cup that really changed my life.  

“The second cup that changed my life was a few years prior in Italy, and it was just at a little espresso bar. It was around the corner from the apartment that I was living in, and it was the first time that I plopped my Euro coin down in a bar and had a shot of espresso. And that ritual became something that I came to love. It was this little moment that I could dissociate from everything else and just be me and the shot and the sugar and it ignited this fire in me. 

“I wanted to be able to share moments like this with people. I wanted to be on the other side of this counter and I want to be able to give other people this momentary rest from whatever is going on in their world. I think that's the power of our industry. I think that's the power of hospitality and with coffee. It's so beautiful. Here's two minutes of your life that you're just going to be with me and we're going to have this time and then go to work or whatever you have to do, but this is our time.” 

Q: What inspired your move to Milwaukee and what was it like when you were ready to open up your first shop? 

Castelaz: “We were in Door County for five years and I truly loved it. We named the shop Discourse because what we've always wanted to do is to start a new conversation around coffee. We want that fervent discourse. We weren't really able to do that. We had to move people kind of through a line. And so for a year I went back to working in the corporate world. I did that for about a year and then I started missing Discourse. So I did a popup in Wauwatosa. I thought maybe 20 people would come out. It ends up that day being a line out the door and down the block, I'm standing there, there's probably 30 drinks in queue. I'm shaking covered in milk on the verge of tears, and a woman comes up to the counter. Her name was Olivia Molter, and she saw my situation and was like, ‘Hey, can I help you?’ Literally she jumps across the counter and helps me pound out this rush. 

“She became my first partner here in Milwaukee. And for about a year, we did popups all around the city. We worked at Puffer Fish and Lost Whale and thrift stores and anywhere that would have us. One of those places was Crossroads Collective. And they had a stall that opened up in February of 2022. And so after talking a lot, we thought it would be awesome and a great launching point for us in the city to start our first café. It was off to the races since then.” 

Q: Why is that your philosophy and how does that drive your business today? 

Castelaz “I think business ownership is maybe the hardest thing you can possibly elect to do. And it is constantly hard and hard in new ways. I think if you're used to working a position, you're very used to tackling roadblocks, but you're very used to tackling the same roadblock. In business ownership every day, I feel there's a new roadblock that I've never even seen before. I think that creates this new sense of challenge where you will simply, if you don't have the need to bring your vision into the world, you will just be stopped. There is no business in this universe that has seen any sort of success without a million micro failures before it.” 

Q: What do you think makes Milwaukee such a special space to have Discourse? 

Castelaz: “I grew up in this area and I have such a deep love for it. I think Milwaukee right now is in an extremely exciting period of time. I think we're in this renaissance and the city itself is starting to see itself grow and evolve in ways that I think are kind of unprecedented. To be a part of this new conversation, it's just such an honor. We really could have only dreamt of being a part of a conversation in a city like Milwaukee four or five years ago. And so now to be contemporaries with a lot of the people who are really shaping the culture of this city. I think that's something that I have always loved about hospitality is that we really do have the opportunity to help shape and create the culture of our city to help bring incredible talent here, to help keep incredible talent here. And ultimately it is those people that make our city. 

“If you come here to try our weird coffee, but then you end up also going to the Milwaukee Art museum and you go to the (Mitchell Park) Domes and you go to see antiques and you have dinner at Bacchus or Amalinda or The Diplomat, you are going to leave thinking, ‘wow, Milwaukee is a cool city.’ So whatever we do to bring them here, we all win.” 

Q: If you could sit down with somebody dead or alive, have a cup of coffee and conversation, who would it be and what would you talk about? 

Castelaz: “That's such a good question. I think in a lot of ways he's a controversial figure, but I think it would probably be Steve Jobs. He's a fascinating figure. To me. I think his polarization in society is really interesting, and his bend towards the spirituality and kind of the collusion of his very deep spiritual self with this kind of brash person has always fascinated me. I would love five minutes to get inside his head.”