Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
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THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE FEEL OF BARISTA MAGAZINE IN PRINT. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! www.baristamagazine.com 89 www.baristamagazine.com WHILE MANY SMALL CAFÉS across North America are making awesome food out of kitchens that sometimes only have double-digit square footage, these success stories don't happen overnight. Doing a lot with a little requires focus, creativity, and dedication. These approaches are all employed at the 60-square- foot kitchen of Fernwood Coffee Co. and its connected sister business, the Parsonage Café. Here, owner Ben Cram shares some additional tips for how shop owners can overcome the small-kitchen challenge to deliver tasty food. O p t i m i z e t h e s p a c e . While a 60-square-foot kitchen is always going to feel small, it can be designed to either feel more ample than it is or, on the other hand, even more cramped. For shop owners, this can be a matter of fi tting equipment in a jigsaw-puzzle-like manner, making sure it pieces together as snugly as possible. Ben says this kind of organization was one of the initial problems they solved for. "The fi rst thing we did was fi gure out how to optimize the space as far as equipment goes," he says. "We work with a convection oven that is big enough to fi t all our morning baking in one shot. Beyond that, we have a panini grill, two tabletop induction burners, and toasters." With the equipment in its right place, Ben says the next challenge was determining how to put together a great menu with limited gear. "We had to design a menu that worked within the constraints of this equipment," he says. "So, very little short order that requires pans, and lots of things we can grill on the press. The idea was simple, classic lunch-counter fare with a refi ned touch." E n h a n c e m e n t f o r d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n . The Parsonage Café achieves sophistication through culinary fl ourishes that help elevate the café's cuisine from standard fare to some- thing more special—and something that may seem like it came out of a bigger kitchen. "The refi nement comes from the extra touches like house-made preserves and homemade compo- nents to elevate the simple dishes," Ben says. "For a Reuben, we would make the sauerkraut in-house. It's always taking care in doing every- thing from scratch." S t r i v e f o r q u a l i t y . This elegance is also accomplished through the choice of ingredients, Ben says, which can help ensure customers will be happy with the food coming out of the kitchen. While the Parsonage Café has acquired additional refrigeration and storage space—meaning it can buy ingredients in bulk and have a place to put them, which can be a challenge for small shops—Ben empha- sizes the importance of including special items such as local, seasonal ingredients, in the mix. "We work with local butchers, farmers, and fi shmongers, so our product is excellent," he says. "The simple, uncomplicated offerings are that much better with fresh, local products as the base ingredients." A B C — a l w a y s b e c l e a n i n g . Ben says one of the challenges with the space at the Parsonage Café is maintaining a beautiful appearance. Kitchens get dirty quickly in general, but small kitchens get dirtier even faster, and Parsonage's layout makes it so whatever dirt and grime there may be is evident to customers. "We are very exposed, so our guests see everything," Ben says. "What might look like a small mess in a big commer- cial kitchen looks like our entire workspace is messy because there is only the one counter." To combat this, the staff at Parsonage Café has had to incorporate perpetual cleaning as part of their routine. "Our solution was to train kitchen staff to constantly reset the space between jobs or orders," Ben says. A b o v e e v e r y t h i n g , k e e p i t s i m p l e . As other shop owners interviewed for this article echo, when you have a small kitchen, keeping things manageable and relatively simple gives you your best chance for success. It's a strategy that Ben also swears by and has learned through experience. "Let the limitations of the space guide your menu choices," he says. "We used to do eggs Benny on weekends that were delicious, but we just couldn't keep up and people were waiting way too long. Even though we loved offering it, we had to come up with an egg dish that worked for our kitchen." —Chris Ryan T i p s f o r M a k i n g t h e M o s t o f a S m a l l S p a c e