Comments on: Trip Report: Four Barrel Coffee

By: George

George — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:30:10 +0000

“speedster? did anyone say speedster?
I plan to visit the factory somewhere next week orso…
any requests?”
saw the pictures on Kees van der Western’s website:http://www.keesvanderwesten.com/at-the-workshop_new-speedster2.html
but no specifications. How about getting some specifications and expected price (in Euro)?

By: AlecGold

AlecGold — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:36:50 +0000

speedster? did anyone say speedster?
I plan to visit the factory somewhere next week orso…
any requests?

It’s only an hours drive for me and I wanted to get my chubby hands on a decent machine, finaly, but can’t find a price anywhere.

Back on topic, I think it is cool that the guy is still making coffee, even if it doesn’t show like much of a nice shop. After all this is what it is all about: how does it taste, what does he deliver!.

By: George

George — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:21:10 +0000

Yes, La Marzocco is more of an american company now than an italian company. Just heard Kees Van der westen will be debuting their one group machine - the speedster. would be interesting to see how it compares to the gs3

By: TheShot

TheShot — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:18:14 +0000

It’s his design for sure:
http://www.lamarzocco.com/mistral.html

But I have some real gaps in my knowledge of La Marzocco’s operations. For example, more and more I’ve noticed how La Marzocco USA out of Seattle seems to be in the distribution business for more than what I’d consider the Florence, Italy La Marzocco line.

By: George

George — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:41:22 +0000

Learn something everyday! Did not know Mistral was made by Kees van der Westen before La Marzocco bought the line.

By: TheShot

TheShot — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:21:10 +0000

Mirage, Mistral — call it Kees van der Westen’s mood of the moment. But I hadn’t actually seen nor seen any mention of a Mirage per se. Not that I got a really good look behind the counter, but I haven’t heard any mention of a Mirage before. Perhaps in their to-be-opened café?

By: George

George — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:05:01 +0000

Hi Greg,
I am confused, the thread for the espresso machine at four barrels shows a mirage. I thought they have a la marzocco mistral there.

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:03:39 +0000

Based on what it’s taken to get a relatively minor, but fairly important electrical/contractor problem fixed with my house, I’d put Four Barrel’s opening at sometime around the year 2016!

By: TheShot

TheShot — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:53:52 +0000

Thanks, Christian. Your blog post was a good motivator (and good information) for me to finally make a more legitimate review myself. I first visited FourBarrel a month ago, but, like you, I wasn’t sure there was much to report on — given the state of things.

The review here will be certain to change once they notch up their operations.

Talking with barista Chris a couple days ago, it sounded like things were progressing well after a number of permit and logistical snags. But these higher-profile café openings universally seem to be months behind their announced opening dates. We’ve seen it with Coffee Bar, with Blue Bottle Cafe, etc. I’m no contractor, but in those cases I could just look at where they were and see that they were in no position to open on schedule.

And in FourBarrel’s case, from what I last saw there this week, I wouldn’t put an actual open date of July/August out of the question.

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:00:11 +0000

Hey Greg, glad to see you finally got there! You should also try to get back when Jeremy’s at the helm if you can. And thanks for the nod in my direction as well. I’m glad you’ve finally put some numbers to their operation. I debated long and hard about scoring them, but I decided that it wasn’t quite the right approach for my blog since I don’t do the capsule reviews you do and don’t revise as often. I applaud your no holds barred scorring approach. Personally, I’ll just wait and repost once this coffee death star becomes fully operational.