Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/659497
IT'S ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL midwinter day in Los Angeles. Temperatures all across the metrop- olis hover in the low 80s, and the sky is a clear and solid blue. In the distance beyond the G&B; café owned by Charles Babinski and Kyle Glanville, where we're starting the day together, the rugged peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains wear a fringe of snow. Here, downtown at the Grand Central Market, the series of doors along the sidewalk on both ends of the building are rolled open, letting in long, diagonal drafts of sunlight and a steady flow of customers to the market's various and varied eateries and shops. Those folks approaching the 99-year-old market from Hill Street are greeted with an inviting, gleaming, white and purple coffee bar where there doesn't seem to be any front or back. Any approach is welcome. At this bar, recently redesigned and reopened last November, the small backroom prep area has been replaced with more bar space. The menu board is elevated, and appears back-to-back to customers on two sides of the bar. The wall the old menu used to hang on is gone altogether, so each customer has sight lines that pass right through to the street, deeper into the market, to their neighbors, or all of the above. There is an unmis- takably social atmosphere here. Like a theater in the round, G&B; baristas work in the middle of the open design. This space is the manifestation of a dream inspired by European cafés, sandwich shops, and community spaces. It's a natural outgrowth of the innovative approach to service from its owners, two former United States Barista Champions, longtime coffee luminaries, and friends, Kyle and Charles. The original G&B; was more or less a pop- up. That first retail endeavor back in 2012 was front-of-the-house coffee service at Sqirl, a pop- ular restaurant at the edge of L.A.'s Silver Lake neighborhood. By luck, Kyle overheard a customer talking about an available space in Grand Central Market, where he hoped to get a coffee roaster. Kyle seized the opportunity and proposed that the guy avoid the red tape and headaches that go with permitting and outfitting a roastery, and instead let Kyle and Charles come in with a beau- tiful coffee bar. Taking the idea and running with it, Kyle and Charles armed themselves with a business plan, a lead on a space, and a vision for a unique café, and headed out to meet with banks in search of funding. After each interview, though, they returned empty-handed. Undaunted, and with a modest sum kicked in by their family and friends, Charles and Kyle were soon demoing and repurposing the Grand Central Market space, which at that time was a vacant juice stand. Eight days and $8,000 later, G&B; opened. That was in May 2013. Charles and Kyle wouldn't get their next day off until Christmas. "I remember a day off would be an eight-hour shift," says Charles with a grin, thinking back on the usual schedule in those early days, when they would both work 12- to 16-hours days. Still, the renovated juice bar wasn't the full dream come to life. The vision Kyle and Charles had for G&B; would draw it away from many of the standard models and methods for operating a café. They embraced a skeptical, questioning mentality, always asking why instead of accepting that's just how it's done. For maximizing efficien- cy during the intense morning rush for espresso drinks, for example, they gave pre-grinding their doses for espresso shots a try, which at the time was considered blasphemy by many of their spe- cialty-coffee peers. To their surprise, they found there was no diminishment in flavor even though the pre-ground coffee might sit for 30 minutes before being used. As an aside, Charles hints that it might actually improve a customer's experience because it speeds up service. "It's all about elimi- nating bottlenecks," explains Kyle. More on that vision: Kyle and Charles wanted to offer coffees from roasters around the world. Their goals were to seek their ideal flavor profiles, not to have one of everything. They simply wanted to serve coffees that they loved. Kyle describes their process for choosing coffees as close to that of a green buyer. "We occasionally will say no even if we like the coffee," he says, just because it doesn't match the flavor profile they want. Beyond selecting and serving beautiful coffees straight up, Kyle and Charles are famous for their whimsical signature drinks. Charles likes to think of G&B; as "a nonalcoholic bar" where, he says, "the more non-coffee drinks on the menu, the better." These guys love creating interesting, different, and delicious drinks whether they feature coffee or 75 www.baristamagazine.com