Daniel's World of Coffee

Coffee Shop: An Ode to Ost

Today I worked what will be my last shift at Ost Café for a long time. I've never officially been an employee of Ost, but it feels like a place I can call home. I've done a lot of work in the coffee industry, but there are only actually four cafés I've ever been a regular barista at: Victrola, the now-defunct Lucky Dog in Seattle, Café Grumpy, and Jack's Coffee. But I feel like I should put Ost on that list, too.

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I only met the Osterizers because they had made the decision to use Intelligentsia coffee for their new store, and I was the man doing training for Intelligentsia. I did a training for them at Intelly's SoHo lab, and then another session on site at their 12th and Avenue A café.

I immediately took a liking to the folks who run this place. Alex, Aaron, Kat, and the people who work for them are all fantastic people. They are interesting, passionate, hard-working, and fun to be around. They know the perfect mixture of professionalism and friendliness that makes great coffee shops such wonderful things. And all the baristas I've worked with there — Steph, Dan, Michael, Anne, and the Jeffs — have been stellar.

I started pulling shifts at Ost on a lark, because I missed the honest hard work of pulling shots and doing dishes for 8 hours in a row (really!). I missed the cameraderie among the baristas, and the happy look on a customer's face when you give them a truly perfect cappuccino. After just a couple of shifts, I found myself going back just to see my friends. I always felt comfortable and welcome there.

I know the customers who frequent Ost must feel the same way, because the place has been an instant success. Not the kind of shop that relies on hype or internet chatter: it's the kind of place that people test out once and then immediately begin recommending to all their friends and neighbors.

Well, I'd like to generate my own little portion of hype and chatter for these folks. When people mention great cafés in New York City, there are a few that always get mentioned, and deservedly so. Café Grumpy, Ninth Street Espresso, Joe the Art of Coffee, and Gimme! Coffee are all wonderful and innovative companies that deserve to be right at the top of any discussion NYC coffee. I have friends and colleagues at all those stores. But I truly think that Ost needs to be included on that list of "first breath" places. The coffee is fantastic, the atmosphere is unique and lovely, and — and this is the most important part — the people are as nice as they come.

Thank you, Ost. It's been a pleasure to work with all of you. I'll be back someday soon to mess up your bar area while pulling shots and headbanging along to "Achilles' Last Stand," and then I will run across the street to Poppy's Deli for a turkey sandwich which I will then eat in the back room while looking at latfh.com.

Until then, the rest of you should check it out if you at all have the opportunity.

Coffee Shop: Ninth Street Espresso

Sometimes we are in such a frenzy to discover the next big thing that we miss the gems right in front of our faces. In the spirit of counting one's blessings and appreciating the tried-and-true, I paid a visit yesterday to the original super-specialty coffee shop of New York City, Ninth Street Espresso.

These days it seems a new specialty coffee shop pops up in New York City every week. I have a hard time keeping up with it all, and I do this stuff for a living. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely thrilled to witness the changes that have taken place in the last three years. But it wasn't so long ago that the only place to get a true American style super-specialty espresso beverage in the whole city was this little outpost in the East Village. Owner Ken Nye's been doing things righer and longer than just about anyone else you can name.

In fact, my traveling companion is a huge coffee lover, and she'd never even been to the original Ninth Street Espresso. There was a time that I made pilgramages out to this place, but lately I've been negligent, seeing as there are so many quality joints that aren't 50 city blocks off the closest subway line like Ninth Street is. But I realized I was cheating myself, and so both of us made the trek in the fine early September evening weather.

A few months ago, I actually got to see up close part of the development of Ninth Street's signature Alphabet City blend. When Ken Nye made the switch to Intelligentsia, Kyle Glanville and the boys out in Los Angeles sent us several candidate component beans, along with suggested blend percentages. David Latourell and I then spent time in the lab in SoHo pulling shots and tasting them and tweaking these blends. Ken himself then came in and directed us further and the end result was the return of "Alphabet City," a sweet, drinkable, chocolatey and nutty coffee that Ken likes to call "Snickers in a cup."

Yesterday evening I was an especially hard-to-please customer because I was just off a five hour day of tasting some pretty gnarly coffee. The last thing I needed was more coffee compounds on my tongue. But I have to tell you: my shot was sweet, drinkable, fruity, and chocolate candy-like. As was my friend's.

Afterwards, across the street drinking sangria at Esperanto, I remarked that it's amazing that such an intense beverage as espresso can be so smooth and drinkable when done right. But Ninth Street does it reliably right.

The shop on 9th and C has also, incidentally, undergone a minor remodel. The tables are long community tables now, and the whole place looks cleaner and crisper, with better lighting and paint. But the overall aesthetic is unchanged: simple black and white, no frills, no BS.

In fact, I can't think of a better description of Ninth Street than this picture of the machine area as seen from the customer's eye view. A simple, no-frills Marzocco, a classic grinder, a clean countertop, and their simple coffee cup logo. It embodies what this place is about: great espresso, clean and simple. I'll be sure to make the gap between my next visits much shorter.

The Barista Community

On Sunday I was working in a coffee shop in Manhattan. Four different people that work in coffee (but not at that shop) came by to say hello and have a little espresso or latte and talk business. There was someone from Stumptown, someone from Think, someone from Joe, someone I knew from Jack's, and someone opening a shop up in Connecticut (hi guys!).

Yesterday evening I was thinking how normal that seems to me, but also how extraordinary it seems to people outside the industry. Bartenders sometimes have a little unspoken club membership, but the barista community is different. It's hard to think of the "Bartender's Community." (Bartenders out there, please feel free to correct me... I tended bar myself for four years, but perhaps I was missing out... we might give each other a knowing nod and a price break, but that was about it).

Baristas, on the other hand, will use their days off to go biking around visiting various shops and roasteries. For fun. To meet people, to see friends, to try new coffees. It's pretty remarkable when you stop to think of it.

Sometimes the barista community can seem a little clubby. I suppose it is, from a certain perspective. People will reference this or that shop they went to or this or that famous coffee person they cupped with. But this is almost always done with enthusiasm, not snobbery. For a "club," the barista community is one of the most open I can think of. Basically all you need to do is care about coffee, be nice to people, and spend a little energy getting yourself out there.

I also can't think of any other professioinal group, off the top of my head, that is so prone to spontaneously organizing events for themselves. Ever go to a "structural engineers' jam" ... or a "lawyers' jam"? Such groups may have conventions, or get together after work for beers, but coffee people have these things too. On top of that, coffee people will spontaneously get together to trade tips, compete in good-natured contests, sample different brews, and just generally "dork out," as they say.

Exhibit A: Check out this cool event that just happened last Thursday at Counter Culture's New York Training Center (where I stole those photos from, btw). Fun!

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: