Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "coffee house"

Shine coffeehouse going strong

2010-10-05T02:15:47Z

Shine – a new coffeehouse at 14th and E streets – opened Aug. 29, and management said the neighborhood has been receptive, with sales steadily climbing.

“We are ‘the chill zone,’ ” said Rena Davonne, owner of Shine. “I wanted it to be a neighborhood place.”

The Shine building – which also houses belly dancing and yoga businesses – held a grand opening Saturday, and the coffeehouse brought live music to its small stage.

“That went really well,” said Manager Demetri Gregorakis. “About 500 people came through the doors that day.”

Gregorakis said that constitutes about four times as many customers as came through the business on previous Saturdays.

“That was the first time we had live music, but we are going to start having it Friday and Saturday nights in a couple of weeks,” Gregorakis said.

One of Davonne’s goals in opening the business in the Mansion Flat area was to help clean up the neighborhood.

“Back in the ’90s, I started Fed Up (a neighborhood group), and neighbors and I worked to get the drug dealers out,” Davonne said.

Davonne lives in the neighborhood, and she said that in opening the business, she wants to continue to make the area a better place for residents and nearby businesses.

Rosemary Cortez lives down the street and stops by Shine just about every day.

“I’ve been in this neighborhood since 1956,” Cortez said. “We had a big drug problem, but you don’t see that here anymore.”

Cortez added that she’s seen a noticeable decline in the past month.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said he doesn’t have specific numbers on crime trends in the area, but agreed that opening businesses has a positive affect on a neighborhood.

“It definitely helps,” Leong said. “As you have more eyes out on the streets, you tend to have less crime. It’s a good deterrence.”

As much as Cortez likes the safer feel of the neighborhood, she said she comes to Shine for her coffee and Danish – and the amiable service.

“They’re very friendly in here,” she said. “I really like the old-fashioned furniture. I’m 63, and it reminds me of what my mom had.”

But the neighborhood “chill zone” is geared toward all ages, and 21-year-old Amy Kozak said she likes to pass the time in the coffeehouse.

“It’s nice to walk down here and use the Internet,” Kozak said. “I used to go down to Weatherstone, but this is just a block away from where I live.”

When she heard that management intends to schedule regular live music, she said it “will be even better.”

According to Gregorakis, the economy hasn’t been an issue.

“I don’t feel like that’s a real problem,” Gregorakis said. “I feel like it’s a lot of hype. With a little creativity, you can (start a successful business). We got a little lucky, because things lined up for us.”

Gregorakis credited the success of the business so far to being in tune with customers and focusing on buying local products.

“All of our products are local, except our coffee, which is fair-trade organic coffee from Mexico, but it’s roasted locally in Rocklin,” he said. “We’re part of the neighborhood. We’re not some foreign object planted here just to make money.”

The coffeehouse is open from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Read an earlier story on the coffeehouse here.

Exterior photo by staff reporter Suzanne Hurt. Interior photos by Brandon Darnell, staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Hometown baristas compete at nationals

2010-04-15T03:02:33Z

Three young punk baristas from Sacramento are competing in their first national barista competition this week.

Ben Lance, the 25-year-old manager of Temple, and Chocolate Fish Coffee employees Kyle Baumann, 21, and Erik Annonson, 22, left Wednesday for the 2010 U.S. Barista Championship in Anaheim. The competition is being held Thursday through Sunday as part of the 22nd annual Specialty Coffee Association of America Exposition.

All three compete in preliminaries Friday to see if they'll go on to semifinals and finals at the coffee geek event of the year. More than 1,000 people may watch from the stands, and others from around the world will watch as the event streams live online.

Lance, Baumann and Annonson are among 58 baristas who have made it to the nationals. Sacramento is sending three for the first time. Only a few hundred compete each year in 10 regional competitions. By doing so, they gain respect for themselves and their coffeehouses — with some achieving near-celebrity status among their peers and coffee-drinking fans.

Lance has competed in two regionals. He was a regional judge last year. He can't go into a grocery store without at least one person recognizing him. And every time he visits another coffeehouse, the staff pull him shot after shot of espresso. Which he likes, unless it's 10 p.m.

