The Story
Belleville Brûlerie opened in September 2013 in Paris’s 19th arrondissement, founded by David Flynn, Thomas Lehoux, and Anselme Blayney — three people who had each already shaped Paris’s emerging specialty coffee scene. Flynn had been at Télescope; Lehoux and Blayney had both worked at Ten Belles, one of the first cafes to take specialty coffee seriously in the city. Together, they built the roastery that the Paris scene needed but didn’t yet have.
At the time, Parisian coffee culture was dominated by Italian-style espresso and a general indifference to origin. Belleville changed that conversation, bringing a direct trade sourcing model and transparent roasting to a city that would later become one of Europe’s most competitive specialty coffee markets. The roastery is widely credited as one of the true pioneers of the French specialty coffee movement.
The boutique in the 19th offers single-origin beans, equipment, and regular cupping sessions and workshops — making it an educational hub as much as a retail operation.
Sourcing & Relationships
Belleville sources directly from small and medium-sized producers, with a strong focus on East Africa — particularly Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda — alongside Central American origins. The sourcing philosophy prioritizes seasonal freshness: the lineup rotates as new harvests arrive rather than maintaining a static year-round catalogue.
Cupping sessions at the roastery are open to the public, a deliberate choice that connects customers directly to the sourcing conversation rather than keeping it behind the scenes.
Roasting Philosophy
Belleville roasts light, in keeping with the Scandinavian-influenced approach that defined much of the European specialty wave of the early 2010s. The emphasis is on preserving the aromatic and acidic qualities that distinguish different origins, with profiles calibrated separately for filter and espresso. Freshness is treated as non-negotiable — small batches roasted frequently rather than stockpiling.
What to Try
Their East African single origins — particularly from Ethiopia and Kenya — are consistently among the best available in Paris and benchmark what Belleville does best. The espresso blend is bright and fruit-forward by design, a deliberate departure from the dark, bitter espresso tradition that dominated France before roasters like Belleville arrived.