The service industry saying goes: the customer is always right. Black Black Coffee says it with a bit of a twist: If your coffee needs doctoring, it must be broken.
Owner Josh McNeilly believes in serving the best filter coffees one way, which is without cream or sugar.
โOur goal is definitely not to convert people,โ says McNeilly. โItโs just basically saying like, โHey, this is whatโs possible with coffee.โ Itโs cool if you donโt like black coffee, itโs cool if youโve never drank a cup in your life, or if you never will. Weโre not here to judge people, but weโre here to say โHey, these farms and these roasters have worked incredibly hard to feature a product that we think is a little better than most coffees; and if you would be so bold as to try it.โโ
Like Handsome Coffee before it, Black Blackโs unconventional cafe concept and minimalistic menu mayย seem alienatingย to some. It can create somewhat ofย a social experiment out of enjoying coffee. Still, McNeilly is happy to offer an experience for new customers and routine for regulars.
โDefinitely, the majority once they try it, they appreciate it and are hooked,โ says McNeilly. โOf course, there are some that donโt even try it, theyโre just like, โNope this shop isnโt for me. Youโre a pretentious asshole, youโre a Nazi, youโre a fascist,โโall those things I’ve been called. Itโs hard to do something thatโs different like this without coming across as pretentious. Thatโs always the battle.โ
Sacrificing potential customers for conviction is a price McNeilly can afford to pay. His shop resides in a repurposed school gymnasium that is a part of aย multi-work and residential campus calledย Taxi, with many customers onsite. He believes his shop succeeds alongsideย the progress of the coffee industry.
โI’m passionate about serving coffee this way,โ says McNeilly. โAnd I think the industry has grown so much over the past years that serving coffee with cream and sugar almost seems disrespectful to it.โ
The cafe concept might receive eye-rolls and skepticism, but McNeilly recognizes the value in remembering everyone is allowed to be in on the joke.
โThatโs the most important thing: realizing itโs just coffee,โ McNeilly says. โItโs a beverage and weโre not out to make peopleโs day frustrating. We also want to showcase the work that farmers put in and thereโs really no way to do that except to serve it the way it features best.โ
Black Black’s dogma doesn’t extend, however, toย the cafe’s espresso menu, which offers traditional milk drinks from macchiato to latte. The espresso bar is topped by aย Synesso Hydraย espresso machine and aย Mazzer Konyย electronic grinder.ย Baratza Vario-Wย grinders line the brew bar, withย V60,ย Chemex, andย AeroPressย options available. The cafe also includes a breakfast and lunch kitchen.
For McNeilly and the shop’s other barista, Maggie Gulasey, customer service is about shrinking the difference between what the shop is willing toย offer and what the customer wants. Exclusivelyย serving their drip coffee black is not only a convictionย but also a daily exercise of customer service skills and politeness.
โEvery day itโs a delicate balance,โ says McNeilly. โBecause you really have to know what a customer really wants before they even say it. I think there [are] two forms of great customer service: Thereโs offering the very best thing you can possibly offer, the best way it can be offered, or making sure the customer gets exactly what they want. And sometimes those things are different.โ
Gulasey explains that kindness is key to selling the Black Black philosophy.ย “[We] state ‘no’ really nicely and don’t make customers feel dumb for wanting cream or sugar or asking for that,” she says. “The key is to be like ‘Yes, I totally understand…we’re trying to do something different.'”
McNeilly and Gulasey have mastered saying โnoโ unapologetically but nicely. The duo may direct the customers to their more flexibleย espresso menu should aย customer become disgruntled.
โWe probably tell customers โnoโ more than any other shop out there,โ says McNeilly. โBut we also try not to be pretentious about it. I think you can be nice while telling someone they canโt have something, and โHey, hereโs why we like to do this,โ why weโre big on that, and trying not to just say โNope, you canโt have that.โ We never would say that.โ
After two years, McNeilly measures success by the people happy with their experience, not the amount of cream or sugar they’ve spared from the cup.
โTo see people in the morning that are regulars now, that drink our coffee and talk about it, study it, read books about it and are starting to roastโthatโs awesome,โ says McNeilly. โIf we get like, three people that do that in our history, then perfect. Thatโs success.โ
McNeillyโs cafe concept ultimately lands on the argument of coffee over customer. Itโs unusual, interesting, and it is divisive. It is also, as he himself said, still just coffee.
Ben Wiese is a freelance journalist based in Denver. Read more Ben Wiese on Sprudge.
