paris: spro happens
April 6, 2009 – 11:37 pm
consider how much more effectually those frenchies do espresso advertising and how much worse the coffee actually tastes … and you end up with quite the cognitive gap.
also, a market opportunity of staggering opportunity. think about paris: a jam-packed capital city of people perpetually on the move, of ever-present gaggles of jet-lagged tourists, of natives long accustomed to throwing down shots and snobbily defending the finest of foods — and nothing but lungo-lungo espresso gushers at every brasserie in town. a well-placed espresso bar of superior product would have to be one of the most logical things imaginable.
the right-bank soluna, “cafeotheque de paris,” is making an admirable stab. it’s like your grandma’s kitchen, if your grandma was an effervescent bohemian with a weakness for studly brazilian men and a la marzocco fb80 on the counter.
“this is my school of coffeeology,” she crowed, then dosed her single-estate brazilian espresso into the portafilter and traipsed around the shop waving it under our noses and demanding that we inhale. “see? see?!” she urged. “the best coffee in the world.” there was little tamping to speak of, and … well, what do you know. lungo gushers spurting out of the spouts. we braced for tangy weirdness, but didn’t have to. it was just watery coffee. not bad tasting at all, but also not what we would call spro. merely a pleasantly aromatic, watery shot of peanuty, tea-like coffee.
emilio rodriguez, the “guest barista” from brazil (yes, the producing country) lumbered out of the side room wearing — seriously — a tropical shirt and a juan valdez fedora, ceasing for the moment his pursuit of youtube barista videos. he gamely poured some squiggly latte art. “ooohs” and “aaahs” all around. “see?” she said. “see?!”
gloria, as she identified herself, is essentially pulling espresso the way parisians have always pulled espresso — long and fast — but with vastly better coffee. we have no idea who imports it for her … we tried to inquire a bit, but she bustled off to tutor a distinguished couple on a settee in the corner in the art of discerning “l’essence du cafe,” or sniffing the smelling oils.
most bizarre, perhaps, was the wall of drawers, each labeled with a different coffee-producing country including many to which your high-stepping snobbery may not have been introduced: sudan. ivory coast. the comoran islands. she claimed to have coffee on hand from 72 separate countries. not all for sale or for drinking, mind you, but for the pursuit of “cafeologie.” even with the aid of these globally connected woven webs, this blog is having a hard time finding half that many coffee producing countries.
leave it to a marais cafe, just a couple doors down from the now-trendy chez julien, to introduce paris to specialty coffee — but not at all in the way that the rest of the world conceives of it. the hinged window clacked, notre dame clanged across the seine and a customer forgot to pay, as gloria rambled on about “le nez du cafe.” one of those dreamy-eyed 20-something american girls you see wandering around paris in long flowered skirts stumbled in, inhaled and tried a practiced sentence of french or two at the bar.
“c’est mon universite’ de cafeologie,” gloria chirped. “voyez, voyez!”
hoffmann tipped us off, informed apparently by his parents. after years of swilling the acrid french espresso, we’re grateful for the reprieve.
wall-o-coffee.
seems you at least had a better trip than me
you mean at soluna? what was your experience?
for me this is a classic example of context meaning everything. i’m so used to tar-like paris espresso that this WAS a quantum leap forward. and the lady WAS carefully selecting estate coffees to use.
now, the espresso method was still what we’d call “geysers of blondie.” but it was oddly non-bitter, non-tangy and non-offensive. just watery brazilian coffee.
i don’t want to overhype the place, but for paris, that’s actually saying something.
Man, the way you were talking about this place in Greenville the other day I could just imagine walking into a darkly lit, dirt on the floor type of joint with an old lady that has poorly groomed hair ROFLOL!
Not as bad, but I get the message!
I sure wish she was there in 1992
definitely no dirt on the floor. definitely no poorly groomed grandma. but it a place o’ character. very pleasant. amusing, even.
Are you there now???
I so enjoy Cafe Soluna. Don’t know if their baristas Victor and Yann are still there but they really were taking their espresso seriously and were producing some decent shots the last time I was there.
