Aldo Coffee Company

Belly Dancing & Turkish Coffee Today 4pm

Amethyst Belly Dancers are back at Aldo Coffee this afternoon from 4pm to 5-ish.

It's always a packed house for Amethyst & Co., so arrive early if you want to get a seat.

From 3:30-5:30pm, you can get a Turkish coffee and baklava for only $2.

More entertainment tomorrow as Joel Lindsey & friends visit us for the first time.  We're excited - from the samples we've heard, Joel's music is decidedly original and melodic.

Reminder: Signature Drinks Next Friday Evening, 2/27.

Details are in the email we sent last week.

If you're planning on attending, we'd appreciate an RSVP by email no later than Wednesday so we can have a head count for beverages and food.

Again, cost is $10 per person for the evening, which will include finger foods and grape libations.  Frank, Michelle and Lauren will serve their competition signature drinks.  Each barista station will have a "tip jar", with $3 requested for each drink served.  As with last year, half the evening's proceeds wlll be donated to Bikes to Rwanda.

Nancy Crago Can Kiss Our You Know What

Today's Trib featured an article on Pittsburgh's Mayor and his reputation for thriftiness.  All fine and dandy. People should save.

But we do take exception to a quote from Penn State's Nancy Crago in same article:

A "Pittsburgh Saves" brochure titled "Build Wealth Not Debt" suggests saving $50 a month in an account with a 5 percent yield would amount to $29,775 in 25 years.

Organizers acknowledged that interest rates are much lower.

"But even if it's 1 percent, you'll have more at the end of the year," said Nancy Crago, senior extension educator at Penn State Cooperative Extension in Allegheny County. Crago suggests people eat out less often, forgo coffee shop beverages and work to lower utility bills.

Really?  And what will that do, Nancy, other than put more local people out of work?  And people who are already on the low end of the pay scale as it is, often as a second job so they have something TO save?  We forget, your salary is paid by State College, not Pittsburgh.  What do you care about what happens here?  Hey, while we're at it, why not pay JoePa a million less so your undergrads can afford a cup of coffee at Saint's Cafe?

Why is always "eating out" and "coffeeshops" that are the examples given for this kind of psuedo "expert" analysis?  How about buying less stuff you don't need in general and trying to keep purchases local when possible so you're actually supporting your neighbors and keeping tax revenues here instead of giving more to mega-corporations that rely on near-slave labor from overseas? 

Our Ideal Barista

Knows the product.  Can explain simply why our product is better.  Is engaging.  Has a sense of humor.  Makes recommendations.  Is efficient.  Cleans up after themselves.  Has command over all tools required to do the job.

We just described this guy.

We think if Vince was in a barista competition, he'd be done in nine minutes, spend 30 seconds cleaning up with a ShamWow and use the rest of the time to convince the audience they not only have to have his coffee, but also a $7000 espresso machine.  Order now and he'll throw in the K30 grinder. 

Vince is the man.  Billy Mays scares us.

Aldo Twitter Glossary

With only 140 characters to work with on a Tweet (Twitter post), it's imperative to be pithy.  So we have some abbreviations you might see from time to time in our Twitter box to the right that might make little sense to those outside our four walls.

So you can follow along at home, here's a list of some of the shorthand we use:
Maz = the silver Mazzer Super Jolly grinder
GJ = the bronze Mazzer Super Jolly grinder.  Short for Gloria Jean, since that's where we picked it up. It's been refurbished and is generally used for guest espressos and experiments.
BC = Black Cat.  BCD = Black Cat decaf.
LM = La Marzocco Linea, our workhorse.
Ez5 = Hacienda Esmeralda Lot 5, which is frequently in the GJ blended with other coffees for experimentation.
JJ = Jakes Java
Intelli = Intelligentsia
CCC = Counter Culture Coffee
DP = Dry Process
NP = Natural Pulp Process

More abbreviations may be added as needed.

In Appreciation of Good Food: Four James Beard Semifinalists from Pittsburgh

A handful of local restaurants are finally getting some love sent Pittsburgh way from national culinary circles.  The Restaurant and Chef Semifinalists list for the 2009 James Beard Awards includes several Pittsburghers for the first time, so let's hear it for the following:

Outstanding Restauranteur: Tom Baron, Big Burrito Group
Best New Restaurant: Richard Chen
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Sonja Finn, Dinette (agree wholeheartedly!)
Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic: Douglass Dick, Bona Terra

All deserving choices.

Why mention this on a coffeehouse blog?  We assume if you're reading this you have good taste in what you consume and would want to know where else to go   ;-)

While not Pittsburgh-related, we're happy to see Vincent Guerithiault on the Chef list.  As he's in Phoenix and not on any TV shows he doesn't get talked about very much, but deserves more national attention.  Melanie and I ate at Camelback several years ago and had a brief visit with Chef Vincent, who's claim to fame at the time was/is marrying classic French techniques with Southwestern ingredients for some extremely inventive and delciious dishes.  I have his cookbook (signed) here somewhere in the house... now feeling inspired to see what soups he's got in there.

Also making a mental note to visit Mindy's Hot Chocolate this weekend when we head out for CoffeeFest in Chicago.

Alicia Romano 4pm Today

Alicia Romano returns to Aldo Coffee this afternoon, playing songs from her recently released CD "Happiness Is..."

4:00-5:45pm. Free show, all ages.

V-Day + Saturday = Too Busy

Businesspeople always say that having so many customers that you have to turn them away is a good problem to have.

Then why don't we feel better than we do when it happens?

This morning challenged for the top sales morning ever.  Every table filled.  All morning, seats were taken before we could even clear tables.  People were walking out as there was no place to sit.

It was a scene that most any cafe owner would want.

But when people walk out because there was no place to sit, there's a feeling we should've done more.  Not sure how many of them were first time customers waiting for today to try us out.  Hopefully they understand.  But we hate it when we can't serve everyone.

Breakfast Interrupted

Our freezer has been out of order since Tuesday. The control for the evaporator fan died and the part is coming today.  We didn't lose anything other than our stash of emergency bagels and bread, thankfully, and we've been able to get by with ice chests the past two days.

However, we couldn't take delivery of any frozen goods this week, so we're out of cinnamon rolls and sfogliatelle until next Thursday.  We'll be making additional muffins and other goodies in the interim.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

UPDATE: Freezer is fixed as of Sat AM, but no sfogliatelle delivery until Thursday.

Pops Top Lopped

We had our worst kitchen disaster ever this afternoon.

Melanie was reaching around my kitchen talisman - a Willie Stargell bobblehead - and knocked it off the shelf onto my worktable.  And now it's a bobblestump.

I think this was retribution from the ghosts of bobbleheads past because I forgot to bring Willie to sit atop the Nuovo Simonelli during my competition performance last Friday.  I swear it was on my prep list.