An Homage to Coffee

I’ve been in coffee one way or another for a long time now. Not as long as some people I know, but longer than most. I started at a small cafe in Duboce Triangle back in college called Cooper’s on the recommendation of a friend and had a job making coffee in one way or another until I focused full time on design in 2009. If it hadn’t been for my friend Diana Heom, I wouldn’t have applied at any cafe, and would have ended up bagging groceries. Later, when I worked for Peet’s Coffee in Willow Glen, I was encouraged by my manager, Andie Brownlee to pursue deeper levels of knowledge both within Peet’s and without. When I went to Romania to explore coffee roasting for Marty Brill, Andie held a position open for me when I returned to the states.

Soon after that return in late ’07, I left Peet’s and found a position as a manager and apprentice roaster at Mr. English in Los Altos. Without Tom McBay’s encouragement and passion, I would have never learned to really love roasting. Unfortunately, when the recession hit, Mr. English went under. But from the experience I had collected, I was able to land a position at Barefoot Coffee Roasters as a barista in training. Barefoot took coffee to a much higher level than I had been acquainted with before, and they were on the leading edge of the growing third-wave coffee industry. Andy Newbom was the figurehead of that company, and together with his passionate crew, taught me that making and roasting coffee could be fun as well as a serious art form. They also taught me that even though you may know more about coffee than the average schmo, flaunting it is much less fun than sharing it. Snobbery has plagued third-wave coffee shops since the term was coined, but Barefoot (and their torch-toting sibling Chromatic) have always been eager and willing to share with their customers when the feeling is mutual.

Once my time roasting for Barefoot had ended, I focused on design. I used the people that I had met to land my first contract with Mypressi. The design work I did for them opened a door that eventually led to me working primarily with Coffee-Type clients. Through that project I met Sarah Dooley, who shared her passion and various projects with me as we both moved through the industry. She had been a great promoter and supporter of my work and an even better friend.

Now, as I work for amazing clients that live in the world I have come to love, I am able to enjoy the industry from the other side of the counter. I’ve enjoyed fantastic coffee at cafes from Santa Cruz’s Verve (pictured above with Colby Barr and Stacy Kock) to San Francisco’s Ritual, and to Seattle’s Vif and Milstead & Co.

In three days, I’ll take another plunge and move almost to the other side of the globe to dig my feet and fingers into another blossoming coffee community in Cluj. The restaurant that I had worked for eight years ago has grown and branched off to become a leading voice in specialty coffee in the region and I aim to bolster their efforts by starting a company to supply the equipment and support for anyone who has the passion to explore the specialty coffee subculture.