Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.
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Coffee CV: Barista/manager, Cherry St. Coffee House (Seattle, 3 years); Barista, Kahili Coffee (Kirkland, Wash., 1 year); Barista, Urban Coffee Lounge (Kirkland, Wash., 2 years); Barista, BARISTA (Portland, Ore., 1 year). Laila's coffee history Coffee has surrounded me my entire life. My father owns Cherry St. Coffee House, a series of historic cafés in downtown Seattle. When I was 16, I took my first job working for him as a barista. My father's shops are truly focused on community. They are full-service cafés making coffee, fresh sandwiches and soups. I became a manager, but eventually decided to step down from the position. I always felt that being the owner's daughter brought with it a certain stigma that I received special treatment or was in some way undeserving of my success in the company. I knew if I was really going to prove myself it needed to be without the assistance of my father. A new coffee shop was opening Barista Exchange to stay connected with people in the industry. The Barista Guild of America (BGA) is always having events that foster community and education. Setting the Table by Danny Meyers is popular book about customer service that I think everyone in the industry should read. What advice do you have for newcomers to this industry? in my neighborhood and I took advantage of the opportunity to have make a fresh start. The coffee shop carried Zoka Coffee, and I knew of Zoka as being one of the more popular roasters in Seattle, but what I didn't anticipate was the coffee education that would come with the new job. I came to understand espresso in a whole new way. This is when I realized how much more there was to making coffee than I had originally known. It was at this shop that I really came to love being a barista. Years later, I found myself at the Urban Coffee Lounge, an independent café in Kirkland, Washington. The Urban Coffee Lounge serves Stumptown Coffee, which has tremendous quality, and requires a deeper level of education. Their training took me beyond the espresso machine, giving me my first chance to fully understand coffee varietals, origins, processing, and other aspects of how coffee gets into my hands, as the barista. It was here that I completely fell in love with coffee, seed to cup. Favorite educational resources I'm fortunate enough to live in a city densely saturated with coffee and coffee people. I know not everyone has this luxury, but I've also found a lot of resources online or otherwise to get information. I check coffeed. com pretty often to keep up on the threads posted there. I know people use "Stumptown's training took me beyond the espresso machine, giving me my first chance to fully understand coffee varietals, origins, processing, and other aspects of how coffee gets into my hands, as the barista.'' Get involved. Dive in head first. Ask questions! Join the BGA, and tap into its resources. I gained most of my knowledge from never being afraid to ask questions. Much of what I know is from standing next to the roaster at Stumptown in Seattle, and asking Wolfgang Klinker whatever came to mind. Sitting around with a bunch of my coffee friends and really digging into a subject. With everyone's different perspectives, theories, and backgrounds you start to think about things in a broader way than you could have alone. Go to every cupping, latte art throwdown, and barista competition that you can. If you don't have those in your area, start your own. Be a sponge and be humble, and you'll do great in this industry. What makes the Pacific Northwest unique within the specialty coffee industry? Seattle has a deep coffee history, but has been pretty stuck in its ways. Portland's coffee scene is built on the foundation laid in Seattle, but doesn't hold as hard to the format or style of coffee found in Seattle. Comparatively, Portland's coffee culture is younger and more vibrant. There's no shortage of great cafés, and many of the best have been opened within the last five years. Young cafés means more new, passionate and excited baristas. Geographically, Portland is smaller than Seattle, putting many of these cafés close together. It literally tightens the barista community. Where do you see yourself in five years? 10 years? I've always daydreamed about opening my own quaint café. Of course, there's the idea of taking over my father's business and gearing it more towards specialty coffee, while maintaining its loyal investment in the community. You never know. But I'm excited for what's to come. One thing is for sure: family will always be more important to me than coffee. In fact, in five or 10 years, I'm willing to bet my priorities will be more focused on my family than my career. www.baristamagazine.com 53