Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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can find the freshest," Malcolm says. The restaurant complements the Farmhouse blend with rotat- ing single-origin coffees from Counter Culture. Anderson of Barrington Coffee says a good rule of thumb for suc- cessful restaurant coffee is sim- ply looking at the menu and then selecting coffee that pairs well. "There used to be this notion of having a lighter roast treatment during daytime foodservice and a darker treatment for evening food- service," he says. "But I find it's most successful when you're very specific to the restaurant and what kind of fare they're preparing." While Anderson is vocal about the challenges he has faced while providing coffee for restaurants, he has also seen success stories where restaurants overcome pre- conceived notions to deliver excep- tional brews. He says that in most cases, the restaurant-coffee part- nerships that work best are those that stay small in scale. "The only way for most restaurants to eco- nomically and sustainably build a great coffee program is just to make it as simple as possible," he says. "Pare it back, try to marry it with your vision of your menu and the food that you're serving, and do it to order." Anderson adds that restaurants with 30 to 40 seats have the easi- est path to quality service, begin- ning with solving the quandary of equipment investment. "If they're only needing to produce a small number of cups of coffee, it can be met really easily with a number of different pieces of equipment that are not necessarily all that difficult to invest in or run elec- tricity or water lines to," Anderson says. While this may exclude an espresso machine, it doesn't rule out a grinder, hot-water boiler and simple-but-elegant brewing meth- ods like French press and pour-over. And having an attention- grabbing brewer like a Chemex can be a great coffee wake-up call to fine-dining customers. "The Chemex has a sex appeal for some- one who doesn't know anything about coffee," says Martinez. "You fall in love with it before you taste it. And that's a real value—it draws people to first taste it, and then to think about what they're tasting." FUTURE IN THE CUP Stellar coffee may not be com- monplace at most restaurants now, but those already on board see major potential in the concept. As Brian Canlis surveys the ele- gantly dressed diners filing into the lounge, he highlights one of the plusses of high-quality coffee service in the fine-dining restau- rant: the waiter's chance to serve as coffee ambassador. "I think in a fine-dining restaurant you have an opportunity to have a conversation more than you do as a barista at a coffee shop," he says. "You might have face time with them for 20 or 30 minutes while they're drinking coffee. So you have the chance for a relationship over coffee that is really special." The interaction Canlis references is a simple conversation, but it's one that can plant the seeds for future coffee connoisseurs. Specialty cof- fee professionals often stress the importance of baristas and others on the frontlines in café culture to gently educate consumers about the story of our beans. What better place to do that than in the restau- rant environment, where consum- ers are ready for an exceptional taste experience and often eager to learn about what goes along with that. In Barth Anderson's eyes, it's just a matter of time until specialty coffee and fine dining meet up to flourish on a grander scale. "A lot of restaurant people know what we've started to build here in the café scene with exceptional coffees, and they know that the two worlds need to be reconciled," he says. "And I'm seeing it certainly more now than I ever have." freshcup.com January 2012 43 BRAD KAPLAN