Migration has begun. Alan saw a few hundred thousand assorted geese up by Montezuma this morning. I saw a good 500 here. Oddly, I was watching for the lone Snow Goose that has been hanging around all winter and didn't see it.
However, when I came in to look over the photos I took there it was in the only skein of Canadas that I photographed.
Meanwhile, all is quiet here. Everyone but the boss and Becky and I went to the Farm Show. Hope they have safe travels and a great time. If it doesn't rain I'll prolly get the boss to drag me up to Bear Swamp to see what we can see.
There’s no greater love song to diner coffee than David Lynch’s early 90’s mystery drama Twin Peaks (yes, I’m including Gilmore Girls. Deal with it). And no voice in that ballad is stronger than that of Special Agent Dale Cooper played by Kyle MacLachlin, and this supercut promoting the long awaited third season proves it.
Charged with solving the murder of Homecoming queen Laura Palmer in the sleepy town of Twin Peaks, Washington, out-of-town FBI Agent Cooper spends a good portion of his time sipping on some “damn fine coffee” at the local rusty spoon, the Double R Diner (which in real life is the unintentionally Lynchian Twede’s Cafe in North Bend, Washington, where the series was filmed). I don’t know that, in the entirety of my life, I’ve ever enjoyed a cup of coffee with the same untempered joy that Agent Cooper has, and it makes me feel incomplete.
Though as the video shows, it’s not just Agent Cooper who really enjoys a great (and frequent) cup of coffee. It’s pretty much the entire town. Which, when you have that much caffeine running through you system at any given moment, explains why the owls are not what they seem.
Twin Peaks returns for an 18 episode third season starting May 21st on Showtime.
Within a year of opening Comet Coffee, it became apparent to partners Mark Attwood and Stephanie Fischer that the 150-square-foot kitchen would not suffice. Storage of Fischer’s baking supplies was in competition with the milk for Attwood’s coffee bar in the refrigerator. The highly prized croissant dough could only be hand-rolled out twice a week due to St. Louis’s high temperatures. Of course, compromising on the quality of their products was not an option, so looking for a commissary space became a priority. After they bought a dough sheeter at auction, the search intensified, and a suitable spot was eventually found in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. Comet Croissanterie & Creamery opened for business in August. In addition to being that needed commissary space for the original Comet cafe, the shop—as suggested in its name—can be two different experiences depending on the day and time: Every morning except Tuesdays and Saturdays, you get a scaled-down coffee experience with just espresso-based drinks, pastries, and four seats. Then, four nights a week, it’s an ice cream shop.
The rest of the space was needed to make all the stuff.
“We wound up here because it’s close to our house,” Fischer says. “We can walk home, and it’s nice to be in a community that’s a little different from our current shop, which is [in] more of a business park. We also thought it would be fun to do ice cream in this community.”
Mark Attwood and Stephanie Fischer
There’s much more elbow room at the Croissanterie now for the bakers to prep the croissants, muffins, quiches, and other divine treats served at the original Comet Coffee location in the city. Unlike a lot of kitchens, there’s also an abundance of natural light. Two workstation islands anchor the 900-square-foot space, with supplies loaded both underneath the desk and floating above. An on-site freezer allows the team to select local produce when it’s in season and store until needed. After all the goods are prepped, they are delivered to Comet Coffee at night and baked up in the shop the next morning.
“Quality-wise and experience-wise for the customers, the only difference is they’re going to have more selection and more stuff, and it’s just as fresh,” Attwood says of the expansion. “The key thing is that we still bake [at the original location]. We wanted to make it so when the customers came in the morning, they could still smell the pastries getting baked…everything’s still warm.”
The Croissanterie at work.
The morning menu at the new Kirkwood space is quite minimal, featuring three croissant options, a chocolate chip cookie, an espresso from local roaster Blueprint Coffee, and plain old whole milk stored in a SureShot milk dispenser. Espresso is made with a Mahlkönig Peak grinder and the original espresso machine from Comet Coffee, a two-group La Marzocco Linea Classic painted yellow to match the shop’s front door.
