Arizona Coffee

Robert Sandie, one of the founders of Viddler.com (a video sharing site I am a part of) visited with Chestnut Hill Co’s barista, John Hornall in Philadelphia recently. While there he took this great video.

Robert Sandie writes: In the coffee community he is a very well known barista and former co-owner of Hines Public Market Coffee in Seattle, who now runs coffee and espresso operations for Chestnut Hill Co.

This is probably my favorite coffee shop I have ever been to. Not only do they have great drinks and make coffee experience feel like you were drinking a a $30 glass of wine but they have free wi-fi! If you live in the Philadelphia area, it’s a must see!

Thanks for the great interview, Rob!

My friend Kent recently took his girlfriend to one of those pottery places where you can paint pottery. They each painted a coffee mug and I took some photos of the cups. Cool idea for an afternoon. I’m thinking about making a custom cup sometime.

Up until today, the Coffee Shops listing page was completely out of whack. Now, it’s an alphabetical delight. So is the Coffee Roasters page. Yay!

Tara Rassas wrote:

We will be opening our coffee and wine lounge mid-May 2007. Located in Goodyear at Litchfield and Indian School. Will be hiring baristas and cashiers. Would love to post a job on your site.

Barista, Shift lead
Goodyear, AZ
$9/hr
Experience required, latte art preferred
Opening Mid-may 2007
Send resume to groundcontrolcoffee@yahoo.com

Thanks, Tara

Daniel wrote to Arizona Coffee and said:

The “Coffee Beanery Cafe” on Chandler & Kyrene has great coffee, free WIFI, and good food (not just muffins and other baked goods). It has only been open 4 months so it’s usually nice and quiet there too (according to the owner).

I just went there for the first time yesterday and we arrived 20 minutes after closing time. The owner was sweeping up inside and quickly opened the doors and invited us in for a quick cup. I had a tasty mocha and my girlfriend had a iced green tea to go. Good stuff. I’ll definitely go back.

Apparently Coffee Beanery Cafe has three locations in Arizona, and many more nationwide. More info is available at their web site, which is www.coffeebeanery.com.

I’ve wanted to do polls for the longest time on this site, and here’s the first one. Enjoy.

How far will you go to ensure a customer is happy with their drink? Whether it’s the customers fault or something to do with drink preparation, how far should you go to make a customer happy?

Since taste is subjective, how does taste fall in line with what is considered good? I’m really curious to know. Does your store have a policy with regards to customer complaints?

Mountain View Coffee Company is the one valley coffee chain that I admit to not having ever visited. I just haven’t spotted one yet. I’ll make it a point to visit one soon.

They’ve been growing, and now have 3 locations in Arizona. They are:

Mountain View Coffee Company
Plaza Fountainside
12645 N. Saguaro Blvd. #17
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
480-837-4500

Mountain View Coffee Company
Bell Park II
4232 W. Bell Rd. #9
Glendale, AZ 85308
602-547-3456

Mountain View Coffee & Bakery
Ranch Center
9393 N. 90th St. #115
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
480-391-0751

The surprising thing about MVCC is that they have a surprisingly strong presence online, in a rather unconventional place. MySpace.

www.myspace.com/mvcc

If you notice, they have over 14,000 friends on their MySpace page, and that’s not an easy thing to accomplish. They use it to drive traffic to their stores as well as their ecommerce site.

Soon, I’m going to do a short article about how I think coffee shops and even baristas can benefit from MySpace. To put it mildly, I think it works.

Here are a few photos of their Fountain Hills location. I didn’t take these pictures, but rather got them on their MySpace Photos page.

We had a great time over at Copper Star Coffee this afternoon, if you missed it — you really missed out! We sampled some new carbonated espresso beverages (which actually are quite tasty) and we even had a big cake to celebrate!

Thanks to everyone who made it out! Steve, Victor, Melanie, Bill, and others.

Special thanks go out to Bill Sandweg (owner of Copper Star Coffee) who baked an amazing cake for our party. It even had candles! They bake all of their goods in house, and it was delicious.

At the same time as all of this was going on, the 7th Ave Merchants Association was holding their annual street fair. The streets were closed off to traffic, and many classic cars were on show for the afternoon.