"The top guys — they're kind of like rock stars in the industry," said Auckland native Andy Baker, who owns Chocolate Fish, a New Zealand-style coffeehouse at Q and Third streets, with his wife, Edie. The shop features an umbrella-shaded patio, beach photos from New Zealand and surf videos harking back to Baker's youth.

He and Temple owner Sean Kohmescher spent last Monday night at their shops, watching their baristas practice and giving them pointers. Kohmescher and Lance drove down together with coffee and equipment for the competition. Baumann and Annonson left with the Bakers right after their Wednesday morning shift.

The competitions are part of the third wave of coffee culture in this country.

The first wave is said to have begun after World War II, when freeze-dried, store-bought coffees from Folgers and Maxwell House made the beverage cheap and easily available. Peet's and Starbucks launched the second wave in the 1960s and '70s by importing Italian coffee culture with its espressos, cappuccinos and dark roasts.

A new wave began in the mid-1990s, when independent coffeehouses ventured beyond just dark roasts to celebrate the unique tastes of individual coffees and the growers who make them.

"People still wig out and do a double-take when I say, 'Yeah, this coffee is going to taste like marzipan and grapefruit,' " Lance said. "And hopefully it will, if I do my job right."

Competitors will be judged on the talent and artistry they show in preparing, serving and explaining espressos, cappuccinos and a signature beverage to four judges — 12 drinks in a 15-minute routine. By competing, baristas also improve their knowledge and skills.

"We wanted to step up our game and fine-tune our craft," said Baumann, an earnest guy who's worked as a barista for nearly five years. A T-shirt reading, "Make Coffee Not War" peeked out from under his flannel shirt. After competing in Western regionals in February, he's become more tidy, tightened up his routine and found it easier to educate customers.

While neither gave the impression they'd fight off a rock star image, right now, they're still mastering the art of making great coffee.

"It'd be nice. But for the most part, we just want to be better baristas," Annonson said. Bearded and contemplative, he said he's served coffee for four years but "coffee I'm proud of" for only two years, since joining Chocolate Fish.

Baristas thrive and learn through camaraderie, both in Sacramento and at competitions. Here, they visit each other's coffeehouses to sample coffee, talk about coffee and experiment in a collective effort to "push the art forward," Lance said. He added that every coffeehouse pulls its espressos differently, and that impacts the taste.

To prepare for this year's regionals, Annonson and Baumann practiced with Lance at Temple. Lance gave them tips on preparation, how to come up with a winning signature drink and what to do on-stage when serving judges. A roaster who supplies coffee to Chocolate Fish also gave advice to the pair, who will be among the youngest competitors at nationals.

And they practiced on their own. Four to five days a week, before or after work, as far back as two to three months before regionals.

"This is not something you can just practice two to three times and you're good to go," Lance said. "A good majority (of what's done during competition) is what I do every day, serving people and describing how things taste. But (it's done with) almost a sommelier type of presentation."

Baristas at this level also want to educate people about coffee, as well as about the farmers who grow and harvest the beans. Many farmers live in poverty in developing countries. They labor to produce the highest quality coffee they can, which affects everything in the chain, he said.

Monday night, all three ran through their routines — pulling espressos, pouring cappuccinos (with latté art on top) and going through many steps to perfect signature drinks.

Working as a barista is physically demanding. Baristas try to apply 50 pounds of arm pressure each time they tamp down espresso in a portafilter and must use all their strength to crank portafilters into espresso machines — up to 200 times on a busy six-hour shift, said Lance, dressed in black and pulling espresso with tatooed arms.

They dress up for competitions, so judges are unlikely to see one sign of Lance's devotion to the craft: a portafilter and hourglass shot timer tatooed on his calf.

But judges will see another sign of that devotion: the signature drinks he and the Chocolate Fish boys create from scratch, using culinary methods to put carefully selected ingredients together to make the coffee beans' flavors sing.

Baristas use coffee from their own shops to compete. Annonson is aiming for the taste of a chocolate malt milkshake — using fresh-squeezed pixie tangerine juice, barley malt extract, chocolate and whip cream — to play up his coffee's chocolate flavor. Baumann is using tangelo juice, vanilla-enhanced sugar, heavy cream and cacao shavings to create "chocolate-covered orange cream puffs" that call out the beans' citrus tones.

