The Cafe As A Hub Of Life

The image in my mind is of a giant circle, a wheel, and at the center is the cafe. A place of connection, a place of meeting, a place of contact, the holding of hands by those who come together in this place to overcome the forces of the world outside. Someone recently asked my to follow my instincts concerning a big decision. It was a sweeping statement about who she thought I was, and who she thought others around me were. In that moment, nothing more needed to be said ever, the conversation was over from that moment on. I haven't yet and may never learn to see these things while they're happening, else I should have gotten up out of my seat and walked out right then. She had decided already who I was based on whom I was with. I felt deeply unhappy about what I felt was a misinterpretation of my identity but as it is I recognize that her perception of me was a design I could do little to influence. Something from the edge of the wheel spinning outside that moment in the cafe.

What fascinates me about this idea of "owning", "running" a cafe, not that you can ever really own anything, is that looking at the interactions in my life, and the events that make up my own narrative, I long for the of holding hands, in the sense, for real intimacy, for real understanding. The cafe is a place where that moment of contact becomes possible. It may also be a substitute or metaphor for the intimacy I want to find but can't in any meaningful sense. To design a cafe would be as though inviting others to my own conversation about what the world is about. Of course money constraints prevent me from saying exactly what I would want to say. The cafe in Berkeley, local123cafe,  intimated the owners world view perfectly. Locally sourcing goods to save energy and provide local jobs, conserving energy through renewable energy sources, providing a venue for local artist to speak to the community, good food, good drinks. Epicurean at its core. This brings me to why I have failed so far. Even though I want environmental protection and social justice, these seem to be at odds with my understanding of how the world and "business" works. The creeping social Darwinism that permeates modern life works on me psychologically and undermines my own hopes and thoughts about what's possible. People conduct "business" in a way that has little to do with social harmony let alone justice. I'm not sure the owners of local123cafe see the contradiction between the act of operating a business and the model of the world that is environmentally conscientious and socially just. Most people like to dismiss this problem by saying, "that's just how it is." The difference between paying a barista 10 per hour and 12 per hour in San Francisco is moot because in the end they still can't afford a reasonable life. The cafe owners are trying to do good things but to answer a deeper thread, the cafe does not really overcome the forces outside its door. As a business, it reinforces them. It makes me a bit sad to think about it. My instincts are pretty useless with these types of problems. They're good at telling me how I feel, but that's about it. I suppose one could argue that it's a two way street and that what's going on inside that cafe can influence the outside. That would be a nice thing to hope....

The Curtis

I got the Curtis Milano Twin Brewer the other day from Red Rock Coffee. It's a freebie. Well, not exactly considering I need to spend money to fix it. It's a $3000 piece of equipment so that's not too bad. At first glance, it could cost $550 to get in functional again. I took it apart partially today and found one of the heating elements had burst which would be the cause of the blown fuses that John Dustman told me about. Four Barrel had estimated a $500 to $1000 repair. It would be a real coup if I could fix it for $50. Things are never that simple though but I'll know more tomorrow when I take it down completely. The brew servers are $250 to $300 a piece new. They can occasionally be found on ebay for around $120 a piece. If I get it working I may invest in some new ones as they old look really awful.

Migration and Demographics

I was just going over my Friday trip to San Francisco in my head. Thinking about "technocrats" and the never ending migrations that take place by people seeking to save money on housing costs and the notions a culture they bring with them. There are two types of migrants that come to mind. The refugees from lost jobs or broken dreams from both outside and inside an area. The other migrant is the opportunity seeker which has the means to change the face of an area economically... The guy with the high end technology job which provides the means to afford a home in San Francisco. One word... Gentrification. When looking at the map of San Francisco I see several things happening. The first is that the push south happens in waves out from the center of downtown. This to me is evident looking at what's happened on the west end of the Mission and moving south to Bernal Heights. Glenn Park missed the most recent wave of young trendy migrants because it skirts Diamond Heights and Noe Valley almost as an appendage. This means the housing values are higher and the rental space is more limited. Both Bernal Heights and Glenn Park maybe tough neighborhoods to start up in for this reason. The two neighborhoods are similar in the look and feel of their downtown shop area. Bernal Heights seems to have already begun transforming away from it's Latino roots into something like Noe Valley but on a smaller scale. Glenn Park on the other hand remains relative untouched in this sense for reasons that maybe embedded in the community culture, but then it may have never been a working class neighbor hood to begin with, or if it was working class, that was too long ago to be apparent in the people living there now.

Next week I need to explore Balboa Park and the Excelsior District to see what sort of potential is there. My sense is that crossing over I280 will be a serious change in culture and population. Gentrification has negative connotations for sure because of it's impact on lower income peoples. I cannot change who I am or where I've come from and being in my situation doesn't seem like much of an advantage but the people who buy coffee and spend time in cafes have the leisure time to do so. I'm very conscious of how the appearance of such a business could be perceived as an invasion in a lower income neighborhood.  So taking advantage of lower rents may not necessarily be a good idea. Unless the locals in the area accept and assimilate to coffee culture. In Excelsior, that would be Asian and Latino populations.  I'll just have to do some exploration and see what turns up. Riding the edge of a wave of any trend is tricky, it's easy to stumble, but also necessary if you don't have the cash to compete with the big names. I still like Glenn Park even if it's a tad stuffy when it comes to the locals.

