Overview
Origo was founded in 2013 by Mihai Panfil, a CQI Q-grader, with a Lipscani 9 café designed by Lama Arhitectura that featured 276 white coffee cups suspended over the bar and an in-shop glass-walled roastery so customers could watch every step. The name is the Latin for 'origin'; Panfil chose it deliberately to mark the start of Romanian specialty coffee. The roastery moved to its own facility in 2015 and a second café (Dorobanți 186) opened in 2017.
Known for
- Founder Mihai Panfil — CQI-licensed Q Grader
- Original Lipscani 9 café featured 276 coffee cups suspended from antique wooden ceiling beams over the bar
- First specialty roastery in Romania — the country's third-wave anchor
- Origo Academy: 200+ courses and ~1,000 graduates over the first decade
- Authorized Romanian distributor for Nuova Simonelli, Pentair and other equipment brands
Why it matters
Origo is Romania's specialty coffee origin story. Panfil deliberately built it as a four-legged operation — café, roastery, training academy, equipment distribution — so that everything a new Romanian specialty café needed could come from one Romanian source. That's why Bucharest now has a real third-wave scene rather than just a few imports.
Production
- head roaster
- Mihai Panfil
- roastery location
- Bucharest, Romania (Strada Lanului 4)
- espresso equipment
- Victoria Arduino Gravitech (original Lipscani café)
Café
Strada Lipscani 9, Bucharest
Recognitions
- Founder Mihai Panfil — CQI-licensed Q Grader
- First specialty coffee roastery in Romania