Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/35520
LA CAFÉOTHÈQUE Paris, France BY JACK GROOT O ne would assume that fi nding good coff ee in Paris is about as diffi cult as fi nding a café in Paris. Certainly Paris is known for coff ee culture, sidewalk cafés and snooty waiters. But for any coff ee snob, even a coff ee middling, fi nding good coff ee in Paris can be diffi cult—fi nding great coff ee, almost impossible. Most cafés serve one of a few available stock coff ee brands, and worse, take little or no care in coff ee freshness or proper preparation. Before I leſt for Paris, I checked with a couple of friends for any café experience not to be missed there. I would hate to visit such a great city and miss having at least one great coff ee experience. I was told to look up La Caféothèque close to the Notre Dame and Île Saint Louis, and that I would not be disappointed. Beyond being just a café, Caféothèque may be at the head of what could be the next French Revolution—a coff ee revolution—even though Gloria, the proprietor, did not open her café intending to change the Paris landscape. Gloria Montenegro de Chirouze, the former Guatemalan ambassador to France, opened her coff ee shop for love of great coff ee and a history of family coff ee business that goes back generations. She opened her store wanting nothing more than to provide a great coff ee to the French. Any French café desirous of serving great coff ee has the fi rst and almost impossible hurdle of fi nding great whole-bean coff ee. France is not like the United States, where one can easily LOCATION 52 rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France EQUIPMENT La Marzocco FB70 espresso machine WEB www.lacafeotheque.com 40 | July 2011 • www.specialty-coffee.com contact a dozen quality roasters in less time then it takes to change grinder burrs. Th e best option is to purchase coff ee from the UK and have it imported, which can be prohibitively expensive. Gloria’s solution was to import green coff ee and roast it, arguably the most reasonable alterative. Another hurdle is milk. France sells mostly UHT (Ultra High Temperature) processed milk. Th e UHT process destroys spores and germs and makes milk safe to store and transport, but the high processing temperature (as high as 275 degrees Fahrenheit) also destroys much of milk’s natural ability to foam. Gloria’s commitment to serve fresh milk is both expensive and time-consuming. Th e small shop, located a few yards from Notre Dame and the Seine, employs a small but passionate group of baristas who take coff ee very seriously. Th omas, the barista on shiſt when I arrived, had worked at La Caféothèque for just under one year and has a great passion for making an espresso correctly. He says that the French always make comments like “Where’s the rest?” when handed a beautifully poured ristretto. Th e coff ees served at the café are all single-origin coff ees, and they do not blend at all. When I ordered my espresso I was greeted with a smile and “which coff ee would you prefer it made with?” For my fi rst, I chose the coff ee du jour, a Kenyan coff ee, and for my second I chose the Brazil. I was well pleased with both. Th e place is small by American standards, but “cozy” and “appropriate” would describe it well, along with a slightly “cultish” feel. It was almost beatnik in appearance; I felt as if I had been transported back 50 years. I also wondered was I in a place that later would be recognized as the beginning of something; the Caff é Reggio (Greenwich Village) or Caff é Trieste (Haight-Ashbury) of Paris. I know what I am suggesting is pre-emptive, but it is fun to speculate that one day France will experience a coff ee revolution, much like America. SCR