Lance put coffee and sassafrass together for regionals. After that didn't go over well, he's layering a French press coffee mousse over a chocolate ganache and blueberry syrup reduction shaken with espresso.

They will each take their best shot at becoming the U.S. Barista champ and going on to the world championship in London this summer. But there's one other thing that Lance, Annonson and Baumann are after.

"We're all under the same sun and we all want the same thing: to get the public to appreciate what they, unfortunately, take for granted — which is the quality of a cup," Lance said.

Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter covering business and development for The Sacramento Press.

Old Soul Co. Opens New Location in Oak Park

2010-02-05T01:35:05Z

Old Soul Co opened their third Sacramento location Thursday morning in Oak Park.

An old familiar spot has a new face in Oak Park and the community is well pleased. Starbucks shut down its 35th and Broadway location last year, much to the disapointment of many. The location was a community hub where many gathered daily to socialize, conduct business or just relax with a good book and a cup of coffee. Despite many letters from patrons voicing their conerns to Starbucks corporate office of the closure, the doors were finally closed in September of 2009.

Knowing the community cenergy the coffee house brought regular goers better known there as "The Usual Suspects" were confident something good would come of it…the prime location couldn't sit quiet for long.

Thursday morning, with no fanfare, advertisement or forewarning, Old Soul Co opened their doors for business. Location manager Tim Jordan stated they were suprsingly very busy this morning, "you would have thought it was our official grand opening".

While all the furniture is not moved in yet, what furniture and décor that is there shows the location is going to be a wonderful and comfortable spot for "The Usual Suspects" and those who patron the new friend in Oak Park. College students were already enjoying the coffee and space as they cracked their books open to study. One stated, "I've been walking by here every day waiting for them to open".

Owner of "Underground Books", Mayor Kevin Johnson's Mother (known to locals as Mother Rose), said "Thank God this coffee house is open. It's what this community needs."

Not only does Old Soul roast and brew their own smooth coffee, they have a breakfast and sandwich menu as well.

The official open house will be the evening of this month's 2nd Saturday, February 13th from 6 to 9:30 P.M. The management is planning a wonderful event, and even obtaining a special event permit for the evening.

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Best Restaurants - a different take

2009-07-21T01:54:18Z

It's that time of year again - time for "Best Restaurants," brought to you by Sacramento Magazine.

After reading the readers' picks for each category, it made me wonder whether the results would be different for readers of The Sacramento Press. Our focus has been primarily on events and coverage of things in the Grid, whereas Sacramento Magazine covers a larger demographic including the suburbs.

There were four categories that stood out to me in Sacramento Magazine's Best Restaurants: Best Burrito, Best Pizza, Best Burger and Best Coffeehouse.

I live in the Grid and therefore have my own biases about restaurants that live in Downtown and Midtown. I prefer restaurants in this area to those found in the outlying areas. It would be interesting to see the results had it been limited to only restaurants in the Grid.

Best Burrito went to Chipotle, with Dos Coyotes coming in second and Ernesto's coming in third. Both Chipotle and Dos Coyotes are chains. The Grid has very few chain restaurants, and I wonder if the presence of chains amidst family-owned and unique Sacramento restaurants makes a difference in reader choice. Does the quality speak for itself?

Best Pizza went to Round Table. Granted, Chicago Fire and Zelda's picked up second and third place, but I wonder how a delivery-based chain is even allowed in the running. Did Hot Italian or Luigi's or Giovanni's make it in the top five?

For the category of Best Burger, there are quite a few restaurants that come to mind that did not make the top three. Jim Denny's, Whitey Jolly Cones and Nationwide Freezer Meats were all missing from page 115 for best burger. In-N-Out, however, took first place, the Squeeze Inn (deserving, in my opinion, one of the top three) made second and McDonald's placed third.

For Best Coffeehouses, Starbucks was voted first place, Peet's took second and It's a Grind made third. When I think of good coffeehouses, I think of the unique havens in the Grid. Temple comes to mind. So does Weatherstone and Naked Lounge. If I want ambiance and a coffee or tea that comes in a mug that was washed and that is reusable, I do not go to Starbucks. If I want free wi-fi that does not require a cellular account, I cannot go to Starbucks. If I want a swirled foam design on my latte, I will not go to a mass chain coffeehouse.

