Aldo Coffee Company

Happy New Year

Aldo Coffee will be open for our normal "Sunday" hours on both New Year's Eve AND New Year's Day.

We will resume our normal weekday hours on Tuesday, January 2 -- 6:30 am to 6 pm.  And we'll continue to be open later on Fridays and Saturdays until 10 pm.

We wish you all good things and all good coffee in 2007. Thank you all for your continued friendship and support as we enter our third year* of serving coffee and tea aficianados in the South Hills of Pittsburgh.

(Yes, today was our second anniversary.  It was New Year's Eve 2004 when we first opened - the insides weren't even completed yet and we only had drip coffee, no espresso, no soup, no panini, pretty much no nothing.  But we had to open the doors - and we did about $29 in sales that day. 

It got better.

We'll post some other thoughts on that day later this week.  We're current a "one computer family" as Rich's laptop fried and we're waiting for January clearance prices on a new one!)

Special Weeknight Show: TJ Compagnone and Luca, Tonight

TJ Compagnone (with his pal Luca) returns home to the area for a special weeknight show tonight at 7:00pm of pickin' and singing.  Free show.  Enjoy!

Lunch in Brooklyn: Panelle and Spleen Sandwiches

Being Mel and I were on Long Island, just a short hop to Brooklyn, we figured we'd stop into Gimme! Coffee in Williamsburg and Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint, two of NYC's best coffeehouses.

Unfortunately, both were closed today.  Not that you'd know that from their websites... grrrrrr.

It was a good thing we weren't on foot.  Instead, old pal Giovanni picked us up at the Jamaica station and chauffeured us around in style.  We visited his old neighborhood, now called Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook, before driving past the locked grates of Gimme! and Grumpy. 

We stopped at Court Pastry Shop for some GIANT sfogliatelle, some especially flavorful (and soft-ish) anise (and honey?) biscotti, and what appeared to be custard filled pot pies (we don't know the names of these, never saw 'em before).

The highlight was lunching at Ferdinando's, where we ordered panelle (small flatbreads made of fried chickpea flour), broccoli rabe in evoo and garlic, humongous rice balls, Sicilian eggplant and (drum roll please...) vastedda - a sandwich featuring fluffy fresh ricotta and cow spleen.

Giovanni said the vastedda used to feature lung, but the NYC Health Dept. no longer allows lung, so the switch to spleen was made several years ago.  Apparently it's not as good.  Having never tried lung, I can't comment.  Other than to say I'm happy to have tasted spleen.  Once.

Much as Pittsburgh promotes its neighborhoods and Italian heritage, there's nothing quite like New York.  You can find things here - and entire stores and restaurants that specialize in those things - that you'll not find anywhere else.

We'll be back in Brooklyn later this year.  Hopefully the places we missed this time will be open next time.  Meantime, we may try to catch the new Chelsea outlet of Grumpy on the way home tomorrow...

We heard from our staff that Lauren did a terrific job with lunch today.  Hopefully y'all agree.

Merry Christmas from the Road: Holiday Hours and Lauren the Cook

We'll be open Christmas Eve from 8:30am-2:00pm. 

We'll be closed Christmas Day.

We'll open an hour later than usual (7:30am) on Tuesday, December 26, but will close at the usual time (6:00pm).  The rest of the week is usual hours.

Melanie and Rich are traveling to Long Island and Connecticut this weekend to see their families for the next few days.   Lauren will be in charge of soups and panini on Tuesday and Wednesday while they're away. 

Lauren will present a modified lunch menu for the week:  Panini will include the North Beach and Tuna wrap, but we won't have the Club, 9th St. Beef or Salame and Fennel.  Instead, she'll be making Prosciutto, Roasted Tomato and Mozzarella panini and Grilled Cheese on Whole Wheat.  Plus she'll have two soups daily and antipasto - one of those soups will be homemade roasted tomato.

Enjoy your holiday and we look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Last Minute Gifts from Aldo Coffee

We are a great last stop for some wonderful gifts for coffee lovers.  From a big or small French Press to  "The best coffeemaker in the U.S." , to a great grinder, to a Bodum press travel mug, stop in and get what they will LOVE.  Take a pound of great coffee to dinner.  You can help a great cause and get a great price on Organic French Roast, too. 

What They Were Saying About Coffee in 1699

"A Discourse on COFFEE", read at a Meeting of the ROYAL SOCIETY" by Mr. John Houghton, M.R.S., June 14, 1699.

This document (pdf-7 pages) courtesy Badgett's Coffee Journal.