Another Adventure to San Francisco

Today, I went to San Francisco for several reasons. First, was to have lunch a La Taqueria on Mission St. then have a slice of pie at my favorite spot there, Mission Pies. It was good as always. I had a slice of Peach Raspberry. Makes me smile....

Mission Pies

   

 Mission Pies fits the new style cafe look perfectly, with its re-purposed old materials mixed with the new and the solid Victorian home feel. It follows the locally sourced food and art trend too. There's an energy there that's undeniable. Great independent. Good food to boot. 

Then I went to meet my friend Ric Lopez, he and Carl are shop owners in Glen Park, to look at spaces there and talk about the possibilities. I like the neighborhood's potential because of the BART station and its sleepy undiscovered status compared to say Bernal Heights for instants which is seeing and influx trendy young folks. The people in Glen Park tend to be a bit older in general right now and the energy and people traffic is muted compared to the Mission District down the hill. I think this could change though if the right kind of businesses open up there and begin to add more interest to the area. They need some artisans to move in and make the place interesting to visit. If I can get there ahead of that it would be wonderful.

The spaces available are pretty limited right now though and there are three cafes in Glen Park already. That might seem crowded but its not because one of them has no business at all hardly and one is on the opposite side of the BART station away from the downtown. Bello's Coffee, the franchise, is centrally located and the most popular of the three; but its small and kinda of hard to see right next to the bank. No reason to cower away though because there's enough people traffic for all to be doing well. Both Cups and Pebbles Cafe are suffering from a lack of "place". Bello gets it and so it has a little following that keeps it busy. I'd be interested in Bello's numbers.  There are few little restaurants in Glen Park that call themselves cafes but they are restaurants to be sure and they treat their customers in that fashion. One reason Glen Park maybe so untouched by the hipster crowd is that there seems to be fewer apartment rentals in Glen Park than in say the Mission Dist. for instance. This could be a hindrance to business growth for the neighborhood. The BART station is what's keeping hope alive, but the local businesses need to make use of it. The farmers market Glen Park is hosting now should go someways towards helping but they need more events like that. 

Glen Park BART station

After leaving Glen Park I took a short detour over to Bernal Heights to look at a space there. Then I went to Cheryn's Auctions to see about a refrigerator and ice maker. I missed to chance to get a Manitowoc QM-210 in very good shape for $1000. I felt a little sad about that but I wasn't prepared to buy right then, so it was sold to the guy standing next to me. Bluh!  After that debacle, I went to Philz Coffee on Folsom St. and snapped this lovely shot.

Philz Coffee at 24th & Folsom St.

Felt like I could have been in a little cafe in the Bahamas. Love the tropical feel to the place. Philz Coffee tends to decorate somewhat on the kitsch side which I don't care for normally but this location has a certain coziness to it in spades. Again with the mix of old and new, recycled furniture, and attention to design. The place was packed as you can see even though it was after 3pm, when the evening crowds hadn't arrived yet. I guess I must be in love with the formula because I see many of the same elements in all the most popular cafes. It doesn't strike me as fad either. I think they are genuinely tapping into the second home feeling people want. Again is goes back to providing a "place" people want to be.

Inspiration

Today's inspiration came to me in the form of a book about Wharton Esherick. His work with wood is fantastic. Wood is warmth. -Wood is texture -Wood is the human touch -Wood touched by human beings shows the spirit and the shape of our inner selves. You can't get any more powerful than that.

I just want to reach out a rub my hands over those pieces of wood. I love wood that is rubbed to a shine from so many moments of contact. Worn wood is the symbol of the living! I must use this in my space somehow.....

Slayer Envy

One thing that impressed me about the Synesso at Water Ave. Coffee in Portland was the old school paddles on the group heads. I didn't pay much attention to these until I did some research and discovered the Slayer. The Slayer is an American made espresso machine that is considered the utlimate in pressure control for espresso. This machine gives the barista delicate control over the brew pressure. Varying the pressure can prevent over or under extraction to get the holy grail of espresso, a smooth if not slightly sweet shot of espresso. Not too bitter, not too sour. Question was how can I afford a $18000 machine... I can't. So looking at the Linea form La Marzocco, it has a manual paddle group version although with very limited capabilities.  There are some modifications you can do which will get you close to the same control the Slayer gives you. Replacing the valve pins to allow you to read the pressure at the individual head instead of the boiler pressure is one thing. The other is to adjust the microswitch which turns the pump on to activate early before the pre-infusion stage. This is how a La Marzocco Strada paddle group is setup. These modifications allow the Linea to control the pressure similar to the way the Slayer does. The only difference is that the Slayer and the Strada both have individual brew boilers with allows two shots to be pressure controlled at the same time, where as the Linea because of its single brew boiler can only start one pre-infusion cycle at a time. I need to test this aspect though as it may not be an issue at all if the valves on each group respond independently.
So I did some research after thinking this through to see how much converting my machine would cost versus finding the machine I want. Had my machine been a new model with welded heads (2003 or later) I could have converted it a manual paddle system with relatively little expense compared to buying a ready made version. It wasn't, so I looked around. I found a 2 group Linea with manual paddles from local123cafe at a price that was less than the conversion cost. As a 2010 model it was in decent shape and perfect for what I want to achieve.

