Normally a stick in the mud, Uber traditional place for old skool traditional espresso, with Illy and Lavazza everywhere you look, in a city this big, you occasionally find something closer to the third wave...

Sitting at Malongo as we speak. I wouldn't call it third wave. It's too clean and commercial, with not enough grit and hipness. The espresso is roasted on premises, but it is still very traditional, tasting like Illy or Lavazza, but fresh enough to at least have mottled, tiger striped crema.

BUT

The neat idea they have, is a small batch quiet, air roaster, mostly of glass, where you pick your greens, and they roast your kilo or half kilo, right on the spot. And you get to watch it as it goes. I had never seen nor heard of this in the US. Then again, the roasters I know here in California, have to spend huge amounts of money on systems that treat the exhaust from roasting. Here in Europe, they're far less uptight about such matters and the exhaust is ducted along the ceiling, and straight into the atmosphere, untreated, right above the front door, save for a small glass chaff collector, next to the small glass roasting chamber.

I can see where if a small business in CA must invest in $50,000 worth of emission controls before doing something so novel, that it might be too much risk in overhead that they might not get back for a long time, or ever. But a place like *$$ could probably afford it. It would make a nice addition to their proposed, high end shops they were talking about rolling out, soon.

Anyway, a neat way to expose the newly "coffee curious", to a process they probably know little about. Might even lead the more adventurous, into roasting their own?

-Peter

Artis coffee started doing this in Berkeley several years ago.

Neato! Glad to see it. Never seen it in LA. Never seen it when visiting the Bay Area either... Where we always go to Spyglass, and then a couple-three indies as we happen upon them. Hope the idea spreads around Socal. But my indie roaster friend in Santa Barbara is pretty down about all the regulatory overhead he faces. Anyway if the idea caught on in Socal, I'd love to try the occasional comparison, between my own home roasts and their roast... Using the same bean.

So, how is Artis? Do they have a good selection of greens for espresso? Do they have pre-roast espresso blends? Maybe our next trip up to the Bay should include a stop there?

-Peter

Whole Foods did this a few years ago..
I have not seen it them still doing it..
They use to store the green and roasted beans in open wood barrels
Now they just store the roasted beans in open trays of about 5 lbs each

You can save the bridge toll and see it in action at Artis in SF in Hayes Valley as well.

pcrussell50 wrote:So, how is Artis? Do they have a good selection of greens for espresso? Do they have pre-roast espresso blends? Maybe our next trip up to the Bay should include a stop there?

-Peter

I never made it out to Artis, there's lots of cafes and roasteries in the Bay that I still haven't made it out to yet.

BaristaBoy E61 wrote:Interesting that Malongo is mentioned. At Malongo in Paris the roasting setup looked like a fancy movie theatre popcorn machine. What did impress me was the variety of espresso machines for sale in this café, as well as the display of latté art tools that resembled that of a dentist's tray.

What didn't impress me and even more importantly my wife, were the several Baratza Vario grinders set up for pour over & French Press. This was just before we purchased our own espresso set up. Upon seeing these grinders 'hopping' on their counter my wife said she "absolutely did not want that thing on our kitchen counter"! My heart sank as that was my grinder of choice. Since the Compak F10 Fresh was too high for our counter/cupboards we 'settled' on a Mahlkonig K30 Vario that I knew would not 'hop' on the counter.

I shall forever be grateful to Malongo Paris and have fond memories of Paris.

If you think the Vario/Forte twins are so bad, I would be prepared for great disappointment, if you ever begin seriously exploring espresso in your travels. They feature prominently as pour over grinders in many of the well liked and discussed places here on HB. Admittedly, I stick with espresso, and never drink pourovers. Interesting your choice of the word "vibrating", when describing the Vario. It is belt driven... by a rubber belt. Very very smooth.

-Peter