Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/804825
WHEN I FIRST SAT DOWN TO START WRITING this article I was ready to tear apart the coffee industry because we aren't as "good" at service as high-end restaurants. I thought I was going to have insights that no one else had considered, and to some extent that is still what I believe and will be going through in this article. I have also realized that a lot of what I wanted to tell coffee professionals to do simply won't work in high volume cafés. Don't get me wrong—there are many aspects of café service that we are absolutely missing the mark on, from overall cleanliness of our spaces to professional conduct. We need to fi gure out our own ways of doing it, however, and stop looking, as we have been, to restaurant service for all our cues. It's easy to see why we have been looking to restaurants: They are the edifi ce of high-end service that have survived the kinds of blows that would destroy most cafés. Restaurants more or less have it all fi gured out, while cafés and coffee shops are just now growing into their own and starting to look for ways to become as unshakable as restau- rants. I see the area where specialty coffee has the most growth potential as service. Let's dig in and fi nd out how we can push ourselves and each other to elevate our standard. CLEANLINESS AND ORGANIZATION Too often, I walk into the café where I work and see the telltale signs that there was just a big rush: milk jugs sitting on the counter, coffee grounds spread about, wet rags in piles rather than neatly folded. There is our team, talking among themselves rather than taking care of their station and showing the ownership that I feel every time I walk in. One of the most impressive things I've ever seen in a café was in Nashville, Tenn., at Barista Parlor. I was bleary eyed and delirious after 18 hours on the road by myself driving from Min- neapolis to Hilton Head, S.C., for my brother's bachelor party. When I walked into this café I had heard such good things about, it was 3 p.m. and there was a long line. The person working the counter was taking his time with each guest and the baristas were rocking and rolling their way through a queue of tickets that would make most baristas shudder. Fast-forward 10 minutes, and the rush had fi nally let up. I was watching how the baristas handled the workload and the fl ow behind the bar (because absolutely my favorite part of going to shops is watching "the show"—more on that a little later on), and then one of the most surprising things happened: They both began to reset their station in an effort to be prepared for the next rush. They wiped down the counters, brushed off the scales, cleared the spent pucks, and dried off the drip tray, all before one turned to the other and said, "OK, now I have to go to the bathroom. I've been waiting for the last hour." I had to resist the urge to start slow clapping in my blurry, and at this point outrageous- THE NITPICKY NATURE OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICE ARTICLE BY CASEY UNDERKOFLER • PHOTOS BY JOSHUA VASKO LiTtle Thing Every 112 barista magazine