And I did find a couple of excellent spots for Third Wave Parisian cafes. Let me know if you’re interested in being an investor!
Oh, so many beautiful places in Paris. Enjoy!
jay: just getting back from brittany, where we spent most of the time this trip. chillin’ in a cottage.
the only baristas there when i went by were gloria herself and the brazilian “guest.”
investor? dude, sign me up for the trip if you’re serious. barista, biscuit boy, whatever. paris is just too huge of an opportunity for serious coffee. and yeah, there are spots to be had.
marais or saint germain either one would work. montmartre, even.
Ah yes the French…a conundrum. In the middle, no? It seems to me there USED to be a France, but what was once – is not anymore.
I desire to see the social shrapnel with mine own eyes. Please delight me further.
Andy
The barista working at Soluna when I visited at the end of November pulled a nicely groomed and tamped shot that tasted pretty good. I’m surprised to hear that you were served a “lungo gusher.”
Espresso everywhere else in Paris was uniformly terrible.
As Americans we have a mindset of looking up to the European coffee scene. When I think of Italy, I think of everyone ordering espresso or 6oz caps, from grandmas to the car mechanic. It sounds like a mythical world where people love their coffee and would gladly order a 2oz drink… then I actually hear about what is being brewed (even in the most cosmopolitan of cities) and considered ‘traditional,’ from 6 month old ground coffee to 7 gram over-extracted shots. On one hand, it seems like they’re on the cusp of really getting into the quality coffee scene, and on the other it seems like they’re so far away from being remotely interested in moving to a better cup of coffee.
Then again, they probably think we’re strange for what we do, going to competitions to make espresso, measuring our coffee by the gram and performing peculiar rituals and techniques to create our coffee.
Perhaps because the typical American coffeeshop is mainly about large drinks and flavor syrups, it’s easier to differentiate ourselves from them? In Europe, maybe there’s less room for differentiation when everyone serves up caps and espresso?
scintillating comments. espresso everywhere in paris is ALWAYS uniformly terrible. thing is, they LIKE it this way. it’s a part of the social fabric, and i can’t help but wonder if it doesn’t have something to so with large-scale smoking. a tolerance for bitterness and all. an appreciation for the culture of a thing.
it also occurs to me that maybe the soluna way — pulling lungos with better coffee — might actually make some sense, as a step. french-style coffee, but done better, seems to be making a dent.
then again, it appears that for ryan there were actually well-measured shots at the hands of other baristi. mine came from the owner, gloria.
andy, french may seem bygone to you, and parts of it are, but there is a very distinct sense of vindication in the country right now. their economy is the least damaged in europe, and far better off than the u.s. because of the government’s large role in the employment sector. a more socialist environment may not roar like an unfettered capitalist one, but it doesn’t crash as badly either. they have a president who’s a bit odd for them, but also highly successful leading france to the head of european military and economic negotiations over the past year. they have an immigration problem and and unemployment problem, yes, but it’s beginning to pale next to those in the wild west.
so while the rest of the western world in in shell shock, there’s a certain resurgent appreciation for the foundational comforts of life in france, in my opinion — a realization that globalization and wall street-driven success and foreign wars aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, while fine food and fashion and cultural pursuits can be great , enduring comforts.
i’m not gung ho on this mindset, but from france it actually looks like it’s the u.s. that “USED to be,” and is now a shell of its former self.
spronomy remarks upon the over-romanticization we often have for europe. this is true, but it’s not what i’m about. italy DOES have very enjoyable espresso. france does not and never has (until soluna, and that’s not without qualifications). it’s not a problem of mythologizing europe, in my opinion, as much as making europe a monolith.
london has some great coffee and espresso. italy has some real old-school adventures. scandinavia has always been part of the vanguard. paris just now has a promising spot. germany i know little about. so … it’s hard to paint with a broad brush.
i’m not
am I at fault for the very system I am forced to contend?
I am of the belief that the truth can truely only beheld within ones own eyes
Beautiful! thank’s for the interesting post