Saturday, March 22, 2003


kudos: first look

ok, went down to the new coffee shop, kudo beans, today at about 5pm. packed. loud. crazy.

the shop's owner steve is, like myself, a member of the famous group of coffee freaks at alt.coffee. naturally, we support those who venture into the real coffee business full-time.

seemed to me that he's doing quite well already. kudo is on 1st ave & 3rd st, around the corner from the hell's angels headquarters. (i'm not making this up!!!) he is serving gelato and sandwiches, besides press pots of coffee and tea. i saw that he had at least 18 kinds of coffees, none more than 10 days old he says, for serving by the press pot.

the coffee beans he pro-offered me to sniff smelled great -- of course he is associated with dallis bros., so! he had about 12 leaf teas available for buying by the pot. not that you could get a table a tho'. the place was jammed. although the staff had the requisite piercings and ink, none of them had touched coffee before.

he was honest about how he hopes to work with his staff to reach a higher level. because his location is extremely high volume, i wasn't suprised to see a superautomatic "accorta 2000s." it grinds, pours -- no portafilter at all, it looks kinda like a high-tech japanese vending machine.

however, the staff did work to keep it clean. i saw them run what looked like to me some kind of steam clean cycle twice in the 20 mins. i was there. even with a line backing up out the door!

the regular coffee is brewed with huge bunns. i went with my yoga teacher, and i tried a sip of his american coffee. it wasn't watery. it wasn't burnt. it was pleasant decent coffee, much better than any other in the nabe short of higher grounds. which is big praise for decaf. (yoga teachers do tend to drink decaf. . .)

i talked to steve briefly. he was great. wonderful attitude, seemed pleased to talk to another altie even tho' his shop was a zoo. he assured me the bunn coffee was made to scaa gold cup standards, and i believe it. i ordered my standard macchiato. i tried it without sugar. quite drinkable.

it wasn't at all bitter, it was noticeably better than starbucks. no microfoam, tho; it was starbucks style stiff sea-foam. steve looked at it and said right away well, the foam needs work, it's only ok. he gave me a straight shot, which was good. i drank it without sugar. which is rare for public coffee!

he definitely seems interested in starting from a certain place and then steadily raising the bar. i can respect that. he hopes to hold cuppings and events there for nyc alties and scaa e-members. he also talked about the possibility of arranging a group buy of semi-commercial espresso machines suitable for home use.

anyway, stop by and talk to steve if you're interested & in the nabe. . .

posted by fortune | 8:16 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments