Jacob Grier

This classified ad sounds promising:

New cafe opening in cool part of DC needs a serious barista to help establish and oversee coffee operations. Looking for someone passionate about coffee-coffee making as a craft. We intend on serving the finest ristretto shot in the District. Duties include consulting with owner/operator on equipment purchase, hiring of other talented baristas, and helping to determine overall feel of cafe. not your ordinary coffee shop.

Sounds like my friends at Cato might have an option better than Starbucks in the near future.

Grape and Bean, Big Bear, and Murky all get coverage in The Washington Post today in an article by Michaele Weissman, author of the new book God in a Cup. Weissman’s book covers the new wave specialty coffee industry from seed to cup, profiling the people at Counter Culture, Intelligentsia, Stumptown, and other roasters, along with baristas, farmers, and importers. Though perhaps too personal at times, it’s an interesting and sympathetic look at our sometimes weird and obsessive subculture. Definitely recommended.

Big Bear is your place. And they won’t even punch you, unless you’re into that sort of thing.

[Thanks to Court.]

Wow, this has gotten really out of hand. A guy walks into Murky Coffee, orders an iced espresso, and is informed that the store doesn’t offer that drink. Flame war ensues.

I was at Murky when the incident happened, sitting outside away from the action. I was amazed even then at how quickly the story spread. Immediately after the guy, Jeff Simmermon, left the infamous dollar tip, the barista David came outside to show it to my friends and me. Within minutes another customer blogged about it, a friend emailed me the post, and I’d taken a photo of the bill for posting. I later decided not to post it because, really, this isn’t the kind of thing that deserves to be taken beyond the shop. It’s too late for that though: BoingBoing and Metafilter picked up the story and there’s a Washington Post article on the way.

Now I do want to write about it because my friends and the shop where I got started as a barista are being slandered as pretentious jerks who don’t care about customer service. This is especially unfair to the barista, David, who was following the store policy. There’s a sign on the register clearly stating that Murky will ice any drink except for espresso and cappuccino. David made this clear and explained why the shop doesn’t offer those. Whether or not he could have handled the interaction better (and I suspect he in fact handled it pretty well), that should have been the end of the matter. Instead Simmermon made a scene, left a vulgar tip, and got one of the world’s most popular websites to repeat his story portraying the barista as a pretentious hipster who takes coffee way too seriously. It’s frustrating to then see Murky mocked all over the internet and this guy taken to be a hero for mistreated customers.

Simmermon does raise a fair question about whether the shop should have a policy against icing espresso. It’s something the store could physically do, and isn’t the customer always right?

Well, maybe. That’s one way to run a business. But there’s a constant tension in the coffee world between giving the people what they like and trying to raise the bar for specialty coffee. If Murky was really selling customers everything they wanted, they’d be installing blenders and a giant rack of flavored syrups, too. That’s the road to becoming Starbucks, with its frappuccini, Vivanno-whatevers, and push-button mediocrity. The higher end shops define themselves not only by what they offer, but also by what they say no to. A lot of places won’t make blended drinks. Others are cutting out 20 ounce and even 16 ounce cups. At Murky, they define espresso and the classic cappuccino as their signature beverages. They won’t ice them, they won’t serve them to go. It might cost them a few customers, but it shows the pride they take in their work and their respect for the coffee. I think that’s refreshing, and it elevates the company’s image as the most dedicated shop in DC.

It’s not an arbitrary policy, either. As owner Nick explains at the Murky blog:

Espresso is a fairly volatile thing, and when it hits ice, it seems to go through a chemical change that we can’t fully explain (and I haven’t seen a good explanation within our industry quite yet). It does appear to have something to do with ascorbic acid, but when we make our iced americanos (espresso + water + ice), we pour the shots into room-temperature water before adding the ice. Believe it or not, it does make a difference. Pouring espresso over ice creates unpleasantly acrid flavors.

Maybe Simmermon’s just being sarcastic, but it sounds like he really enjoyed the iced Americano he eventually received. If he’d listened to the barista’s advice in the first place, he would have discovered the drink sooner. And at the very least he shouldn’t have publicly mocked the barista for upholding the store’s policy.

Anyway, there’s three things to take away from this. One, don’t be a dick on the internet. Two, trust your barista. Three, pay a visit to Murky. Despite the insults swirling around online, they’ve got a friendly, talented crew right now, and they make a damned good espresso.