There’s also a menu item offered at the Croissanterie that combines Attwood and Fischer’s skills: the Waffogato. A fresh waffle-cone bowl gets a scoop of ice cream dropped in. The coup de grâce is the espresso dripped over the ice cream, finished off by a Luxardo cherry.
The Waffogato
“The waffle-cone part adds a little bit of sweetness but [also] that textural component,” Attwood, a self-confessed ice cream fanatic, says. “A lot of the great dishes you’ll get in higher-end restaurants, they’ll add something crispy and it really elevates whatever you’re eating. [Our cone] adds that textural component…but is also buttery and delicious. It’s a delicate waffle—higher in butter percentage and lower in flour, so it’s a little richer. [Being made fresh] makes a huge difference.”
Almond bear claw croissant (left) and its traditional buttery forebear.
Although they were mum about any future plans to expand, Attwood and Fischer have two clear, simple objectives for their new space: to open on Saturdays, and to offer a great batch-brew coffee.
Owner and CEO Sam Penix with CFO and co-owner Sam Lewontin.
Back in 2011 I called Everyman Espresso’s landmark East 13th Street cafe in Manhattan “my favorite cafe in New York“, and six years on, not much has changed six. Or at least not for me; I’ve gone as far as to book lodging in New York based solely on proximity to the East Village, so that I may pretend, however briefly, to be one of this cafe’s grand and exotic flock of regulars. But plenty’s changed for Everyman, as the Manhattan-based brand grew to include a SoHo location in 2012, and now in 2017 has introduced a new member to the family: Everyman Espresso Park Slope, the brand’s first foray into Brooklyn.
The new Everyman occupies 400 square feet at 5th Avenue and Degraw, in the heart of Park Slope. Everyman CEO Sam Penix, who searched for the new location across four of the five boroughs—”I missed Staten Island this time”—has taken over the space formerly occupied by Venticinque, a neighborhood coffee bar with a small footprint. “It was this cluttered, kind of dirty coffee shop that wasn’t doing well,” Penix says, but that clutter has been transformed into a bright, airy space, designed in collaboration Everyman CFO and co-owner Sam Lewontin and longtime Everyman architect Jane Kim. Penix describes Kim as “great at interpreting my aesthetic, and Sam Lewontin’s vision for bar flow and efficiency,” describing their ongoing collaboration with Kim and contractor Sen Wang (of Senrong Development Consulting) as a “dream team.”
The space is stocked with gear by Nuova Simonelli (Climapro grinders), La Marzocco (a Strada EE 2 group espresso machine), Mahlkonig (an MK-710 grinder) and a Curtis Gold Cup brewer. Everyman is a longtime exclusive partner of Counter Culture Coffee, and that won’t change in Brooklyn, but there’s some shakeup happening behind the scenes. Penix and Lewontin are switching all three of their locations away from Counter Culture’s seasonal blends, and towards a program focused on the Durham, NC based roaster’s expansive list of single origin offerings, with menus chosen “at the discretion of each store manager,” according to Penix.
The focus at Everyman Park Slope is on “efficiency and quality”, as per Penix, who expands: “Quality doesn’t come from theatrics. Quality is about brewing a well-extracted cup of coffee that is super delicious; it’s about finding a way to meet people’s needs with quickness, while also being able to provide experiences and coffees that are impeccably brewed. I feel like we’ve matured and come into our own and we aren’t afraid of the tools we use to bring us to that goal of quality.”
Perhaps the most striking design element in the store is its tile backsplash, a branding hook that is in place at all three Everyman locations. “It’s a way we brand our spaces without being overtly commercial,” says Penix, who describes this new shop’s tile color palette—pink, black, and brassy yellow—as being inspired by “working girls from the 1970s—they’re always on my mind.” Think Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Lily Tomlin.
