Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/131835
HOUNDSTOOTH COFFEE P aul Henry's day begins and ends with a simple mantra: "Better coffee for more people." Everything comes back to coffee and customers for Henry, a native Texan who runs Houndstooth Coffee's two cafés in Austin. He works alongside his brother, Sean, who started the business in 2010, and he serves as Houndstooth's director of Austin relationships (yes, that's the title on his business card). At the end of the day, the Henrys' task is to bring great coffee to the thirsty masses pouring into the Texas capital. There may be no better example than Houndstooth of specialty coffee's evolution in Austin, a metropolitan area that for years has been defined as a major college town, emerging technology hub and the live-music center of the universe. (Austin hosts the South by Southwest conference each year, typically in March.) But now America's 13th-largest city also houses a growing stable of thriving independent cafés serving high-end coffee. W hat's the reason for the renaissance? Perhaps coffee in Austin is simply following a trail blazed by the town's quality-minded restaurants and food trucks, which put a strong focus on connections with regional family farms. There's also a local micro-brewery scene lifting the bar for fans of hops and barley. Or maybe it's just the general culture of Austin to favor local and craft products of all varieties. Specialty-coffee culture first took hold in Austin in the late1980s and early-1990s. One notable trendsetter was Texas Coffee Traders, an artisanal roaster established in 1981; a crop of coffeehouses started soon after. "Cafés sprouted up all over the city, creating a space for loitering over a cold cup of coffee while engaging in an exchange of ideas," Paul Henry says. "It was part of that 'Friends' phenomenon in which 'Central Perks' sprouted up all over the country. I believe it is that familiarity with the coffeehouse as a space that allowed quality coffee to arrive in Austin." Henry adds that Austin's rise as a tech market has also allowed specialty shops to succeed. "Dell, Google, Facebook, Samsung and IBM all have a major presence in Austin," he says. "The type of people these companies attract—young, highly intelligent, social-media savvy—have proven to be especially interested in specialty coffee." Houndstooth's first shop, located in north-central Austin, has a low-key exterior in an office building that also houses a barbershop, a taco eatery and a dentist. Customers catch aromas from no fewer than six specialty roasters on bar. On a recent visit, that lineup featured out-of-towners Counter Culture Coffee, Handsome Coffee Roasters, PT's Coffee Roasting, Madcap Coffee, Coava Coffee Roasters and Austin's own Cuvee Coffee. Henry cites his team's focus on hospitality, kindness and quality as keys to success. He also thinks the virtues of such a collection of roasters—and the shop's relationships with each— help Houndstooth offer guests perpetual surprises. "Houndstooth works with multiple roasters for the same reason roasters work with multiple farms: to present the guest with options," Henry says. This sense of exploration helped inspire Sean and Paul to launch a second retail shop this spring inside the landmark Frost Bank Tower downtown. The new space incorporates an experimental "slow bar" at which customers order by the cup from a siphon brewer, Aeropress, Clever or single-group espresso continued on page 32 Fresh Cup Magazine • freshcup.com 31