My coffee choices come from currently living in the Grid, although I did grow up in the suburbs.

After reading this list, I looked at Sacramento Magazine's website. At the bottom, it reads "Find the best that Sacramento, California has to offer at Sacramento Magazine Online. With fantastic features such as a restaurant guide, an entertainment and events calendar and monthly recipes, you’ll find everything you need to know about exciting Sacramento, California."

Now, I ask you - readers of The Sacramento Press - if you were to vote on Best Restaurants for The Sacramento Press (in the Grid), which ones would make your top three for best burrito, pizza, burger and coffeehouse?

One Temple not enough

2009-06-23T04:23:49Z

Sean Kohmescher discovered the coffee culture as a beach barista in San Diego.

The 23-year-old wanted a job on the beach, and he liked coffee. He became a barista at an outdoor café on Pacific Beach, and then what started out as just a fun job turned into a passion.

"I kind of fell in love with the culture," he said.

Kohmescher dreamed of opening his own coffeehouse someday. It wasn't until he began developing his palate while working in San Francisco's fine-dining scene that he really became passionate about coffee and tea.

After moving to Sacramento, he opened Temple, a coffee and tea house, in 2005 in a storefront at 1014 10th St., once home to Levinson's Books.

Now this 35-year-old entrepreneur is putting the finishing touches on a second Temple location, opening Monday, June 29, at 2829 S St. A grand opening party will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 18.

Sitting in his cavernous new warehouse, Kohmescher made it clear that he couldn't settle for just opening a branch of a big coffee chain, or, as he describes it, "the coffee equivalent of McDonald's." His fine-dining experience inspired him to create sanctuaries where people could enjoy a hand-picked selection of teas and coffees from around the world.

He chose the name "Temple" after traveling extensively in Southeast Asia and discovering the role Buddhist temples play in Asian culture.

"I had this connection with the temple being a community spot, or a meeting and gathering place for all the villages," he said.

What sets the newest Temple apart from other coffeehouses is that it will soon operate as a roastery. Sacramento has only a handful of coffee shops that roast their own beans in-house, including Coffee Works and Old Soul. A German roaster is expected to arrive by boat from Europe the day before the grand opening.

Another difference is the space itself. Kohmescher looked at 50 buildings before finding what he wanted: a place with character, a workable facade, front retail space and reasonable rent.

He chose a nearly century-old, small brick building with an attached warehouse and space for a front garden in the Newton Booth neighborhood. He saw past the building's caved-in roof, broken windows and chicken wire covering part of the warehouse that was open to the sky.

"It was definitely dilapidated and my staff said I was crazy," he said. "But they never saw [the first] Temple before we opened that space, so they didn't know what that looked like, either."

Landlord Chris Brocchini handled rehabbing, which involved cleaning the space, building a new roof, replacing windows and supporting the roof and walls with exposed steel framing.

Kohmescher's passion for everything about his business also makes him stand out from other coffee retailers. He and his staff built nearly everything inside the 1,000-square-foot retail space from the ground up. Last week, they finished building the front counters, espresso bar, banquette seating and display case out of birch stained in a warm walnut. They built the tables and designed and installed the garden.

His goal was to create a warm yet urban space with an international feel. He used lots of wood to soften brick walls and the exposed orange framework and mechanical duct. Buddha statues and other art create a global vibe.

Described by staff members as a "determined perfectionist," Kohmescher is also hands-on with the entire process to make sure customers get expertly made coffee and tea.

"I have a philosophy: I don't eat out at places that don't make food better than I make at home," he said. "I think we (Temple) should strive to make coffee better than people can make at home."

He turns people like 26-year-old Jessica Woods into some of California's Top 10 baristas. Woods had never made coffee before working at Temple, but under Kohmescher's training, she and other employees have competed in the Western Regional Barista Competition and won.

Last week, he tested several wannabe baristas at the new Temple. New employees must go through eight hours of training and score 100 percent on a written test before touching the register. The exam tests people on such things as steeping times for particular teas, coffee flavor terms and decaffeination processes.

After new employees have worked at Temple three to six months, they must go through four weeks of on-the-job instruction before they can work as a barista.