Other notable details include the use of Corian—a compacted stone dust—throughout the coffee bar, from the baseboard of the coffee bar to the back bar work counters, as well as slip-resistant floor tiles with a wood grain pattern.
The new shop is a close to Lewontin’s home in Brooklyn, and for Penix provides a much different customer environment than he’s encountered back on Manhattan. “This has been a huge departure from opening in Soho,” he tells Sprudge, “which was great, but it was a hard neighborhood to crack. The attitude there was more like “Who the -f- do you think you are?” Here in Park Slope the vibe is different, or at least for the most part—there’s always going to be Yelp hot takes. “My favorite thing about the new shop is really the people who are coming in,” Penix says, “because they’re coming in as groups and families, with happy faces, and saying things like ‘Thank you for being here.’ It really is changing my life and restoring my soul.”
As LA’s coffee scene continues to grow and impress, there’s one particular new project coming down the line we just had to learn more about. That would be Cuties, a “queer-centered” coffee bar and community space opening soon in East Hollywood. The space is currently raising funds on Indiegogo in a campaign that ends on March 4th.
For countless queer Americans and their allies, community spaces of this kind provide an important venue for everything from activism and engagement to just having a chill, non-judgy place to relax and meet people.
It’s hard to put into words how vitally important spaces like this are for the communities they serve. Teens, adults, people in need of an escape from cruelty—to offer acceptance, love, and mentoring in a community environment is one of the most important things a cafe can do. Sadly we’re in a wider moment here in the United States where civil rights and respect for queer Americans are threatened, especially for transgender Americans targeted by cruel and bigoted bathroom laws (a shameful and unconstitutional overreach of government fueled by prejudice, but we digress). In this milieu, spaces like Cuties have never been more important.
To learn more we spoke with Cuties founders Virginia Bauman and Iris Bainum-Houle. Sprudge co-founders Jordan Michelman & Zachary Carlsen interviewed them from Portland, Oregon.
First off, we love the name! Can you tell us its origin story?
Absolutely. Iris and I always liked the name Cuties because it’s a gender-neutral term of endearment. Everyone is a cutie.
Who is behind the Cuties?
Virginia Bauman (me!) and Iris Bainum-Houle.
First, I’ll tell you about my partner Iris Bainum-Houle. They are an artist and have a background in costume design. This is Iris’ first coffee business! They’ve been building the community aspect of Cuties for a year now. They are an incredible event producer and writer. They are genderfluid and are the driving force behind our Queers Coffee and Donuts events, and our weekly newsletter among many other projects.
I started Tonx Coffee with Tony Konecny in 2011. We somehow got to play around on the internet selling coffee for 3 years with an amazing team that I still miss. I was a director of digital product for one year at Blue Bottle after they bought us. When I left in 2015 a lot of things were up in the air for me. I was transitioning. I felt my career didn’t connect me to things that mattered. Iris helped me identify what was important to me and what could be next. A business centering queers and queer community was crucial. Coffee ended up being the way we decided to interface with that community day by day.
Please talk to us more about the space you’re moving into, and tell us about the neighborhood you’ll be a part of in Los Angeles.
The space has been a coffee shop in many past lives. It was a Cafecito Organico several years ago and most recently it was Helio Cafe. It has a mezzanine that spans 1/3rd the footprint of the main floor. People who want to hang for a bit can go up and chill. It needs a lot of polish, but the building itself is wonderful.
The location is near Los Angeles City College, a stone’s throw away from Sqirl to the east, and Go Get Em Tiger to the north. We are right between two Red Line Metro stops and right off of The 101. There’s also plenty of bike racks out front. Other things around us that we love: Against the Stream Meditation Center that offers free hour-long meditation sessions everyday; the Ukranian Culture Center; the Braille Institute (yes we will have braille menus) and Faultline Bar (although I hear they stopped playing porn on the walls recently). It’s not Silverlake, it’s next to it. It’s not Los Feliz, it’s next to it. There are a lot of queer and trans folks in East Hollywood if you know where to look.
