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Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/139019
CAFÉ CROSSROADS continued from page 24 Q: Developing an innovative food menu for a café is obviously very different than doing so for a restaurant. The Artifact menu changes based on what's in season and features items like a tofu mushroom burger, chilled beet soup and Chesapeake crab. How did you create it? A: We started by taking our time and just doing day service. But we really wanted to keep things going into dinner and had the brilliant idea to do a single fixed price menu with three or four courses a night. It just tanked. The nature of the place is to have energy and feel alive, and it didn't feel that way at all. It was not something Baltimore was interested in. So we decided to go to an a la carte thing and continue the soup, salad and sandwich coffee shop menu and add a few more supper-like dishes. Day one it was off to the races. It was awesome. I don't even know how people found out, but it was like night and day. A place like Artifact is about the life people are living and how they choose to use it. The mistake we made with dinner service was we said this is the one and only way you can have this experience. Lesson learned. On we go. Q: You have a strong connection with Counter Culture but also have started bringing on other roasters. Is that going to continue? A: We have a great relationship with Counter Culture that goes back to before Woodberry and we want to continue that, but understanding some of these other coffees out there has been fun too. As our barista culture gets more established, those baristas will kind of determine where we go with that. So much of what we do at Woodberry and in the kitchen is collaborative. It's based on the team kind of working with local products and determining the direction within some well-defined but broad ideas about what we should be cooking and how we should be cooking. I think the coffee program here will be the same. The baristas need to engage at that level, and they'll decide how it moves forward. Q: Have you ever considered starting your own roasting operation? A: I've daydreamed about it. Roasting has a tremendous amount of appeal, but to me what's important about coffee is sourcing well and returning the maximum value to the grower. I'm not sure I can do that as a roaster. I have a ton of respect for roasters that are really taking direct trade and relationship-driven sourcing to new levels. Q: In what ways does coffee deepen your culinary experience? A: There's just so much to coffee. It's inspiring for a cook when you see baristas that really connect with their coffee and milk. Seeing that for the first time was like, "Wow, they're really tasting it in a way that sometimes us chefs do not." Are we really spending time the way a barista pulls shots and dials in espresso before a shift and makes changes? With coffee, you really have to pay attention and when you do, you're rewarded. I love that about it. 26 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com