Lest you think we have reached the coffee saturation point, let me just tell you right now that you are mistaken. For there's a new game in town, and it's going to be a good one. Jeremy Tooker, the one-time co-owner of cool kid headquarters,
Ritual, is about four weeks away from opening his own spot, Four Barrel Coffee. The 3,000 square foot cafe (375 Valencia at 15th) is not, however, a Ritual knock-off. For one, Tooker is adamant that the cafe won't have WiFi—something, he admits, they felt they "had to do" in order to bring customers into Ritual. Instead, he's hoping that, "I don't know, maybe people will talk to one another." There won't be any Chai, or any other kind of tea, for that matter. No nonfat milk. No vanilla syrup. Just coffee—and from what I can gather, really good coffee. He's got three partners in the endeavor, including Duane Sorenson from the famous
Stumptown Coffee in Portland and they'll be roasting single-origin coffee on the premises. They'll also be doing twice-daily "cuppings" (as with wine tasting, cuppings involve sucking, slurping and carrying on) that will be open to the coffee-nerd masses.
In the meantime, while they await the end of the construction, permitting and other road blocks to opening, Jeremy is turning out some fine espresso from his La Mistral machine, conveniently set up on the loading dock of the Caledonia street alley that runs behind the cafe—it's a bit hidden back there, but if you follow the smell of good coffee, you shouldn't have any problems finding it (note: he's only serving Saturday and Sunday).
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