A very nice writeup about our shops can be found on page 12 of the July Issue (10 Great Neighborhoods) of Pittsburgh Magazine. It basically covers our original shop in the Strip, the Frick Building downtown, and our never ending quest to brew the perfect cup of coffee.
Monthly Archive for June, 2007
We received a nice surprise today when a trailer pulled up outside the shop and said they had a “coffee machine from Seattle” to deliver. That meant one of two things- either the Clover or the Synesso was here (that’s right… our brewers are made in the good ol’ US of A). I asked how heavy it was and when the answer was under 100lbs I knew it was the Clover. The Clover 1s is a commercial grade single cup coffee brewer. This is not the automatic machine brewing “hazelnut coffee” from a pod in your office break room.
Clover is going to revolutionize our coffee business. Essentially our coffee menu in the Strip will no longer feature “Coffee of the Day”. In it’s place will be the “Clover Brew Bar” menu. What does this mean for our coffee customers? Here’s what we’re thinking:
- Variety: We will likely feature 6-10 different (Intelligentsia) coffees at a time, for example award winning reserve coffees, single origins from Bolivia, El Salvador, favorite blends like the El Diablo Dark Roast, more than one decaf, etc. Also, you’ll actually be able to sample a coffee and see how it tastes before you buy a pound.
- Speed of service: Each coffee will be brewed to order in about the time it takes us to pull a double espresso (under 2 minutes). Also, no more waiting for us to re-brew an airpot because we either sold out or it’s time was up.
- Freshness: All of our coffees will be within two weeks of the roast date (as they are today) and will be ground fresh for each cup of coffee seconds before it is brewed. Your coffee will not be sitting in an airpot waiting to be sold.
- Quality: We’ve tried coffee brewed on the Clover- it simply tastes better than our current brewer (that’s why we got it). Each coffee will be custom brewed with the precise temperature and time. The best way to describe it is a perfectly executed french press without the sediment. It tastes cleaner than a press pot.
- Repeatability: We’ll choose our lineup of coffees and feature them for several weeks at a time, so customers will get a chance to enjoy all of them side by side. Since we can program the time/temperature settings for each coffee, it will taste the way it should every single time.
- In-Store Experience: This thing is just flat out fun to watch, smell, etc. It used to be that all the excitement in the preparation of a drink was reserved for the espresso customer- not anymore…
Can’t wait to hook it up!
Around the time we open up our shop at 50 21st Street in the Strip District we will also unveil a new type of coffee sleeve from Eco-Sleeve. Why the switch you ask?
- Eco Sleeves insulate better than our current paper sleeves
- Eco Sleeves are 100% recyclable
- They are 100% biodegradeable
- They look cool
- They are lighter and cost less to ship
- They cost LESS than paper
- We can get them from Pittsburgh’s own Babcor Packaging
If you’ve searched for our business on Google or another search engine, chances are you’ve come across our listing in AOL CityGuide. Go ahead, check it out. Notice anything odd?
There are a few issues with the listing that I’ve noticed:
- The guy in the photo is not any of the owners or any of our employees. I have no idea who that guy is (if you are out there please email us) or what is in that giant bowl of drink he’s holding.
- The hours listed are wrong, we open at 7am (not 8am) every Monday-Friday. I know, ask my alarm clock.
- Did you find this listing inaccurate and would like to tell someone? Well then go ahead and click on the “let us know” link. Oops, page not found. Sorry. Tried it in both Firefox and Explorer.
- On another note, the review isn’t really that detailed. The person that wrote it didn’t actually try the coffee- I think he may have bought an OJ or something.
For the next few weeks we do not plan on being open Sundays in the Strip- we’re going to use the time to get our new shop in order. Once the new shop opens, we intend to have regular Sunday hours- we’re thinking 8am to lunchtime to start.
Now if you happen to see us on the street on a Sunday and the machine is already in use… yeah we’ll make you a drink.