3255 K St NW
Washington, DC
Let’s play a little word association. If I said “Lygon st” – you’d probably think something like “Spaghetti”. If I said St Kilda, you’d probably think about Luna Park and if I said Collingwood, you’d probably groan. Bikes on the other hand, would not be the first thing that comes to mind when I mention coffee, and yet when you stop and think about it, the combination is not as strange as it sounds. Ask anyone who rides and almost always, the two activities go hand in hand. However this place is a rare breed – an upscale bike store dealing a nice array of bikes (Felts, Specialized and Look for those who need to know) and they actually serve up a pretty decent coffee inside. They passed the first test for a D.C. cafe – which is a reasonable doppio volume (under 150mls when you ask for an espresso of any sort constitues “reasonable” here in D.C). However this doppio presented with a lush crema on top, and thick and smooth on the way down, with only the slightest hint of bitterness on the back of the palate. The real jewel however, was the cafe latte that followed, with a substantial texture and body not wimpy and flat like most around these parts. Overall one strong bean with a good chance chance to upgrade on a future visit.
Eric Fontana
Posted in 1 Bean, Washington DC | 2 Comments »
2101 L St NW
Washington, DC 20037
Yet another new joint in DC puts the “front double-biceps” pose back into coffee. Bourbon Coffee is a peculiar name, conjuring up images of a liquid-breakfast that usually lands one with a varicose-laced liver. Yet despite the name, and being a new addition to the seriously coffee place-d out DC downtown, Bourbon holds the distinction of actually being worth an out of the way visit for. A little background can be found here and admirably, Bourbon’s mission is an applaud-worthy helping hand to Rwandan coffee farmers. The first thing that hits you is the lime green hotrod coloured Simonelli on the counter which colour-wise, branzenly contrasts everything else in the store. I’ve gotten used to the idea of never getting a ristretto in Washington so usually the coffee options on the menu are nothing new. Bourbon threw out something I had never had before – a “Caffe Cubano”. This option is a not your typical espresso shot as it has brown sugar added into the grinds before the shot is pulled – something I am told is more common in both Cuba and Puerto Rico. The result was a sightly sweet, nicely balanced shot with dense crema and some yummy chocolately flavours. Of course I had to chase the shot with a Caffe Latte (which can also be done with a Cubano but I went with a regular espresso base this time) that was magnificent. It was anchored with another great pull underlying some velvety textured milk, not bubble filled, frothy or flat as many DC coffee drinkers accept as a fact of life. Bourbon is set to blow many DC coffee places out of the water if this quality is anything to go by.
3 beans
Beans: Rwandan Farmers
Eric Fontana
Posted in 3 Beans, Washington DC | 2 Comments »
1451 P St NW
Washington, DC
Holy Schmokes, DC has a new contender for the coffee crown. Sadly, you’ll never be able to get one to wake you up in the morning. Pitango Gelato is a new-ish addition to the DC specialty coffee scene and to be honest, their emphasis is not even coffee. Their gelato rivals some of the best stuff I’ve had in Australia and Italy and they’ll tell you that one serving of the coffee flavoured stuff has the equivalent caffeine of two espresso shots! However while buying a recent gelato with the missus and boy, I spotted a shiny single group handle on the rear counter and asked bluntly “who can make a good coffee here?”. As soon as I could say doppio, the young bloke behind the counter was tamping a shot and I watch a couple of beautiful mousetails flow out of the head. The espresso was devine – thick, smooth, no bitterness and with heavy chocolate on the palate. As you can imagine after the equivalent of four espresso shots (two in the ice cream, two in the doppio) I was ready to walk a few kilometres to cool off. Only downside of this place is, they’re open nights only, here’s hoping word spreads and the demand for morning services leads to increased operating hours.
Three beans.
Coffee:
Zen’s Pitango blend.
Eric Fontana
Posted in 3 Beans, Washington DC | No Comments »
West End Bistro
1190 22nd St NW
Washington, DC
Not often I am going to bring you a coffee perspective from the finer end of Washington DC dining. I have to admit, typically restaurants don’t do it for me coffee wise, so I generally enjoy my meal and move on. I’m sure many of you find that it’s often rare to find a restaurant that places as much emphasis on specialty coffee as they do on crafting a delicious meal, which is a shame, because that final impression of taste is often the one that lingers the longest on the palate (and in the mind).
