July's Durham Thursday Night Throwdown is tomorrow night!

Thursday, July 30, 2009
7 p.m.
Copa Vida
2816 Erwin Rd Ste 201
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 383-4900

Hope to see you there,
Nathan

Latte Art Rumble in Durham, NC!

Thanks to everyone who came out and to all of the participants in Durham's July 2009 Thursday Night Throwdown latte art competition hosted by Copa Vida (with coffee from Counter Culture). Baristas from La Farm Bakery, Sosta, Helios, Open Eye Cafe, The Daily Grind, and Counter Culture Coffee's staff competed.

L-R: Judges Michael Harwood (barista at Caffe Driade) and Scott Conary (Carrboro Coffee Company) pictured with Counter Culture's Lem Butler:



The signup list and the the pirate treasure:



The scoreboard:



Ryan Ross and Miles Murray, having thrown down, hold down the front row:



The winner, Tommy Gallagher (Counter Culture Coffee NY Tech in town to pick up a Linea) pictured with Lem and the winning pour (projected on the wall above Tommy's hand):



A closer look at Tommy's winning entry:

Greetings from Durham, NC:

Our friends at Cafe Helios in Raleigh are hosting/sponsoring the local Thursday Night Throwdown this month!

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Thursday Night Throwdown
Cafe Helios (Raleigh)
Thursday, August 27, 7 p.m.
free + open to the public / $5 to compete

Cafe Helios
413 Glenwood Ave
Raleigh, NC, 27603
919.838.5177
http://www.cafehelios.com/

Hope to see you soon. Thanks!

Michael Harwood of Caffe Driade claimed another victory at this week's Raleigh TNT @ Helios. Congratulations on a second win!

Michael in super-fast action:




Cindy Chang of the WBC (and formerly of Counter Culture):




Master of ceremonies Lem Butler and judge Lydia Iannetti (both of Counter Culture):




Michael with the sweet prize pack:




The winning pour:



Thanks to everyone who attended and competed (representing Helios, Busy Bee, La Farm Bakery, Poets, Open Eye, and Driade) ... and to judges Lydia and Ian Dunn (Helios).

The next area competition is September 17 at Busy Bee in Raleigh. Hope to see you there!

RDU-TNT: Thursday Night Throwdown in Raleigh 9/17!

Raleigh's Busy Bee Cafe hosts this month's installment of the latte art challenge Thursday Night Thrown!

Thursday, September 17. Signup @ 7 p.m.

http://www.busybeeraleigh.com

Sorry for the late update. Last week's Raleigh Thursday Night Throwdown was a lot of fun, well-attended, and quite competitive. As a kick-off to our Counter Intelligence Coffee Camp, we had folks from as far as Chicago. Raleigh's Busy Bee Cafe hosted this month. Thanks to all who attended, competed, and lent their time to making this possible!




The master of ceremonies, Lemuel Butler, showing off part of the prize pack:




The crowd:




The judges:




The top three finishers: 3 Phil Proteau (Counter Culture Coffee Philadelphia), 2 Lydia L. (unaffiliated barista!), and 1(!) Jason Dominy (Dillworth Coffee):




The winning pour:



Again, thank to all for a lovely evening. I'll post the date and location for October when we have it.

Best,
Nathan

a few more photos of the 9.17.9 throwdown @ Busy Bee in Raleigh on our Flickr page. Thanks!

We had another solid turnout at last week's Durham Thursday Night Throwdown. A lot of familiar faces, anyhow. The friendly competition among this dedicated group of baristas is fun to see evolve.




Christine and Marie Callan of Copa Vida!






Judges Miles Murray and Lem Butler (also master of ceremonies).


Miles decided to throwdown, after all, so I stepped in to judge his efforts with Lem.


Miles' last-minute entry ended being the pour of the night, so he won the T-shirt and coffee and cash. No one cried foul. Handshakes, hugs, and congratulations were plentiful. Thanks to everyone who attended/competed/made the event possible!

Join us at Busy Bee Cafe in Raleigh on Thursday, November 19, for the next installment of RDU-TNT!

Thanks Nathan for posting the writeup, wish that I could have made it. Work has been nothing but long hours and weekends of late. I will try to make the next one!

Thanks to everybody who came out to last night's TNT at busy Bee Cafe in Raleigh. Emily Hester from Cafe Helios won from among the dozen or so baristas who threw down. I'm still waiting for a shot of the winning latte (sorry!) but wanted to go ahead and post these:











Again, I'll post Emily's pour ASAP. And, December 17 RDU-TNT will be @ Cafe Helios!