Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/659497
"One of the reasons we started this is because being a barista is such a cool job," Kyle says. Hiring people, giving them benefits (they've just started offering health insurance, they note with pride), and sharing their love of ser- vice—these are huge motivational factors for both Charles and Kyle. And they believe that GGET gives them an opportunity to accom- plish all of those things. "First and foremost," Charles says, "we're a retail company. That's what we pride ourselves on." "We love coffee," Kyle adds, "but it's also a good business to be a part of." Looking into the future, they see maybe 20 locations for GGET in Southern California. "We want to be what people think of when they think of California coffee," Kyle says. "We are going to be fearless about going into areas that are underserved." "GGET won't only be dropping in cool parts of town," Charles says. "We're growing organically and our locations are based on human interactions." One of the other notable decisions the pair has made is taking much of the work of creating drinks out of baristas' hands. Instead of spending their time dialing-in espressos or timing shots, the baristas use fully automatic La Marzoccos, so that they can focus on customer service instead of the machine. "Everything is a recipe. We want people to take possession of a completed drink," Kyle explains. "They get it the same way every single time." Additionally, even though both have worked as coffee educators and as barista competitors, customer education is not something they focus on. If someone wants to know about processing, eleva- tion, farms, varieties, etc., "I'm totally excited to talk about coffee on that level," Charles says, "but there is not a strategy for 'education.'" "We don't educate customers," Kyle says bluntly. "We're a drink shop." "If someone comes in and leaves knowing they like East African coffees," Charles adds, "that's successful education right there." The very name of the café, Go Get Em Tiger, "embodied a lot of the spirit that we saw this being," says Charles, "that the coffee shop is a support center. It's not implying that people coming here become smarter or cooler. Whatever you do, that's awesome. Here's a cup of coffee." "Ideally, a customer relationship in a coffee shop is a long-term relationship," says Kyle. "We give people the drink they're here to get, and hopefully it's the best drink they've ever had. We're not gate- keepers." Kyle's start in coffee came through a job in his hometown of Carmel Valley on California's Central Coast, where he worked at a local cof- fee shop at which, he recalls, they knew so little about coffee that they would reuse pucks. He went to Seattle for college in 2001, and started immediately looking for a part-time job. "I needed a job from the moment I landed," he says. "I was incredibly poor. Fast food, 78 barista magazine