While the method of roasting used is almost exactly the same, the brew stength they were using in the 17th century seems quite weak - the document cites one ounce (28 grams) per quart.  Compare that to today's SCAA recommendation of 55 grams per liter for proper brew strength.

As Badgett notes in his post, the document's last paragraph is telling - and could have been written today.

Organic French Roast $2.00 Off - All Proceeds to Charity

Our roaster screwed up, shipping us a bunch of 5 lb. bags of Organic French Roast instead of the 1 lb. bags we ordered.

As a result, we have more than 20 pounds of Organic French Roast for free.

So here's what we're doing - instead of selling each pound for the usual $11.95/lb, we're offering full pounds for $10 and half pounds for $5.

And ALL proceeds from sales of these selected bags will go to Coffee Kids.  100%.

To summarize:
- get $2 off a pound (or $1 off a half pound) of USDA Certified Organic French Roast Coffee.
- help children in coffee-growing regions in Mexico and Central America with every purchase.

It's doesn't get much better than that.

If You Were On Our Email List...

You'd be receiving a special offer this morning for a free pound of Aldo House Blend, Organic French Roast or our Holiday Wonder Blend with the purchase of a Technivorm Moccamaster at Aldo Coffee. 

To sign up for the newsletter, come in and fill out a customer card and be sure to check the opt-in box for receiving special offers by email.  Usually there is at least one special offer available only to newsletter subscribers with each issue (8-12 per year).

We only collect address and email information and we do not sell or provide your personal information to any other entities.

If You're Planning on Seeing Black Gold this Evening in Pittsburgh...

If you're going to see the film Black Gold this evening (6pm at the Regent Square Theater), we just wanted to remind those truly interested in helping coffee farmers like those portrayed in the movie that there are other - and maybe better - ways to help than simply seeking out the Fair Trade Certified label. 

We're not suggesting the Fair Trade Certification is a bad thing.  In fact, far from it - in many cases Fair Trade is all that's keeping some cooperatives afloat.  We're simply saying there are other models to consider that may be more fruitful in the long run.

Especially if you're a fanatic about the quality of the coffee you drink.

Geoff Watts, who has on-the-ground relationships with dozens of farmers and cooperatives worldwide, is the green coffee bean buyer for our primary roaster, Intellgentsia Coffee.  Geoff and Intellgentsia have a different view on how to make coffee commerce more equitable and more sustainable for coffee growers - primarily through encouraging quality coffees for which people will pay more. 

Here are some selected articles, interviews and blog comments made recently by Geoff on this subject:

Geoff Watts and Duane Sorensen (Stumptown Coffee) interviewed on Portafilter.net at this year's SCAA Conference

Geoff Watts and Doug Zell featured in NY Times article "A Coffee Connossieurs Mission: Buy High and Sell High"

Geoff Watts replies to criticisms of "not supporting" Transfair USA on the blog LA Green Girl

Intelligentsia's Direct Trade model criteria

Wall St. Journal article:  What Price Virtue?  At Some Retailers "Fair Trade" Carry a Very High Cost (but not us - Fair Trade/Direct Trade carry only the same markup as all our other coffees)

Reason magazine: Absolution in Your Cup: The real meaning of Fair Trade

Any questions?  In addition to Peter Giuliano, co-owner of Counter Culture Coffee (who frequently travels with Geoff Watts and follows much the same philosophy and model), who will speak after this evening's showing, Melanie, Rich, Belle, Frank and Lauren will be hanging out after the movie and available to discuss the Intelligentsia Direct Trade model.

Hard Core Cannoli

After having received 'fan mail' questioning our decision to stop making homemade cannoli filling during the winter (demand dropped enough to make it impractical), today I whipped up a special batch using sheep's milk ricotta from Old Chatham Sheepherders in New York.  We picked up a pound at Whole Foods at the suggestion of our new pal, Lon Durbin.

Sheep's milk is what has been traditionally used in Sicily for cannoli, although more recently, Sicilian cannoli makers have been using a combination of sheep and cow's milk.

While the Whole Foods retail price sheep's milk ricotta is more than 3x the price of the impastada we've been using, we're going to test these out to see if there's even a market for these "genuine articles".  We'll be selling sheep's milk ricotta filling on request in mini shells for $1.50 each.

I'll say this.  It's a very different taste than cow's milk.  An ad copywriter might call it more "rustic".  A hunter or foodie would probably call it "gamier". 

It's one of those things you just have to taste for yourself and make up your own mind.  We'll be serving these all weekend or until the one pound of filling we've made runs out. 

Whether we get more is entirely up to you.