On Sunday I had the good fortune to visit Cafe Grumpy in Brooklyn, NY. It's a mile or two from Gimme Brooklyn in a mixed residential/commercial neighborhood. I'm always excited to visit cafes that have been talked up online -- it's almost guaranteed to be a good time. This is in stark contrast, of course, to walking blindly into 95% of the coffee shops out there, where you pretty much
know the coffee's gonna be awful.
Grumpy ain't much to look out from the outside, but the interior space is airy and fun. I'm a sucker for sandblasted brick walls and tin ceilings, and the place didn't disappoint.
Husband and wife owners Caroline Bell and Chris Timbrell greeted me from behind a counter that sported a gleaming 2 group Synesso. Although the incandescents were turned down low, plenty of light spilled in the windows, making the brick, stainless and brightly colored walls feel friendly and inviting.
After quick introductions it became obvious that I wasn't a local stopping by for casual coffee. Chris vaguely recognized my name (from posting here and on alt.coffee, I guess), so this must have added a hair more pressure than usual as he pulled my first espresso.
It was a teenie weenie ristretto, using Victrola's Streamline, pulled into a beautiful blue ceramic cup. I've only tasted Streamline once before, during the Seattle SCAA show, but that was when the Glimmer Twins worked there. How much had changed? I was very curious to taste this new generation of Streamline.
I found it quite restrained, even elegant. Heavy in body, but not "in your face" with big fruit or thundering caramel. Perhaps it was like a good quality French Chardonnay as compared to one from California -- I enjoyed the subtle balance between roast notes, sweetness, and a hint of acidity.
As I sipped and we chatted, Chris prepared a cappucino, also excellent. Caroline joked about folks from other shops who dropped in anonymously to check out Grumpy's coffee. She could often tell who the "coffee spies" were: they were the only people to order macchiatos. So be forewarned, coffee spies, you've been made!
If Grumpy had a weakness, I would venture that it was in their surprisingly low-key approach. Subtle on the building exterior, elegant on the inside, offering restrained yet delicious drinks, all was in order. But nowhere was a message that said, "OUR COFFEE IS FREAKING GREAT, PEOPLE, GET YOUR BUTTS IN HERE." I hope Caroline and Chris continue to find ways to make their cafe, like Gimme, a destination stop for their coffee-loving, quality-starved Brooklyn neighbors.
More Grumpy photos are in the "Cafes" section of my
Flickr site.
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Occasionally something fun comes along, and this time its name was "Esmeralda." When Sweet Maria's offered a three-pack of exquisite Panamanian coffees, including the ultra-hyped Esmeralda, I laid down my hundred bucks faster than you can say "actively-heated grouphead." Just yesterday I roasted up a batch of Esmeralda on my funkay third-of-a-pound "sample roaster." It's shown in all its glory in the photo above. The roaster's in the middle, the control panel is on the right, and my custom-engineered cooling apparatus sits on the left. :-) No snickering, please!
Because of weather and personal commitments, I often get away from home roasting and buy coffee from some of the well-known mail order places. This is good, because I get to taste stuff that's prepared more skillfully than my own. But I love the process of roasting so much that it's always very satisfying to be able to return to it. Boy, these beans are dense. I'm pretty sure the picture on the left was taken right in the middle of first crack. It's a rockin' and a rollin'.
About eleven minutes after the start, it's all over. The beans are laid out in the cooling collander, and they sure are beautiful. I'm hoping bigtime that I did them justice. If not, I have only two more chances to get it right. But even if not perfect, I'm confident the character of these famous beans will show through.
The photo on the left shows the resulting brew prepared in my "poor man's Clover." Hey, at least I have the cup! The Esmeralda was surprisingly savory, like meaty, tomatoey soup broth. Then there was sweetness, and a fruity-floral note above it all. This was a really nice cup. You could kind of dig into it and it kept coming back to you. 
