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COASTS WITH THE MOST continued from page 35 Of course, not everyone will tell you that good coffee is new to New York. John Moore, who works at veteran Queens-based roaster Dallis Bros., says a similar quality movement took place in the city in the early-'90s. "When people tell me you couldn't get good coffee in New York until recently, I'm like, 'Really?'" he says. "I was pulling shots here for years and was lucky enough to work in some of the busier cafés. We were just as passionate." However, Moore acknowledges that technology innovations and shifts in technique have upped the game. "We didn't know as much then as we know now," he says. One major factor driving the city's coffee frenzy has been the trend of faraway roasters setting up shop. In the last two years, Oakland, Calif.- based Blue Bottle, Portland's Stumptown Coffee and Australia-based Toby's Estate have all built roasteries in Brooklyn—where the rent is slightly less astronomical than it is in Manhattan—and their cafés can be found throughout the city. A major reason for their newfound presence is the temptation of the giant market. "Foot traffic in and out of cafés in New York is astounding compared with the foot traffic in and out of cafés in somewhere like Seattle," says T.J. Tarateta, New York-based managing partner of distributor Ammirati Coffee. The latest out-of-town entry is Blue Bottle's shop in the Chelsea neighborhood, which NEW YORK CITY STUMPTOWN opened in February in a converted loading dock. The square-like space has a small seating area of counters and tables in the main entrance, and customers can then walk up a set of stairs to find the siphon bar, a seating area with six chairs that encourages the theater of coffee making. As I sit at the bar with Blue Bottle's East Coast production manager, David Stallings, he shares his happiness at being a part of it. "It's definitely an exciting place to be in coffee right now," he says. "There's a force behind the movement." Stallings moved to New York City just last year, and his migration is an example of how many passionate coffee people are moving there. "There's no question in my mind that there's a fresh crop of incredibly talented people driving a sort of renaissance in coffee in New York City," says Moore of Dallis Bros. One example is Jordan Barber, a barista at Third Rail Coffee. He moved to the city in 2010, and this year he won the Northeast Regional Brewers Cup. "If you're here, you have to want to be here," he says. "You can't coast in New York. You have to go for it." It's fitting then that in the seven interviews I did about New York City coffee, more than half of the interviewees quoted a lyric made famous by Sinatra: "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." One of those Sinatra citers was Donald Schoenholt, president of Gillies Coffee, a family company that has made it through 173 years of coffee roasting. Schoenholt himself has worked in coffee for 40 years, and he says the rise in third-wave roasters is a triumph of the little guy. "People who love coffee and love working with coffee have found ways to make small independent businesses survive and thrive," he says. "We have been able to make a niche for ourselves." However, as the scene grows, is there a chance Gotham could reach a saturation level when it comes to high-quality coffee? Those I spoke to gave a collective, "No way." "There are so many people in New York that being close to another café doesn't really spook any- body," says Stallings of Blue Bottle. Moore from Dallis Bros. describes the city as "a string of 1,000 tiny villages," and he says those insular communities support the shops around them. "You're pulling most of your clientele from a four-block radius," he explains. In some ways, the excitement around the movement in NYC and increasing num- bers of transplants has created one big happy (caffeinated) family. "There's good com- munity here," says Barber of Third Rail. "I think people are really pushing each other 36 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com ANDERS CARLSSON