Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I know the point of blogging is to capture the kinetic force of one's subject as life unfolds. And you would think that for a food and beverage establishment, we might devote particular attention to the announcement of menu changes and new products. This is precisely what we haven't done over the last few weeks in regards to our coffee and breakfast pastries. Call it a 'soft opening.'

I have changed my work schedule so that I'm spending my early weekday mornings baking muffins, cookies and pies and developing new products that require the use of ovens and other large, heat-producing equipment. I am also getting over my mortal fear of bread-baking and teaching myself how to make brioche and other dough for the eventual arrival of sticky buns and danish. We have always been frustrated with our lack ovens or production space, and never quite satisfied with the selection of wholesale pastries on market, so we finally decided to rent a commercial kitchen on a daily basis. It's also a nice change for me, playing a baker, working in relative silence for most of my mornings. I do share the kitchen with another baker/sandwich maker, Ed, whom I am careful not to irritate so early in our relationship. After years of steady human interaction all-day-every-day, I do get a little panicky when there's a lingering silence, but we quickly learned that we share the pleasure of heckling our local NPR correspondents, so there's already a bond.

Our second, more dramatic change pertains to our coffee. On November 1st we made the 'official' switch to Courier Coffee. Courier Coffee is one dude, Joel Domries. He has a crazy-manic energy that either says, "passionate about coffee" or "drugs" and sometimes you just have to nod your head and do to the dishes as he describes his roasting adventures. He has been coming in for years, ordering double espressos and talking incessently about roasting. Eventually he started bringing samples, little jelly jars meticulously labeled with dates, times and temperatures, and we witnessed his coffees become magnificent. Joel delivers his beans by bicycle up to 3 times a week, and we're doing our best to keep our coffee small, local and sustainable. You can read more about him more here (he's the "trailblazer" at the end of the article) or better yet come in for an americano or cup of drip. I am amazed by how much the landscape of coffee has changed in Portland since we opened in 2000, and our former roasters, Stumptown, introduced a new level of knowledge and appreciation of coffee in this city. Now, we feel like it's time to give 'the new kid' a chance and teach ourselves some new tricks at the same time. Come by and tell us what you think...