Your Guide for Craft Coffee
Can any good thing come out of Jtown? I admit, as a former Louisville resident, when I first heard about my former employer’s plan to open a café in Jeffersontown, I was skeptical. Jtown is the burbs. It’s the suburb many of my friends grew up in, but as a transplant to Louisville, it wasn’t on my radar. It certainly wasn’t a destination.
It turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong. …
Kentuckiana roaster/retailer Quills Coffee first opened in 2007 under the name “Quills Coffee and Books.” The original Kentucky St. location in Louisville’s Paristown neighborhood– long since closed — featured an entire wall of new and used books. It’s where I bought my first Dave Eggers novel, years before I would work at Quills, first as a barista and later as the company trainer.
Perhaps it’s fitting that Quills’s seventh café also has books. Actually, it has over 100,000 of them, only they’re not for sale….
I spent the better part of my twenties in Louisville, Kentucky, a city that, by all accounts, punches above its weight class. From fast casual barbecue to white tablecloth Mayan food, the culinary scene is surprisingly diverse, spurred on by low cost of living and a young, culturally-aware population. Many of the most exciting restaurants and cafés are independent, DIY passion projects– a little rough around the edges but driven by a salt-of-the-earth, Midwestern work ethic, with a generous portion of Southern hospitality. (As a river city straddling the Mason-Dixon line, Louisville is geographically, and culturally, confused.)
…
Long time readers of The Compass will remember our first post highlighted an exciting new espresso bar in Downtown Louisville. That espresso bar, of course, was the third retail location for Louisville specialty coffee pioneers Sunergos Coffee. Just shy of 6 years later, the Sunergos retail family is growing again, though their fourth location couldn’t be a sharper contrast from the closet-sized standing room-only espresso bar, in the shadow of Michael Graves’s famed Humana Tower. Sunergos Norris place occupies a refurbished garage, in quiet Deer Park. We caught up with Sunergos’s co-owner Matthew Huested to find out how the project came together….
Matt Argo is quietly building a coffee empire. From humble beginnings in a basement to a brand new roasting facility in Louisville’s Shelby Park neighborhood, Argo’s Good Folks Coffee Company is going places and shows no signs of slowing down. We recently caught up with the Arkansas-bred entrepreneur to ask him what we can expect from Good Folks in the future.
I grew up in Arkansas and spent 8 years in the Army National Guard after high school. I did a good amount of international travel during that time in the military (one tour in Iraq) as well as with my wife in Africa a few times. We spent 5 months in Tanzania before we moved to Louisville. During my time in the military and throughout our travels, we developed a love for coffee. We loved the social aspect as well as the economic impact it has in producing countries. I knew I wanted to start a business after my military contract was complete, and I loved to travel and work with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Coffee seemed to be a perfect fit. …
Whether it’s making banjos or training horses, Kentuckians prefer to do things for themselves. As I’ve written elsewhere, this Appalachian DIY attitude is behind Louisville’s rich history of coffee roasting. The most recent addition to Louisville’s long legacy of roasting is Argo Sons Coffee, a (mostly) wholesale-only micro-roaster run by Matt Argo. Over the last several years Argo Sons has carved out a niche providing coffee for many of Louisville’s most beloved coffee shops, including Please and Thank You and Gralehaus. That influence is beginning to be felt internationally as …
Louisville’s craft coffee scene got a swell treat when St. Louis’s Blueprint Coffee stopped by McQuixote Books and Coffee to share a taste of their line of artisanal offerings.
Blueprint is a young company that’s already making a name for themselves, in part by their willingness to show up in strange places and offer people a chance to taste their wares.
Blueprint makes a point of getting out on the road once every couple of months; “It’s fun to get out and meet people and get direct feedback,” said Brian Levine. Levine is one of the six co-owners of Blueprint. Along with Mike Marquard and Kevin Reddy, a full half of Blueprint’s partners were in attendance.
Blueprint likes to keep their line small and diverse. At the cupping they showcased all five of their roasts.
All their coffee’s are single origins; two from Columbia, one each from Ecuador, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a decaf from Guatemala.
Co-owner Mike Marquard said a few words before the cupping began, asking if we had any newbies in our midst, and then declared that the noobs were now officially “coffee nerds.”
While no poll was taken, many of the tasters (including myself) gravitated towards the Columbian coffee. “El Derrumbo” had a strong bright taste that managed to avoid an outright acidty.
The author, contemplating the complexities of a finely roasted coffee.
The attendees showcased a broad swathe of Louisville coffee culture, including (unofficial) representatives from Argo Sons, Quills, Heine Brothers, and of course the hosts from McQuixote. This may speak to an emerging Louisville coffee culture that can focus on beans and love of the craft just as much as market share.
While Blueprint has no current plans to infiltrate the Louisville market, partner Brian Levine has family here, so they will hopefully bring their excellent coffee back for another tasting next time they are out and about the mid-south.
Chris Heiniger of Louisville, Kentucky is the 2015 Eastern Aeropress Champion. The regional competition was hosted on January 31st by Louisville micro-roaster Quills Coffee in partnership with Prima Coffee. Eighteen baristas and coffee enthusiasts from as far as Toledo, Ohio to Washington D.C. participated in the bracket style competition. Heiniger, who competed representing Misc. Goods Co., defeated Dmitriy Zhigunov of Williamsburg, Virginia in the final round. Coffee blogger Brian Beyke took home the prize for third place. Heiniger, Zhigunov, and Beyke all earned a spot at the national championship, which will happen contemporaneously with the US Barista Championship in Long Beach, California. …
The Eastern Regional of the US Aeropress Championship will take place in Louisville, KY on January 31, 2015. Louisville-based micro roaster Quills Coffee will host the event, in partnership with sponsors Prima Coffee, Mahlkönig USA, and The Coffee Compass. In each round of the bracket style tournament competitors will have eight minutes to make a single cup of coffee with an Aeropress. A panel of judges select the best cup to advance in a blind tasting.
Competitors will have access to a Mahlkönig EK-43, a Bonavita Variable Temperature kettle, and have the option of using their own coffee or a coffee provided by Quills. The top 3 contestants will automatically earn a spot at the US Aeropress Championship. Prizes include a free trip to the national competition for the winner. Individuals interested in competing in the competition can register at easternaeropress.tumblr.com.
A small Nashville pop-up shop is on the brink of something big. Currently located inside of Germantown’s collaborative workspace The Skillery, Steadfast Coffee is a collaboration between coffee veteran Sean Stewart and entrepreneur Dale Clay. The two previously founded coffee consulting company Steadfast Coffee will move into their permanent home in January, 2015. …