West End Bistro is located in the ground floor of the Ritz Carlton in Washington DC, the product of renowned chef Eric Ripert (Don’t feel bad, I had no idea who he was either), however my lunch was a fairly amazing (get ready for the eye-roll)…..fish burger. Possibly one of the tastiest lunches I can recall eating in recent times. Naturally a fine feast of this sort requires a good caffeine kick to really polish off the experience and serve as some sort of safety net to the inevitable lunch-coma that is bound to follow.
I asked for a ristretto and following the obligatory; “I’m sorry, a what Sir?” changed my order to an espresso which arrived shortly thereafter in a very fancy Illy cup. For those of you who frequent Illy cafes, you have probably spied some of the cup designs that are a bit of a phenomenon in the US right now. The coffee presented with a slightly-sweet aroma and a well-blonded-with-a-hint-of-gold looking crema on top. Even more importantly, it hit the palate smoothly with a dash of berries and minimal acidity. Not a bad effort at all, good enough for a bean and a solid way to polish off a very fine, um, fish burger.
Beans: Illy
Eric Fontana
Posted in 1 Bean, Family Friendly, Washington DC | 1 Comment »
Mocha Hut
1301 U St. NW
Washington, DC
Mocha Hut is located in the vibrant U street corridor in Washington DC. A great historic district that like many areas in the district has experienced a resurgence in the last few years
The Mocha hut sits squarely in the middle of it all, a curiously popular local meeting place that looks new on the outside, and like it used to be another business that was recently converted to Mocha Hut on the inside. First impression: In short the place looked like it needed a good scrubbing; The floors looked like they needed a sweep. Our table was unwiped and splattered with milk, while numerous old bits of tape were stuck on a far wall where something decorative obviously used to hang. A mess of magazines, sugar, stirrers and napkins sat up front that was such a “dog’s breakfast” I almost considered not adding sugar to my coffee. It begs the question, “Where does the urban edgy cafe look tip over into just plain messy?
Anyways, the true test of the coffee is in the cup. I’m afraid I have to report that if Mocha Hut want anything close to one bean, they are going to have to do far better than this. First up the espresso – quite bluntly, it was pulled way too long and was as sour as can be. I’m almost sick of the sound of my own voice describing this all too familiar pattern in US cafes. In a wierd twist of inconsistency – My caffe latte tasted as close to not having any coffee in it as possible, like a warm cup of milk (I think they forgot to put a shot in there at all!). Additionally there was absolutely no volume in the texture of the milk. Just a flat, bland drink. For my additional enjoyment an unpleasant aftertaste followed. So, I was confused as to exactly why the place was packed on this sunny Saturday morning. However a quick glance around the room reveals a sea of frappacinos and it all becomes crystal clear. A bit of sugar and a load of cream must do wonders.
Coffee: Java Journey
Eric Fontana
Posted in Family Friendly, Washington DC | No Comments »
Soho Cafe
Corner P and 23rd St
Washington DC
If you were a gambler, and had the ability to predict the future, think of the possibilities. You could essentially avoid bad circumstance. Therefore I’m blaming my current coffee “losing streak”, to borrow from sporting parlance, on the sheer lack of a crystal ball. Unfortunately even the CaFFeind can’t provide any Oracle like guidance how to get out of my current sad-state of coffee affairs. With that lead in, you’d already be guessing that my recent trip to Soho Cafe was not a great coffee experience. While 2008 was the year of surprised caffeine promise, 2009 is proving to be the year of the broken coffee heart.
I hesitate to ever use the word swill. It’s far too strongly denouncing of a beverage and has implications of a piggery that typically doesn’t fit the atmosphere of a cafe, particularly this one. However, what I can I say is that the “espresso” I received was a sloppy, watery, half-cup of nasty sour coffee. Frankly, I would have preferred to consume a cup of white vinegar. Despite plenty of notable exceptions in Washington, I’m not sure if the general lack of espresso ability I encounter on a day to day basis is because Americans prefer brewed coffee, or the reason they do. Either way, I’m seriously considering joining the ranks of Atomic owners…..