Last week, coffee lover and poet Stuart Canton took the test in the new Temple. He said Kohmescher's business sophistication and fine dining perspective got him interested in the job.

"To him, it's come in and have a fine dining experience, but it's with coffee," said the 21-year-old Natomas resident. "Temple has a quality product and a degree of seriousness I don't find at a lot of other coffee houses, which I'm attracted to as a person who's passionate about coffee beyond a blended white mocha with lots of whipped cream."

Back in the warehouse, Kohmescher dug through shelves stocked with black bags of tea. The new space will have a more extensive list of French-press coffees and expensive teas than the first, and will stock seven to 15 coffees and 28 teas, he said.

He opened bags and sampled aromas of loose-leaf blueberry rooibos, lychee red and pricey osthmanthus silver needle ($50 for 16 ounces by volume).

He explained that he works with several importers or "green bean buyers" to get fine coffees from small coffee farms — so small that big coffee chains can't use their beans because there just aren't enough. A Kenyan coffee will arrive next week for the store's opening.

Monday afternoon, manager Ben Lance led a tea tasting so new staff could learn about the look, smell and taste of the teas.

Kohmescher now describes his passion for coffee and tea as "somewhere in the borderline of insanity." He teaches staff to seek perfection in a cup of coffee or tea and educate customers so they'll develop a higher appreciation for what they're drinking.

"The fun in life is actually knowing about things," he said.

Crawl…Flash…Spokes, It’s Bikeramento Week!

2009-02-12T02:14:33Z

Last night was an amazing meandering ride from Downtown through Midtown for the 1st Annual Bikeramento Crawl.

Set the scene of a moving banner from sanctuary to sanctuary in the light rain. It all begins with the religious experience of a cup of mojo at Temple Fine Coffee & Tea.

The loose Bikeramentans gather and awkwardly introduce themselves to the team. It’s to be expected. Who are these bike-crazy folks, these Spokes People, who believe that they can influence city planning and have fun doing it?

Ah….soak up that caffeine. A fine whiff of a single origin espresso parting the perfect foam of that cappuccino. David Barton shows up with the sharp photographer for Sacramento Press. And the adventure begins.

The energy builds, spreading the word to random cyclists biking over for meetings and everyday items, creating a chance run-in with Panama Bartholomew of the Planning Commission.

Australia, and barista extraordinaire from the emerging Chocolate Fish Coffee down the street, check.

Scotland, skydiver and cyclist, check.

Eco-activist, check.

State workers and Bay Area transplants, check.

Gear up to travel over to Brew It Up where Sacramento Press opens the tab and buys the ragtag Bikeramentans a round of beer. Mmmm…house-brewed Vanilla Stout. More creative capital joins the crew. We hear whispers of city-wide capture the flag driven by online clues.

Off we go into the wild night yonder, hustling to Butch N Nellie’s Coffee House at 19th and I Streets for Muddy Dublins, Guinness with a shot of espresso, and Dublin Floats, Guinness with 2 scoops of chocolate gelato. It’s a mad nightcap as a large group adds on to the fun and night lights flicker onto the bikes, like quirky fireflies amidst the dewy darkness.

Onward to DeVere’s Irish Pub. It’s our poor waitress’ lucky draw, her first night on the job serving Bikeramento. A flawless delivery as Sacramento Press hurls a round of Washington Apples for the 20 of us gathered, followed by a roundhouse of beers and a few small plates to soak it all up. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” as we toast our sponsors.

Time slows down as we enjoy the jovial sounds of a full crowd. The lamb sliders linger on the tongue and bid us adieu into the rain once more.

Last call to Rubicon Brewing Company on 20th and Capitol Avenue next to The Waterboy Restaurant. We run into friends, associates, and more Bikeramentans. Thank goodness for open-faced meatloaf sandwiches drizzled with mushroom gravy. Another crowded house on a wintry Tuesday night, the perfect ending to Crawl home for bedtime stories and foamy dreams.

The Bikeramento Banner travels from post to post like a wise, wandering gypsy at home wherever it lands against the cityscape, signifying the temporal nature of each stop combined with the cyclical energy of moving forward together as an evolving urban wheel .

It’s 10 minutes to the next event, the bicycle flash mob on Wednesday evening. Find the answer online at Bikeramento.org.