DC’s first location of the South African, Portuguese-themed chicken restaurant is now open in the city’s increasingly non-Chinese Chinatown (right next to Hooters and Mehak Indian restaurant). The specialty is spicy roasted chicken cooked with sauce seasoned with peri-peri, an African chili pepper. The sauce isn’t that hot, but it has good flavor and bottles on the table let customers add as much medium, hot, or extra hot as they please. The chicken is tender, juicy, and served on the bone with plenty of tasty skin. They also serve liver dishes, which sound intriguing but weren’t what I was going to choose on my first visit (despite Tyler Cowen’s general advice). The sides aren’t exciting — the fries were standard, the “spicy rice” very mild.

What I’d really like to see in this part of DC is a good Peruvian rotisserie chicken place, but Nando’s is a welcome addition to a neighborhood that has so many characterless restaurants. And call me insensitive, but this ad idea made me laugh:

Nando’s is known in South Africa for its humorous but often controversial adverts. One such television advert from 2000, involved a blind woman being led into a pole intentionally and knocked unconscious by her guide dog, which then proceeded to eat the chicken that the woman had just purchased. This caused an uproar within the blind community and caused the South African Advertising Standards Authority to call for the withdrawal of the advert.

Nando’s is at 819 7th St. NW.

With my imminent departure from DC comes a couple of job openings. First, from Cato, a newly defined position:

The Cato Institute seeks a Manager of New Media to promote Cato research products and scholars via social networking sites, blogs, and other Internet-based outlets. The position will also be responsible for increasing The Cato Institute’s presence on YouTube and other video/audio sharing websites, in coordination with the Multimedia Producer, and will maintain outreach lists of top blogs and Internet-based news outlets and assist with the development of web-based research and briefing products. The Manager of New Media will be expected to organize briefings and other events specifically targeted to web-based media as appropriate. The position requires 2 – 5 years work experience at a nonprofit, government or association marketing or public relations office, a comprehensive understanding of how the U.S news media operates, and a proven ability to promote policy issues and experts to blog and other online media outlets.

That would actually be a more interesting job for me than what I’ve been doing, though not so interesting that I’d stay in DC for it. The new vice president of communications has been a pleasure to work with and it’s a great time to join the press department here. If this kind of job appeals to you or someone you know, apply soon.

Grape and Bean is also looking for a coffee lover to take my place working the Clover on Saturday mornings. It’s a fun shop with very nice owners and great perks for people into coffee, wine, beer, chocolate, and other goodies. Contact information is on the site, or feel free to get in touch with me directly.

I stopped by Boccato, the new gelato shop in Clarendon, last night for some refreshing dessert. The really exciting thing was lurking in the corner though: a not yet hooked up two group Synesso espresso machine, two espresso grinders, and a pour-over coffee bar. At the Yelp page the owner says, “Get ready for our coffee and loose leaf tea service coming July..!!! Mindblowing!!!” Sounds like there could finally be a great new coffee shop in the neighborhood, just in time for me to move a couple thousand miles away.

Check it out at 2719 Wison Blvd. Arlington, VA 22201, just across the street from the Whole Foods.

Old Spice has released a “scientific” ranking of the nation’s sweatiest cities, based on simulations of how much people would sweat walking around in the summer months. Phoenix tops the list. The good news for me is the bottom three: Portland at 98, Seattle at 99, and San Francisco at 100. The case for the Pacific NW looks better and better.

Houston ranks predictably high at number 7, while Washington comes in surprisingly low at 48. Having lived in both cities, I can say that Washington deserves a much higher score. The difference is in adaptation. In Houston you step out of your air conditioned home into your air conditioned car and park right next to your destination, which of course will also be air conditioned. Even in the denser parts of downtown parking isn’t better than in DC, and if you have to walk you can do so along the extensive underground tunnels.

In DC, in contrast, you have to walk more. If you do drive odds are you won’t be able to park very close to your destination. Taking the Metro involves significant waiting time in balmy tunnels. And our buildings, being older than Houston’s, often feature much less effective AC systems. People who tell me that since I grew up in Houston I must find DC’s humidity easy to deal with have no idea what they’re talking about. Aside from playing sports or doing yard work, it’s not something you have to deal with nearly as much there. In this aspect, at least, Houston has the advantage.

