Soup's On. So Is Oatmeal. And a Crowded Bar.

With the unofficial passing of summer, we're back into soup season.  Also serving steel cut oatmeal with fruit each morning.

Oatmeal will be on from a half hour after opening (7am weekdays, 8am Saturday) until 11am.  Soup will be on from 11:30-5pm Mon-Sat.  No oatmeal or soup on Sundays as that's still quiche day.  Both oatmeal and soups are made from scratch on premises.

If you've been in the past couple of days, you might have noticed that the service bar has three espresso machines on it.  While we were fixing a mechanical issue with the steam boiler on the Linea this past Saturday, we decided to try and fix the auto features.  In doing so, we inadvertently fried the circuit board - contacts touched metal and *poof* - a bang big enough to wake the neighbors.  Nobody was hurt.

However, as we're operating off of two 110v machines, we've stopped selling 20 oz lattes and chai lattes until the Linea is back.  The replacement machines simply can't handle that much milk to our quality standards. 

You can still get a 20 oz drip coffee or tea.  

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Comments

[Russ]

Great time to kick the 20s of the menu permanently? Glad to hear you all have oatmeal...wish I lived closer to Mt. Lebo.

[Rich]

Unlike some folks in our industry, we don't really mind the 20 oz lattes all that much. Some (actually, a lot) of people just like milky drinks with just a couple of shots in it. We're happy to serve them.

If folks find they really like getting more espresso taste with a 16 oz size, they'll tell us by continuing to order those after the machine is fixed. We've always been up front about how it's just more milk, not more espresso and people enjoy them regardless. As we make a few thousand 20 oz drinks each year, we're not feeling any urgency to cut that size.

We did eliminate the supersized cappuccinos from the menu, as those were a logistical nightmare due to all the shots needed to keep the ratios intact. There aren't any ratios for us to worry about for lattes.

[Russ]

I was assuming a ratio imbalance with the 20s: that was the reason we axed them. Good point about the variability of lattes v. capps.

[twitter.com/21streetcoffee]

Nobody asked, but I think the bar looks pretty badass with three machines. If I were you I'd tune one of the single group guys just for making little drinks, and single origin stuff. Good luck with the repairs and be careful not to zap yourself!

[Rich]

Luke,
Funny you should mention that - for whatever reason, we can't nail a decaf grind for the Nuova - either stalls or runs like water, but the decaf in the Cimbali pours better than it ever has on the Linea. That's probably because we've always confined decaf to the Swift. The difference is amazing using the SJ/Cimbali combo. Also think a lot has to do with the Cimbali basket - those holes are barely pinpricks, so even though no preinfusion, the puck takes some time getting saturated and net effect is pretty sweet.

That said, taking a bar designed for a 2-group and trying to do add a 2nd machine ain't happening in the near future. We'll wait on one of those new 3-groups with independent boilers down the road.