No beans
Eric Fontana
Posted in Family Friendly, Washington DC | No Comments »
Caribou Coffee
1800 M St NW,
Washington, DC
After racking up a miserable 0/2 start in the coffee department for Washington DC in 2009, you’d think it was time for some better luck. I’ve generally resisted reviewing big-chain coffee joints because, like the wandering star, they all seem pretty same-ish to me and not in a good way. I last walked into a Caribou Coffee store in 2003 while visiting the US on vacation. I liked the then-novelty factor of what seemed like sitting in a log cabin living room in the middle of the woods by a roaring fireplace. However I was unimpressed with the barista’s effort and I remember it vividly; a sour espresso shot with milk that was so hot I actually scalded my mouth. So on this visit, I can’t say I was completely surprised when I was greeted not by a shiny espresso machine, but by a couple of fully-automated Franke machines that wouldn’t look out of place in a home kitchen. Yes, it seems Caribou management have taken the quality control factor on their baristas to a logical extreme, and removed the act of grinding, tamping and pulling a shot altogether. Now they have a hopper feeding directly into an automated chamber which, in a quick press of a button produces a rapid cup of espresso-based whatever before you manage to cross from the register to the waiting area.
As always I ordered an espresso and a caffe latte. Straight to the heart of the matter – My espresso was roughly 4 ounces of highly acidic, watery coffee, with a really, really unpleasant aftertaste. The latte was fairly similar, just with a so-so effort of milk texture on top. If this is quality control, I’m a monkey’s uncle. After taking my first and last sip, I heard a woman behind me loudly proclaim: “This is my first espresso ever”. I thought to myself: “…and probably your last”.
No beans.
Coffee: Caribou Blend
Eric Fontana
Posted in Family Friendly, Washington DC | 1 Comment »
Kramer Books & Afterwords
1517 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington DC
Like Schwarzenegger in Predator, I thought my coffee trip to Kramer Books and Afterwords was going to be a quick in and out operation, however much like “Dutch” discovered, my mission unexpectedly ended up taking a great deal longer (although admittedly with a far lower body count and physical battery). DC has a lot of policy wonks who like to read books and drink coffee at all hours of the day. So it makes sense that the ‘coffee joint in the bookstore’ is a commonly occurring phenomenon. Some of them are even pretty good (see Modern Times as an example). So, is the coffee at the KB&A simply fuel for a ferocious page turner, or does it challenge the steely concentration of the bookworm to pay attention to a different sense altogether? This was what I aimed to figure out.
I ordered a caffe latte and thanks to the machine being in the middle of the store I got a great position right next to the barista to watch this thing unfold. I asked for the smallest cup possible to-go hoping for an 8oz, but the 16 oz cup (that’s a whopping 473ml for you metric buffs) that emerged had me a tad concerned. Observing the brew’s construction was a unique experience – the barista not so much tamped as massaged the coffee (several times) into the group head. The resultant screams of the milk jug had me convinced that I was riding the bus down a road called disaster and rightfully so – I received an overly diluted, milky coffee with minimal fullness in the mouth feel. However underneath all that milk, there was relative silence, flavours too difficult to discern as the pull was heavily muted by the milk. Intrigued, I had to go back and sit down to find out just what this barista was capable of with a naked 7 grams.
Second visit, different barista. I asked for an espresso, but a wink and a smile convinced me to go for a double…so why not up the ante? What I received, was that same 16 oz cup I received on the first visit, that was HALF FULL of an overwhelmingly sour “espresso”. Basically undrinkable. Now I want to say upfront, I have had some excellent coffee here in Washington (and the absolute cream here is on par with Melbourne’s finest) However, if there was ever a classic illustration of the perceived chasm between the American and Australian approach to espresso coffee, this is the poster child.
No beans
Coffee: Unknown
Eric Fontana
Posted in Family Friendly, Washington DC | No Comments »
Let’s play a little word association. If I said “Lygon st” – you’d probably think something like “Spaghetti”. If I said St Kilda, you’d probably think about Luna Park and if I said Collingwood, you’d probably groan. Bikes on the other hand, would not be the first thing that comes to mind when I mention coffee, and yet when you stop and think about it, the combination is not as strange as it sounds. Ask anyone who rides and almost always, the two activities go hand in hand. However this place is a rare breed – an upscale bike store dealing a nice array of bikes (Felts, Specialized and Look for those who need to know) and they actually serve up a pretty decent coffee inside. They passed the first test for a D.C. cafe – which is a reasonable doppio volume (under 150mls when you ask for an espresso of any sort constitues “reasonable” here in D.C). However this doppio presented with a lush crema on top, and thick and smooth on the way down, with only the slightest hint of bitterness on the back of the palate. The real jewel however, was the cafe latte that followed, with a substantial texture and body not wimpy and flat like most around these parts. Overall one strong bean with a good chance chance to upgrade on a future visit.