[Via the Capital Weather Gang.]

It’s official: the Heller judgment striking down DC’s gun ban has been affirmed, and my day in the press office just got ridiculously busy.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend, but it should be an interesting experience:

FOOD NETWORK WANTS TO TELL YOUR STORY
Raw Milk Rally on Capitol Hill, Monday June 2

Dear Raw Milk Lovers:

The Food Network is working on a show about raw milk and how it has changed people’s lives. As a part of this, they want to show their viewers the political side of the raw milk battle. To do so they are hosting a raw milk rally and would like to invite you to demonstrate your support for raw milk, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, which will be filmed as part of a documentary about the growing consumer demand for raw milk.

This will be a chance to tell your personal story on national television, about how raw milk has helped you and your family achieve better health or heal from chronic disease. Or, why you feel it should be an available choice to all who want it. The main purpose of this event is to help spread the word via our stories to be aired on the Food Network.

CAPITOL HILL RAW MILK RALLY with Special Guest Speakers:

Richard Morris, Author of A Life Unburdened

Liz Reitzig, President of Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association

DATE: Monday June 2, 2008

TIME: 9:45/ 10:00 am

WHAT TO BRING: Pro raw milk signs/t-shirts, raw milk fed babies, raw milk flyers, brochures etc. If you can, bring some raw milk in a cooler so we can offer tastings to passersby that would be great!

Real Milk Rocks T shirts (for $20.00) and A Life Unburdened books will be on sale at the event.

WHERE: Meet on 3rd Street SW Corner.

So we can get a feel for who is coming: Please email kimberly@hartkeonline.com if you are planning to attend.

Great news for DC coffee lovers: the former Eastern Market location of Murky Coffee is going to be filled by Ryan Jensen, former Murky manager and the current DC representative for Counter Culture. Ryan and his wife Jill plan to open Peregrine Espresso there this summer. They’re a wonderfully nice couple with a deep love for coffee, so this is sure to be an excellent addition to the neighborhood.

In other DC coffee news, Baked and Wired has shut down the Buzz Zap Graphics portion of its business to make room for more cafe seating. Also, Grape and Bean, my current shop, got a nice write-up at the Washingtonian blog.

[Story via Metrocurean.]

About halfway through my commute this morning I realized that I’d left my fresh bag of Counter Culture’s Kuta coffee sitting in my kitchen. I was tempted to turn back, but not wanting to be too late for work and knowing that Starbucks’ new Pike Place Blend is at least drinkable, I decided to be a good employee and pick up coffee at the Evil Empire instead.

Normally when I go to a Starbucks I’ll only get brewed coffee, since the bags of beans aren’t marked with a roast date and there’s no telling how old they are. But waiting in line today I saw that they had half-pound bags of Pike Place for sale, and with a roast date hand-written right on the package. “Freshly roasted on: 5-12-08,” it said.

“Wow, that’s fresh,” I thought. “Way to go, Starbucks.” But wait a second. Isn’t today the 12th? I’m no roasting expert, but I really doubt these beans were roasted in the middle of the night, cooled, packaged without resting, delivered to a store in DC, and placed out for sale by 9:30 am.

So what’s going on here? Isolated mistake or pervasive skullduggery? Anyone else notice impossible roasting dates on Starbucks coffee?

[Thanks to Caleb for photographing with his pricey Apple impulse purchase.]

Update 5/13/08: Former barista Baylen says in the comments: “The date on the bag is the date they scoop the beans in the store, not the roast date. Not sure why it says roast, but it’s disingenuous.”

Second update: Mystery definitively solved. Thanks, StarbucksGossip. The label applied to my bag was made for the 5 lbs. bags. The smaller bags are supposed to have “scooped on” labels instead. I’m glad to know this was an innocent mistake, but as Jim points out, who the hell cares when a coffee was scooped? If they have the roast date available, they should just put that on the label.

How’s a guy supposed to have fun in this city? Last year I posted a video shot by Frank Winstead, obsessively nit-picky Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, of an allegedly dangerous outdoor ping-pong table at Comet Pizza in northwest DC. Winstead was widely mocked at the time, but this being DC, he eventually got his way. Marc Fisher reports that the scourge of outdoor ping-pong has now been forcibly eliminated.