Your Indiegogo mentions this space as being “perfect for a community oriented coffee bar”—what do you mean by this? We’re curious to know how you approach spatial needs for a shop like yours, one that has a community mission as part of its founding intention.
We don’t have a huge space, but it is bifurcated and the main floor allows people to be serviced efficiently while the upper floor is more flexible. That flexibility is key to us using the space for other groups in the community after peak business hours. We already have several groups that want to use the upper space in the evenings for classes, screenings, etc. Space is what our community needs more of so it’s important that our shop let the community use our space when possible.
We think this statement from your Indiegogo is really refreshing: “Cuties Coffee Bar is happening, even if we don’t reach our IndieGoGo goal. We are prepared to fill any fundraising gaps with a small business loan and continue with our work as planned.”Talk to us about the choice you made by including this in your Indiegogo statement.
We realize that money is tight around our community. LGBTQIA+ folks still face workplace discrimination and other challenges. That said, this past year producing community events has taught us that people want to help. This Indiegogo is a mechanism for the community to invest in the business we’re building and a way for allies to show their support. But ultimately, we have already derisked this business enough that a bank will be happy to give us the funds needed to operate. We added that language because we wanted to take a firm stance on our commitment to our community, regardless of the results of the Indiegogo.
Talk to us more about the “Pronoun Pins” you’re offering as a fundraising reward.
The idea of “Pronoun Pins” is not new. They are utilized in queer and trans communities as a way of alerting folks at a glance how an individual would like to be addressed. Pronoun Pins take the guesswork away and also make things a little easier if you’re not used to asking folks “What are your pronouns?” Cool enamel pins designed by Eric Mortensen (he also worked on our logo with Dana Steffe) seemed like a natural addition to our Indiegogo rewards.
The mugs from ceramicist Becki Chernoff are so cool! How did that collaboration come about? What kind of materials does the ceramicist use?
Becki was introduced to us by my former Tonx team member Danielle Harris. Becki lives right near our shop. We absolutely LOVE her ceramics. We didn’t really think twice about it after sitting down and drinking some coffee with her. For the Indiegogo reward mugs she’ll be using soldate clay (which is a stoneware) along with a matte white glaze. Becki will also be using abstracted elements from our logo and a tape resist method to create each mug’s unique design.
We’re coffee geeks and so we gotta ask: what roaster (s) do you plan on serving? What gear will be in use at the shop? Does stuff like this even matter anymore in 2017? Lol.
Hah. We are certainly not a gear-focused shop. While ModBars are gorgeous, our shop is going to be using basic bitch gear that we can afford and that will do the job well. We’ll be a single roaster Counter Culture shop serving espresso from a good ol’ Linea. Our frills are likelier to be in our outfits rather than our coffee equipment.
Can we volunteer a guest shift next time we’re down in LA?
Absolutely. Get your queer and ally butts down here and pull some shots!
Won't you sing with me? A-B-C-D...arf arf Pull me along. Pet me.
Little creeper! I dug it out and Liz is going to dispose of it....er...put it away
I was taking the dogs out just before sunrise. Mack the terror races around even on the porch. He would make a great barrel horse, so small a circle can he make. This morning his rummaging assault on all things porch-bound was accompanied by the weirdest music. Sound track for a rat hound or something. For a minute I thought I had somehow acquired a new ringtone on my phone. Who would be calling me so early and what was that awful music? But, no, it was one of the many noisy toys Peggy has stashed here and there around the place, singing me a song of small people. Evidently it is terrier-triggered and does not feel safe there under the cooler where it is hiding. All I can say is ACK.
Welcome to episode 36 of the Coffee Sprudgecast! For this week’s episode we join special correspondent Liz Chai from the floor of the 2017 US Coffee Champs Qualifying Event in Austin, Texas. Chai interviews a few of the weekend’s top baristas about their experience in competition.