A customer inside Copper Star Coffee.

Bill from Red Rock Foods was nice enough to bring some new products to sample. We all enjoyed sampling some carbonated espresso drinks. This one is called BibiCaffè.

Contact Red Rock Foods if you are interested in any of these drinks. This one is called Manhattan Special.

Some of the interesting topics we talked about were:

• Coffee shop sales trends for hot AZ summers — some coffee shops see massive sales declines, especially the ones with few summer drinks.
• We talked about which kinds of summer drinks are the best: Toddy coffee and other iced coffee methods were discussed, and even blended drinks. Lux has some popular home made lemonaide that I need to go and try, and I understand they make a drink out of Dr Pepper and a shot of espresso (sounds interesting).
• We talked about Millikan, Bill’s dog which is named after Robert A. Millikan.
• We talked about some of the future plans for Arizona Coffee (and marketing the site to consumers).
• We enjoyed some drinks (BibiCaffè and Manhattan Special).

Thanks again everyone for 2 great years…

I just ran across the Sedona Coffee Roasters web site, and it looks as though they also have a coffee shop at the roastery in addition to a full lunch menu.

Next time I’m in Sedona I’ll be sure to visit and see how it is.

It’s today! If you haven’t decided whether to come yet, please do! It’s going to be fun to hang out and share a cup of coffee. I think we should have a pretty good turnout.

Today at 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm (come whenever) at Copper Star Coffee. Details are right here.

Melanie Campbell wrote:

[I] would like to be included in your Roasters listing section:

Espressions is a local custom coffee roastery that has been supplying Arizona restaurants since 1989. A well-kept secret, you have undoubtedly sampled their specialty coffee and hand-scented iced teas at favorite local restaurants, [as] well as many local coffee bars.

Melanie Campbell
Espressions Coffee Roastery
5017 E. Washington Street, Suite 103
Phoenix, AZ 85034
(602) 424-3099 phone
(602) 424-3097 fax
www.espressions.com

I thought of this idea while I was having a mocha this morning. So here’s how it works: I’ll describe one aspect of a coffee shop, and you have to figure out where you are.

1. This coffee shop has a pool table

2. I have a round coffee bar which is covered with bright blue tiles.

3. My menu board is also a translucent photo

4. We bake all of our pastries and sweets in house

5. We have a drive through with a chalk board that shows the temperature.

6. Our coffee bar / wine bar also serves up regular music events.

7. Name two coffee shops that have an all burgundy interior.

8. This coffee house is next to a very nice French restaurant, and inside a restored home.

9. This coffee shop has wood floors, and you can get an sweet delight next door. They have been named #1 by a the New Times.

10. This place makes a wicked latte, does latte art, and holds weekly Tango lessons held at the shop.

11. This coffee house has white leather furniture, and does latte art while being uber-trendy at the same time.

12. This coffee shop has a fireplace, and has been known to serve up Pepperoncini’s with their food items.

So, who can name the most places?

Just got an email from Martin Sanguinette, the CEO of Brewed Awakening Gourmet Coffee House:

We are located at the SouthSide Bashas Center in Lake Havasu City. Our address is 3269 Maricopa Avenue, Suite 109. We offer gourmet blended coffee drinks, smoothies, sandwiches and pastries. We also have free WiFi and two computer workstations for those that do not have a laptop. Our telephone number is 928-855-2772.

Martin Sanguinette, CEO
Brewed Awakening Gourmet Coffee House

I’ve decided to hold the 2nd Birthday Party for Arizona Coffee at Copper Star Coffee. A couple of things went into the decision, but mostly the central location and the fact that the owners (Bill and Ginger) participate on the site occasionally. Besides that, it’s one of the coolest coffee shops in Phoenix.

Where: Copper Star Coffee
When: March 24th. From 1 pm – 2:30 pm (or later).
What: Arizona Coffee’s 2nd Birthday Party! We’re going to meet up at a coffee shop on Saturday and enjoy a cup of coffee and meet with some friends.

Copper Star Coffee (Map)
www.copperstarcoffee.com
4220 North 7th Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85013
(602) 266-2136

See you on Saturday!