I finally paid a visit to Comet earlier this winter. It’s a charming place and serves up a very tasty pie. It’s sad that there are people like Winstead using the levers of the state to harass a business that adds so much life to the neighborhood.

[Via DCist.]

A quick rave for Central Liquors: Located at 917 F. St NW, Central Liquors has become my go-to spot for hard to find bottles. The store has limited shelf space, but uses it well to stock a selection of high quality, esoteric items you won’t easily find elsewhere in Washington, DC, and definitely not in the state run liquor stores I’m stuck with in Virginia. I went in a few weeks ago and asked the clerk if they ever carry creme de violette, an obscure liqueur flavored with violet flowers that hasn’t been widely available in the U.S. for decades. “We used to,” he said. “But nobody ever buys it.”

“Will you carry it again?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” And that, I thought, was the end of that. I already had one bottle at home that I’d ordered from England and figured I’d have to carefully ration it until I get my hands on more.

I dropped in again recently to pick up something else. As I was checking out, the guy at the counter asked me if I’d called in a special order, nodding his head toward a lone bottle sitting on a shelf behind the counter. And there it was, creme de violette! He wasn’t the person I’d spoken with before, but apparently I’d bought enough strange bottles there to be recognizable. After making sure it really was mine and not someone else’s special order, I was on my way with a bonus acquisition.

There are some subtle differences between the two creme de violettes. The one I had imported, from Deniset Klainguer, is all sweetness and flower petals. The one I bought in DC, Rothman and Winter, has a little must in the aroma and lower proof. Overall, I like the DK a little better, but they’re both excellent in a mixed drink.

Why does this matter? Because creme de violette is an essential ingredient in one of the greatest cocktails ever made. Walk into any bar in America and ask for an Aviation and you’ll probably get a blank stare from the bartender. Walk into a really good bar and you’ll get one of these:

1.5 oz gin
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz maraschino liqueur

That’s a perfectly good cocktail. Anything that starts with gin is on the right track, the lemon is a nice counterpoint, and the unique flavor or maraschino takes this a step above the average drink. (Maraschino deserves a post of its own. Suffice it to say that what passes for maraschino cherries in bars today is a pox upon mixology. Good maraschino liqueur tastes a bit of cherries, but really expresses the nuttiness that comes from the pits. It doesn’t have anything to do with the red-dyed, corn syrup-infused travesties of a cherry you find at the grocery store. Luxardo is considered the best brand. You can get it at Central Liquor too.)

But walk into a great bar and you’ll get something like this:

2 oz gin
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz maraschino
.5 oz creme de violette

Now, my friends, you’ve got yourself a drink. It’s got amazing complexity: the botanicals of gin, the tartness of citrus, the nuttiness of maraschino, the floral notes of violet flowers. And the color! It’s a vibrant purple with a hint of gray. The kind of purple cocktail a man would drink. Elegant. Beautiful. Just the way it was made before Prohibition.

If I had to choose one cocktail to drink for the rest of my life, this might be it. And now that I can get a steady supply of this liqueur, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing this month.

I put in my two weeks notice at Open City today. It’s been a good place to learn how to tend a bar, but as the warm weather tourists descend on DC restaurants it’s time for me to move on. I can be much more adventurous in my home bar now than I can be at work, and with two other jobs keeping me busy I need to free up the time. So if you’ve been wanting to drop in while I’m behind the stick, Mondays the 21st and 28th are your last chances to do so. (And sorry, Lance, that’s one more name you’ll have to scratch off your list of working bartenders with blogs — at least for now.)

Open City is located at 2331 Calvert St., NW.

It’s true! The dearth of good coffee shops downtown is one reason my desk is cluttered with a grinder, gram scale, kettle, three brewers, and lots of coffee beans. But finally, Counter Culture Coffee has latched its tentacles into the city center.

Bolla Coffee and Tea, now under new ownership, is a small commuter shop offering sandwiches, tea, and coffee. They’re still working on the espresso program, but on the right track with a La Marzocco and serving only traditionally sized cappuccinos. The brewed coffee is all Counter Culture, which is a very welcome addition to the area. Check them out on G St. NW, between 14th and 15th.

[Via Ryan on CoffeeGeek.]

I’m the guest contributor for this week’s “Five Bites on Friday” at the excellent DC restaurant blog Metrocurean. Today we’re giving Arlington some love with five of my favorite dishes from the other side of the river.