In March I wrote about the triangle of coffee shops in the downtown Phoenix area. I’m happy to report that the number of coffee shops in the downtown area has expanded since then. New shops include Lola Coffee, Fair Trade at Civic Space Park, and Urban Beans which just opened. I know of a few others potentially opening this year. Here’s an expanded list of coffee shops in the downtown Phoenix area, let me know if I’m missing any: Lux Coffee Copper Star Coffee Lola Coffee Conspire Fair Trade Cafe Fair Trade at Civic Space Park Hob Nobs Coffee House Drip Coffee Lounge Royal Coffee Bar Urban Beans The Daily Grind Royal at the Phoenix Public Market is opening in the downtown area soon as well.
Matthew Petro The explosion of coffeehouses in CenPho over the past 18 months is just incredible. I think this really highlights Phoenix’s evolution into a vibrant urban center. Great cities need great “third places” and the coffeehouse certainly is one of those. There definitely is a relationship between the quality of an urban area and the number of coffeehouses it contains. 0 Reply October 2, 2009
Artur Now it someone would fill in all those vacant lots before they become the norm. Maybe mobile or temp. coffee stands. 0 Reply October 2, 2009
Psyd Looks like DTP is a great place to start the AZ-Coffee scorecard: Top Notch Machinery +1 Semi-auto pulls +1 Cleans and clears steam wand +1 Pulls into the cup you drink from +1 Microfoam for capps and Macch’s +1 China, Porcelain, of glass for here +1 Grind per shot +1 Crema on the shots +1 Coffee less than two weeks old +1 Espresso tastes great +1 Of course: Un-wiped or unpurged steam wand -1 Pull shots into paper cups and transfer -1 Soapsuds foam -1 Paper cups for in-store drinks -1 Grounds sitting in the hopper -1 No crema on the shots -1 Coffee more than two weeks old -1 Unrecognisable or mediocre machinery -0 Automatic dosing -0 SuperAutos – 5 …or something like that. ; > 0 Reply October 2, 2009
Bill and Ginger Sandweg I can fully appreciate the “Grind per shot” arugument, but I heartily support the grind every five minutes rule. My main reason for penalizing (?) a coffeehouse for not grinding per shot is dosing. the wrong amount of espresso in the portafilter is going to yield a poor-quality shot far quicker than a hopper full of espresso ground ten minutes ago. (I check our doser every two weeks to ensure seven grams per pull). I agree with the fresh fresh fresh philosophy far more than you can imagine. I heartily endorse grind-per-shot during slow periods, and for those coffeehouses (carts, too) whose volume rarely justifies a hopper full of ground coffee (much less two to three pounds of beans in the hoppers above the grinder!). I think that there is a continuum that all these rules follow, and I think we need to start a thread in the forum (is there a thread in the forum?). 0 Reply October 3, 2009
Jim McPherson Urban Beans, close to where I live, is now open. I guess they’ve been so busy with the finishing touches, they haven’t had time to update their website to reflect that fact (http://www.urbanbeans.com/)! But they are on Twitter: https://twitter.com/urbanbeans 0 Reply October 3, 2009
Jim McPherson It’s me again. Attended last night’s “Wonderland” event at Merz Project near Central and McDowell. Giant Coffee will open in their building soon, brought to you/us by the fine folks at Matt’s Big Breakfast and The Roosevelt. 0 Reply October 3, 2009
Psyd ‘Babbie’s Rule of Fifteens’. If you fill the hopper, there really isn’t any way to tell how old the grounds in the hopper are. If you’re doing enough volume to get a Major Auto to trigger more frequently than every coupla minutes, no sweat. And there are a handful of dosing techniques (used by tons of baristi) that are probably more reliable than the doser on your grinder, or at least as good. Anyhoo, the ‘plus ones’ are bonuses. If you use your grounds so quickly that they don’t sit, you don’t get the bonus, but I wouldn’t give you the deficit, either. Remember, the coffee out-gases at a *MUCH* more rapid pace when ground. So much so, that it’s recommended as a technique for keeping the crema form getting all bubbly and light on CO2 rich roasts that are less than a day or two old. 0 Reply October 3, 2009
Psyd *sigh* Scratch out ‘hopper’ and crayon in ‘doser’. Mea Culpa. I wish I could edit my comments here, it’d save me a heap of embarrassment. OTOH, I had a cappuccino the other day that was darned good, and it had a head of creamy meringue-like foam all over it. Oddly, it had a great micro-foam mouthfeel as well. Might have to re-think that one. Oh, B&GS? There has been a coupla threads where this topic was touched on, and that list was just a bit of off-the-top-of-my-head spit-balling. Nothing in stone there. I’m off to start a list thread… 0 Reply October 5, 2009
Pierce/Bear It seems to me the ‘die off’ of coffeehouses has slowed down a lot as of late. Almost as if our economy is starting to improve finally. 0 Reply October 6, 2009
Chris Tingom Courtney wrote and reminded me about the following: i would like to mention some other coffee shops in the phx area. first is paisley violin at the corner of 11 ave and grand. also capitol coffee at 17ave and van buren, and 7st cafe at 7st and pierce right next to space 55. 0 Reply October 12, 2009
