Coffee Shop: Bloc 11 in Somerville, Mass.

August 18, 2009

Coffee Shop: Bloc 11 in Somerville, Mass.

Last week I took a trip to the Boston area to do some trainings at Bloc 11 Café in Somerville. Bloc 11 is sister-cafés with the nearby, and slightly more venerable, Diesel Café. Both are owned by Jennifer Park, and both have carried Intelligentsia coffee since Day One.

There are 50 employees between the two stores, so we employed a "train the trainer" scenario. I knew that the Bloc 11 and Diesel folks would be good, but I didn't realize just how high their skills were. These are some very dedicated coffee people. No "this is a tamper; this is a portafilter" for these folks. Instead we were debating the merits of 23 grams in a La Marzocco triple basket versus 21 grams. People were already nailing beautiful latte art rosettas, so we worked a little on drawing hearts. You get the idea: tweaking around the edges.

Part of the fun of training such well-educated and dedicated people is that I get to learn from them too. I do love introductory trainings that give me the chance to really infect someone with the quality coffee bug; but there's something special about really getting down and dirty with someone who already speaks the lingo and who loves what they do. That's the Bloc 11 people.

The other thing I noticed was what a great community they have. (Pssst... don't tell anyone, but I'd take great community over great coffee any day. How nice and serendipitous when the two go hand in hand!) Everyone was so comfortable and friendly, and they immediately made Steve and I feel welcome too. There's a homeyness you can't fake at these places. In fact, Diesel just celebrated its 10th anniversary, and in celebration, ten of their employees got Diesel/coffee-related tattoos. Each tattoo is unique, but they all relate to their shared life there at the shop.

Bloc 11 is built in an old bank, and they kept the vault in the back, complete with massive vault door with all kinds of cool gears and locks on it. In general, the space is very airy, with lots of plants and exposed brick. The customers seemed all very happy to be there. Steve Mierisch took some photos on his iPhone:

One of the big draws of this place is their fantastic food. All day long, Jennifer and her staff plied us with delicious sandwiches, asparagus soup, and Brazilian limeade (super refreshing on a hot summer day). You can see the importance of good food by the space they have devoted to it:

Even breaking down the huge staff into smaller groups, this was still a lot of material to cover, so we did three different espresso extraction seminars, two latte art seminars, a demonstration info trainer with a brave coffee virgin named Tyler, a cupping, and I forget what else.

In the back, near the bank vault, they have a tricked out La Marzocco Linea EE with some kind of crazy pre-infuse mod that I never got to the bottom of, and a standing bar where people can do trainings, cuppings, etc. I can't tell you what a fantastic luxury it is to be able to do trainings in a dedicated space. At Bloc 11 it really made things go smoothly.

In all, I had a great time. The Somerville-Cambridge area is really nice. Two of my sisters lived in that area for many years (Hi Jane! Hi Ellie!!), and I recognized a lot of the side streets. It's great to have some cool friends in the coffee industry in Somerville now, too. Thanks guys. You made me smile... and just look what you did to Steve: