Leg it to Legit Coffee!

In December 2015, Damien Vossion, alongside his Brazilian partner Jamaycon Oliveria Figuierdo, fulfilled his dream of opening a coffee shop. Ian Curran interviews the brains behind Legit Coffee Co in Meath Street.

Having arrived in Ireland in 2005 aged 20, Damien Vossion began working as a customer service advisor for UPS, LinkedIn and PayPal. It was while he was working these jobs he continued baking and cooking as a hobby, occasionally putting together cakes and treats for his colleagues – who started to encourage him to open his own place.

Vossion is a former sous-chef in his native France who was trained in Orléans, located on the Loire River just 11km south of Paris. 

“I opened with my partner [Figuierdo], he is the co-owner. It was my idea, he just followed me like!” says Vossion with a chuckle. 

Jamaycon Oliveria Figuierdo is a former catering manager at KC Peaches and hails from Timon in Maranhão, along the Parnaíba River.

Vossion and Figuierdo’s cultures are almost 7500km apart, but combine seamlessly to give Dublin’s Liberties a contemporary place to relax, drink high quality coffee, and enjoy food from the newly developed kitchen.

Vossion lives in Phibsborough where he originally planned to open the shop but there was no space there for a coffee shop. Dublin’s Liberties then offered the perfect platform to bring the idea to life. He highlights the difficulty of opening such a business in the city.

“People don’t want to have coffee shops sometimes because they don’t think they’ll be successful,” says Vossion.

Soon after opening up, they ran into an issue over the name of the shop. The local market traders in Meath Mart begun calling it Leg It Coffee!

“It was hard to find a name, I wanted something simple, maybe one or two words, but different and authentic,” says Vossion.

“We didn’t realise in the beginning that people would start calling it that!

“Most local people here call it Leg It and think it’s Leg It.”

Along with being keen on cooking and baking, Vossion is also extremely enthusiastic about interior design, reflected in Legit Coffee’s sleek and minimalistic wooden look.

“The shop gives me the chance to combine my interests in cooking and baking with interior design,” says Vossion.

On the future for Legit Coffee Co., Vossion remains coy on the idea of opening more branches soon due to the novelty of the Meath Street shop, but believes there will be more in the future.

“For the future, it’s just a question of opportunity really, but we’re not really looking right now.

“It will probably happen eventually, if it works, then fine!”

Legit Coffee Co. is located at Meath Mart on Meath Street and is open 6 days a week, being closed on Sundays.