I am no where near competent enough to work in a cafe but have recently entertained the thought. What has led me to this is that every time I go to 'most' cafes the drinks are average or way off the mark. It got me thinking, hell I could make better drinks than this. I am now considering trying my hand at being a part time barista but not for at least another year while I continue honing my skills at home. I would be interested to hear from others who have made the jump. what was it like when you started, are you still there, etc.

I'd say I sort of made that jump. It's gone just dandy, thank you.

Many are familiar with espressolab.ca. Jimmy was a home barista, and is now a shop-owner doing some great things. (museo coffee)

Mike McKoffee (sn here, and elsewhere) has recently made the jump from home enthusiast to shop-owner. It's too new for much news.

Jay Valentina has made the jump. (JavaJ in Sacramento, CA) He's doing quite well with it!

Nate White (Poison here, and elsewhere) made a lateral jump from home-roaster to pro-roaster.

I know a shop-owner in Ft. Worth who began with home roasting, and moved into roaster/retailing.

Of course, it also works in reverse. Some people pick up the barista job as just a way to earn a part-time wage, and then become obsessed. They then become HB's.

I remember James Hoffmann once remarking about how careful and analytical HB's are in comparison to the professional. This is true.

The above fact, and all of the success cases I've seen/heard of imply to me that it(the HB to PB switch) is indeed a very optimistic move.

If you're considering it, I say go for it!

jeffg wrote: What has led me to this is that every time I go to 'most' cafes the drinks are average or way off the mark.

I know more pros that are having (or have had) difficulty with an owner or boss giving them grief for being espresso perfectionists than pros that have had lack of competence be an issue. Jasonian can attest to this, IIRC. There are baristi out there that are more concerned with the quality of the product that goes into the cup than quite a few of the owners of shops. Of course, there are far more owners out there that are leading the charge, and I'm definitely not talking about them!
I've said that I can pull better, or at least comparable, shots to 95% of the pro baristi out there. 90% of them aren't really sure of what's going on (see any large chain or small, non-third wave' coffeeshop) and 5% are just cranking out volume trying to keep up. I have the luxury of time, and the skills imparted on me by the efforts of those that post here (mostly) and elsewhere (somewhat). These skills are the result of WBC's and USBC's and scientists and OCD patients, etc. I think that all I have to do is overcome the compulsive obsessive behaviour that we use to make our daily drops, and speed the process up and I could be slinging 'spro in any but the best in the world, without any great changes. The 'spro part would be fairly easy, the 'shop' part would be something that I could learn. The patience? That may be my downfall... ; >

Pro -> Home in my case.

How's it going?

Honestly... it's got its positives but overall it's really frustrating.

malachi wrote:Pro -> Home in my case.

How's it going?

Honestly... it's got its positives but overall it's really frustrating.

Having gone back and forth several times, I can completely relate.

Home tools are just nothing like the professional variety.

I kind of started off as a "pro," but I think that all of the coffee that I served before I started making coffee at home was garbage. After getting more into it, I was lucky enough to have a string of employers who really focus on coffee quality. So now only some of the coffee that I serve is garbage. I'm still making coffee, but I'm really lucky that my current job at a roastery enables me to do a lot more cool stuff. I freely admit that as a barista I'm not a patch on some of the guys who do it 24/7 as a job, but I think that I'm probably a bit more discriminating.

Home tools are just nothing like the professional variety.

For roasters, that strikes me as true. As for grinders, a robur will perform equally well at home as it will in a shop ;P If anything, the GS3 is better than professional machines ;P Seriously, though, commercial machines are just like domestic machines. There's crap and there's great ... just that the differences between the two seem to me to be bigger!

Cheers,

Luca