Posted by TheShot on 17 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Local Brew, Starbucks
Near SF’s Flatiron Building (yeah, we got one too), this one-time Starbucks kiosk arguably put the then-next-door All Star Cafe & Bakery at 550 Market St. out of business in its first year of existence. Yet despite morning lines of commuters waiting for their lattes, and an overworked crew of three in tight quarters with [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 18 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Quality Issues
Coffee talk in the mainstream press these days looks a bit like the telenovela: short-lived serials from specific writers with an individual point of view. One of said serials comes from Giorgio Milos of illycaffè in The Atlantic, and his installment today is on milk frothing: All You Need to Know About Steaming Milk – [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 13 May 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Quality Issues
In recent months, The Atlantic — much like the New York Times — has shown a heightened interest in coffee. Most of it has come from articles penned by Starbucks co-founder, Jerry Baldwin. But today’s article comes from Giorgio Milos, Master Barista for illycaffè: A Winning Formula for Traditional Espresso – Food – The Atlantic.
Yes, [...]
Posted by TheShot on 03 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew
Today’s Wall Street Journal published an article on Illycaffè’s quiet expansion in the U.S. coffeehouse market: Illy Uses Backdoor to Take On Starbucks in U.S. – WSJ.com.
Anytime someone tries to sell coffee in this country, the knee-jerk media presumption is that they’re going to “Take On Starbucks“™. Illy has always publicly stated that they would [...]
Posted by TheShot on 25 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
A few weeks ago we received the latest (and tenth) edition of the annual Bar d’Italia del Gambero Rosso for 2010. It is the closest thing in print we’ve seen to our Web site reviews, and we’ve generally found it indispensable when traveling Italy in search of good espresso. (We last reviewed the 2007 edition.)
Illy [...]
Posted by TheShot on 22 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society, Local Brew, Machine
Not to be confused with Cento, which is decidedly at the opposite end of the amenity scale, this is a classically pretty café at the rear entrance of the elegant Fairmont Hotel. It caters primarily to hotel tourists — many of whom come from around the globe and get a little homesick for something other [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 15 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Quality Issues, Starbucks
One of the things that the big coffee chains do well is consistency. Or at least that’s the conventional wisdom, lifted straight from the fast food chain playbook. A McDonald’s french fry is pretty much the same everywhere, and the coffee served at a big chain is little different. Or so we’ve all been told.
For [...]
Posted by TheShot on 27 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Beans, Café Society, CoffeeRatings.com, Quality Issues
For a few years now, we had an idea for a post that sat in our unpublished queue: how can you tell a good espresso shop from a bad one? (At least before sampling it.) Given the thousands of good, bad, and mediocre espresso shots we’ve reviewed over the years, we have definitely noticed some [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
Today’s New York Times blogged about a new barista-as-art exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum: Guggenheim Turns Coffee Into Art – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com.
Part of an art installation named Cinéma Liberté/Bar Lounge (we are told the other half is a movie), baristas behind a wooden bar serve espresso drinks from three Francis Francis machines. [...]
Posted by TheShot on 13 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew
This past weekend, the Sunday Herald (Scotland) published an article on Trieste, Italy and some its great cafés: A Shot In The Dark (from Sunday Herald). (Trieste is also home to illycaffè and the namesake for the local legend, Caffé Trieste.) The article touches on Caffè Tommaseo, the historic Caffè San Marco, Caffè Degli Specchi, [...]
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