My Overreaction to Voluto
Posted by mike | Filed under Coffee, Meta
In going back and reviewing how I reported on Voluto, I feel like I was a little harsh. Just to give some perspective, I did submit them to Urbanspoon and even gave them a positive rating there. In fact, I think Corey was a little taken aback by my comments. Whether it was my post or my sentiment on Friday that made him do it, he forwarded me the most recent menu email message from Voluto.
It contained the following note:
NOTE: As always, our coffees are french pressed. However, we are now using a pourover system in the afternoon during the “down” time, not only to minimize waste (as we only let our pressed coffee sit in the airpot no more than 45 minutes, and our afternoons have been quite slow), but to also minimize wait time as individual presses take a little over 4 minutes (prep+brew time). We use a swiss gold filter for our pourover rather than paper, so we’re able to retain much of the oil and fats from the coffee (where most aromatics are found) and each cup is individually brewed in about 1 minute to 1 1/2 minute. If you prefer french press, please let us know and we’ll GLADLY press your coffee but please allow atleast 4 minutes.
Not all bad. I should also take a step back and say, they have a blog; they send out freakin’ menu update email messages. They’re doing something to try and promote themselves. Maybe the biggest problem I ran into is that I wasn’t ready to really experience it. I wasn’t really exposed to their various attempts to get my attention and tell their story before I showed up. That seems to be what they managed to do for Corey, and made a very favorable impression on him.
Not a coffee snob? This whole set of emotions made me think about my own experience with 21st Street Coffee. I started out loving the place. I went in every morning and ordered my small drip coffee–paying a few cents extra for the coffee of the day. I liked the fact that it rotated: I got variety and didn’t have to spend much time making a decision: each day had only one rotating coffee. It was good, and both Luke and Alexis had fun personalities that made me feel welcome. They really brightened my morning. Then came the Clover. I realize that it made better coffee, and it let them brew up a single cup of coffee at a time. I could pick any coffee I want and have them brew it for me right there. It was more expensive, so they got more profit from it (a good thing). I also lost the “coffee of the day.” Now, I’m not enough of a coffee snob to really appreciate the clover. In fact, I wonder how many people in Pittsburgh really are. The Clover really carried 21st Street Coffee into too much coffee snobbery for me. The moved themselves right out of my market.
I guess I reacted. Maybe my 21st Street experience gave me a bad taste for too much coffee snobbery for me to really appreciate it. Maybe I felt the same thing coming from Voluto–without the benefit of getting to know the owners and really wanting to be a good customer for them.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am
1. Ooohh, your first blog-roversy :-)
2. I just forwarded you the posting to give you a taste of their blog. I thought you would appreciate the technical details you quoted above, since that type of strict adhesion to process and attention to detail is what we both like about coffee. Though I guess, this too, is blog fodder.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hi Mike Beattie, hope all is well with you.
Was reading the blog, and thought I’d add my two cents… for everyone else reading, I own 21st Street Coffee and Tea. Since Mike was a customer of ours for some time and mentioned us in his blog, I felt like it would be ok to add something to this discussion.
Just to recap:
We used to have “coffee of the day” BC (before clover) and you liked it. We also had a buy ten get one free policy that we continue even today. I remember that you used to enjoy the free drinks (latte’s etc) as much as the coffee/day.
Clover came along, we now offered you a choice and you said that the coffee was of better quality… we agree as we chose the clover to deliver freshly brewed cups to order as well as give people choices for coffees.
You stated that we profit more via Clover… but did you know that we generally use twice as much coffee to brew each cup via the Clover versus our drip brewer? Our per-cup profit is about the same whether we brew a big batch of coffee or one cup. If we offered a cup of coffee the way we brew it on the Clover for the old coffee of the day price we’d just about break even. So I felt I needed to correct you on that one.
Finally, you stated that the Clover carried 21st Street “into too much snobbery” and that it moved us out of “your market”. I probably wouldn’t have chimed in on this site, but I guess the snob comments rub me the wrong way. Does higher price equate to snobbery? Do you feel the same way now that I’ve explained our margins? I guess it must be the price because you said that the coffee tasted good and that we were nice to talk to and friendly when you came in. You then sorta retract your bashing of Voluto (I like them by the way) because of their attention to detail, that they have a blog, etc. Then you go in and call us snobs again? Why the hate, Mike?
Snob:
One who tends to patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and imitate, admire, or seek association with people regarded as social superiors.
One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect.
I think we’re probably one of the friendliest, most educated, willing to discuss and engage the customer kinda coffee bars that has ever been in Pittsburgh. I don’t think the above describes us one bit. If anything we’re so fanatical and excited about our stuff that we try to twist people’s arms to try things they haven’t had before. Doesn’t sound like snobbery to me, and the lines of people showing up at our doors every day for our clover-brewed intelligentsia coffee tell me we’re doing something right. I don’t think taking a bread baking class at Enrico Biscotti is snobbery either, but some may disagree.
I think the only snobbery in our shop is the snobbery you bring with you. It’s not snobbery to care about your business, your product and offer something you’re proud of every day and do it well in a friendly environment.
See you around
Luke
March 25th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Hey Luke! Great to see that you found my new blog–I’m just sorry that you had to find it through something about 21st Street Coffee that you took negatively. I unnecessarily dragged you guys into this whole conversation for the sake of an example.
I guess I use the word snob a little more loosely than you do. I often don’t mean it to be taken negatively at all. I’m the first to admit that I’m a bread snob, a beer snob, and even a chef’s knife snob. I use it to mean that I have an intimate knowledge of each of those things–enough that I can tell good from bad and even know what makes for good and what makes for bad. Maybe A less loaded term would probably be “connoisseur,” but it doesn’t quite have the flare I was looking for.
connoisseur:
“1: Expert. Especially one who understands the details, technique, or principles of an art and is competent to act as a critical judge. 2: One who enjoys with discrimination and appreciation of subtleties. A connoisseur of fine wines”
If I rephrase my snob comment with “cleaner” language…
“Now, I’m not enough of a coffee [connoisseur] to really appreciate the Clover. In fact, I wonder how many people in Pittsburgh really are. The Clover really carried 21st Street Coffee [too far beyond my level of expertise]. They moved themselves right out of my market.”
I certainly meant that to be as much a comment about myself as a comment about you guys. 21st Street Coffee is a great place for an artfully crafted cup of coffee. I started off using it as a place to grab a cup of good coffee and maybe a little conversation on my way to work. Perhaps the appearance of the clover really drove home the point that mine probably wasn’t the best use of 21st Street Coffee.
The fact that you guys have long lines waiting for a drink from the Clover is great. I’m thrilled for you. If there’s a place capable of helping a non-connoisseur better enjoy a coffee that reaches beyond their typical quality horizon, it’s 21st Street. I would stand by my claim that most coffee drinkers would have trouble differentiating between great coffee and exceptional coffee (i.e., be capable of really appreciating the Clover for all it’s capable of).
For the record, I no longer work in the Strip District. The fact that I haven’t been in to 21st Street Coffee for such a long time has more to do with that than anything else. I will always think it’s a worthwhile place to stop for a special treat.
Hopefully that clears things up. I certainly didn’t want to drag anyone’s name through the mud or rub anyone the wrong way.