My second espresso machine restoration

After finishing my first Linea in July, I sold it to Top Gun Roasters in San Luis Obispo. It was a basically a wash but I managed to learn how the machine works and what the pitfalls are for the thing. I realized I didn't need a 3 group machine for small cafe and the even a moderately busy cafe seemed unlikely to really need anything more than a 2 group machine. Water Ave. Coffee was fairly busy and using a 2 group Synesso which was more than adequate for the task. I think designing a good work flow helped too. I notice they designed their bar to be low, at an average person's waist height, which I liked because the barista feels closer to the customer. They also had the cashier pour the milk in the steaming pitcher and set the cup with saucer for the barista to make the drink. This work flow seemed to work out since they didn't have a ticket screen for the barista.
With this in mind, I found another old Linea on craigslist and went to pick it up at Four Barrel Coffee in SF. It was not in good shape though as it had a bad control board and the body had taken a beating. I got it home and began disassembling it and found it had was worse than I thought as the brew boiler had been modified by welding bolts to the tank. Not unfixable though. I decided to powder coat the outside and add the latest control board and touch pads which would also give me pre-infusion. At first I wanted to go with a light blue/green like turquoise color with bright orange cups. This turns out to be a bad idea for now as finding good cups which are also orange is nearly impossible. So I looked around for inspiration and found this.

I decided to make the base a root beer flake and the top a carmel crema color, and use white or red cups. It should look really cool but not unsual or flashy. I dropped the parts off at the powder coating company NRI near the SF airport early this week. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Updates will come as it is finished....

My first espresso machine restoration

I picked up an old La Marzocco Linea 3AV from John's Cafe in Palo Alto this past June. At first I didn't realize how old it was or how bad the condition it was in when I bought it. I got it because it was available and seemed like a reasonable restore. I learned practically everything about the the machines. La Marzocco machines are known for their temperature stability due to the two boiler system they came out with. These machines have a boiler specifically for steam and a separate or sometimes multiple brew boilers which are used exclusively for that purpose. The brew heads are headed with water from the brew boiler. These machines are solid and if properly maintained can last for years and years. Both boilers are stainless steal which adds to the value by providing anti-corrosive properties. The pump motor is external and a series of solenoid switches control the flow of water into and out of the boilers. On the AV models a little box called a flowmeter with a propeller inside is used to measure volume. the propeller is turned by water pressure provided by the pump. On the propeller are two tiny magnets which as they spin induce a current in a coil just above the propeller. The current is read by a control board and is used to time the opening and closing of the solenoid switch to provide to proper volume for the espresso shot.  The solenoids also contain coils of wire which current is flows through them created a magnetic field which opens and closes the inlet for water to flow out the brew head.

The Linea I bought was filthy inside and out as you can see from the photos. I have my work cut out for me. The process of discovery took time too. The older models used a bolt and nut system to attach the brew heads which created lots of problems with leaks and scaling inside the brew boiler. Finding parts and going through years of grim took more than a month.

Some Weird Notion

I guess as far back as the early nineties when I was still in college, there was this idea in my head about having my own cafe. I thought about a cafe at the time as a place to hang works of art and lounge around thinking about big questions. The idea has always been for me that it was a place where people meet and want to be, not just to consume coffee. I think a cafe's function is as a place where the mind can roam free from the mechanics of everyday living. Cafes that succeed, I think, are simple places where organic materials such as wood and stone combine in ways to give the people that come there the sense that the place has been and will be there for a very long time. They create warmth and a home like atmosphere, much in the same way the facade of many old banks once give depositors a sense of stability and security. These big hulking buildings with marble floors and grand ceilings, giant columns guarding the entrance, all combined to appeal to people's sense of permanence. Banks may not be paragons of permanence or security but we sure seem to have responded to the elements of architecture they utilized. Cafes are different from banks but people don't necessarily need to be enticed to enter with use of facades especially not patiently false ones. People want to be in a cafe to see and be seen, to socialize with others in a comfortable setting which is not an implied party the way a bar which serves alcohol might be. I think it's easy for cafe owners to get caught up in the commodity "coffee" they are trying to sell and forget that the real attraction is "place". There has to be harmony between the business of coffee and the social aspect of the "coffee house". As cheeky as it may sound and I'm sure it's been said before, every cafe should strive to be the third most important location in peoples lives behind work and home, the home away from home. This isn't some weird notion, just something obvious that's been out there all along.