Scooters Coffeehouse has one location in Arizona up at 30855 North Cave Creek Road. I went with a friend recently to visit and was introduced to the manager, Randy Maine.
Randy got his start in coffee years ago at Caffe D’arte in Seattle. They offer free wireless internet, and have plenty of seating inside for a small crowd. When I visited I had a Doppio Ristretto Breve Macchiato.
I have more photos I’ll post later, but for now I wanted to get this video tour I shot up on the site.
Scooters Coffeehouse
30855 North Cave Creek Road
Suite 142
Cave Creek, AZ 85331
Phone: (480) 502-1166
Maria Klimaszewski writes to let me know that Oscar’s Coffee Bar has been open for a full year. She says “It has been a year already since we opened Oscar’s Coffee Bar inside Harper’s Nursery. We would like to invite everyone and anyone to our special anniversary weekend… Nov. 8 and 9.”
She adds that there will be “coffee specials and things happening in the garden all weekend. Raffle for tickets to Alanis Morissette and live music on Sunday noon to 2 pm.”
This morning I ran across this beta application called Bistro Buzz. Thought some of you coffee house owners might be interested. It looks like it’s designed specifically to help coffee houses handle marketing and reward programs.
Let’s recap briefly: The Willow House closes after many, many years of operation and then re opens on McDowell Rd. a short time later. However, it only remained open for a little while before closing. In the meantime, the former landlord opens The Willo House in the same spot as the old Willow House. (I can’t believe I’m writing this)
So what’s new? Well, the shop in that old location has reopened (or been renamed) Hob Nobs Coffee House (yeah, seriously). Apparently it has been remodeled and looks nicer than before and they have some new baristas.
Hob Nobs Coffee House
149 W McDowell Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85003
I received this information yesterday and wanted to republish it here for any interested:
The Specialty Coffee Association of America presents the 2008 Southwest and South Central Regional Barista Competitions hosted by Cuvee Coffee Roasting Co.
Calling All Competitors, Judges and Volunteers
More than 100 coffee professional will be converging on Austin October 31 through November 2 at the Radisson Town Lake in an effort to win a regional titles of South Central & Southwest Regional Barista Champions, which guarantees them a semifinal spot in the United States Barista Championship. The winners of the Austin competitions will travel to Portland, Oregon in March 2009 to vie for a chance to participate in the World Barista Championship in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2009.
Arizona Coffee reader Mike wrote in this morning to let us know that Intatto Coffee has closed its doors. He writes: “Intatto Coffee is closed! I went be there yesterday and the windows were blocked out. The sign said you could still get there coffee on their website and thanked people for the patronage. I asked a neighboring business and they confirmed the closure. Bummer! They have great coffee and we will miss them.”
Indeed. Sorry to see them go. I drove up there this morning and took some photos.
Bummer. We wish the owners Douglas & Leslie, and the entire Terrill family the best. They wrote last week saying they were “moving back to Oregon” for family reasons. The shop is actually for sale, and you can see the listing on Craigslist.
According to the action item: Baristas are no longer required to pull shots into shot glasses where the quality of the shot can be seen. We are now allowed to pull the directly into the cup. If the timing of the shot is correct, then the customer gets what they get. If the timing of the shot is NOT correct, the cup and the syrups and any other pre-prepped items go into the trash.
Why the change?
According to the action item, Starbucks labor scheduling system added 5 seconds labor for each drink to use the shot glasses. Apparently that five seconds per drink is just too expensive for the company and they will now withdraw the five seconds labor and allow baristas to drop shots directly into the cup. Most baristas know a quality shot of espresso is more than just proper timing.
Possible effects of this decision: Bad drinks from bad shots, substantial increase in product waste from pulling improperly timed shots, and longer wait times with reduced labor (especially at busy stores).
Probably one of the most frequently asked questions I receive is if I have a list of coffee shops that stay open late. Well, here’s that list in all of its smallness. Thank you to Ben Atkin for contributing research.
Three Roots in Tempe is open to 11:00 during the school year.
Xtreme Bean 11:00 every night, except open all night Friday/Saturday nights.
eJoy Cafe in Tempe, which is open until 1 or 2 am every night, but Wi-Fi is $1.50/hr w/ a 2 hr minimum.
On Sunday I was in downtown Phoenix and decided to stop in at Lux Coffee Bar. Here are a few photos. The construction is all completed surrounding the light rail. My cappuccino was quite good actually. The foam while not being the greatest was decent (not great, but decent) and the espresso was perfect. No bitterness, strong flavor. Etc.
The street in front of Lux, light rail is visible on left.
The patio at Lux is awesome. They share it with another sandwich place which is great, and in wintertime these tables are always crowded.
The signage at Lux is incredibly difficult to see. But it tends to work.
Interior of Lux Coffee Bar.
My cappucino.
LUX Coffee Bar
4404 N. Central Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Phone: (602) 696-9976
Well, it only took me half a year but I just uploaded 79 photos from my Italy trip to Flickr (just the coffee batch, the others are here). Soon I’ll add captions to each one. If you have any questions just ask.
Over the weekend Helen Yung emailed me to let me know about their new ice cream shop which also sells coffee! How exciting. She tells me they are “featuring ‘More Than Fair’ coffee from Café Cortez. Our coffee-based treats include Sumatra Espresso Shot ice cream, Java Brownie Sundae, Java Jolt shake, Cafe Americano and Iced Coffee, made with espresso freshly pulled over ice.”
Sweet Republic is a proudly independent artisan ice cream shop located at 9160 E Shea Blvd (at the NW corner of E Shea and 92nd St, behind Bank of America). Our store also provides free Wi-Fi access and comfortable seating in an eco-friendly modern retro space, which you can see in one of the attached photos. More details can be found on our website: www.sweetrepublic.com.
Another Dutch Bros. Coffee location is set to open on October 10th at Bell Rd. and 29th St. The location is the second in Arizona for the franchise. You can read about the opening on AZ Central.
An interesting tidbit I gathered from the article: “How many customers are your current Valley stores seeing a day? We see about 400 to 600 people a day. We’re open from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.”
The Ginger People were gracious enough to send me a free sample of their new product called Hot Coffee Ginger Chews.
So how are they? Well, it depends. Five of us at the Tornado office sampled these and the consensus is that two of us really enjoyed them. The other three didn’t. Now, I think the reason that most of us didn’t like the flavor is that the ginger flavor is so very strong. Mixing it with coffee was a decent idea, but personally I didn’t care for the combo. Even when I’m having sushi I don’t like ginger.
Here are some photos from our tasting. I hope you enjoy. The Ginger People have a variety of other products which you might find interesting.
A simple question for today, is it good business for a coffee shop to endorse someone in a political race? At a few coffee houses, I have seen expressions of opinion, posters, and the stickers supporting one candidate or another. So what do you think? Is it okay for a coffee house to support a single candidate or should businesses remain silent so they don’t alienate customers.
