Sprudge.com is thrilled to be sponsoring the maiden voyage of the Empire City Knockbox Classic, a brand new kind of barista competition from organizers Matt Banbury and Anna Utevsky of Joe NYC. Part theater sports, part coffee Double Dare, the Knockbox Classic brings together teams of NYC baristas for an evening of brain ticklers, feats of strength, tests of prowess and palate, and some serious gameshow-style challenges. Think of it as a great way for the NE region to release its competition angst and anxiety after the NERBC cancellation last year.

When is it? Sunday January 27th, 2013 from 3-7pm

Where is it? The Joe Pro Shop (131 West 21st Street, Manhattan)

Who is participating? 8 teams of coffee pros from 8 of New York City’s top specialty coffee companies. Here’s your team leaders:

Sarah Leslie of Gimme! Coffee
Sam Lewontin of Everyman Espresso
Urban Eisley of Ports NYC
Elia Weg of Joe NYC
Amber Sather, Independent
Grace Lowman of Blue Bottle Coffee
Erin McCarthy of Counter Culture Coffee
Tamara Vigil of Irving Farm

The Knockbox Classic is free, totally open to the public, and should make for some excellent spectator coffee sports. Learn more and sign up by visiting the Knockbox Classic on Facebook. We’ll have staff on hand to cover the event and document all the crazy, and you should go! Get updates via @KnockboxClassic on Twitter.

The post New Event! The Knockbox Classic at Joe NYC January 27th appeared first on Sprudge.com.

New York City is back, baby, with not one but two fantastic events coming up this week at the Joe Pro Shop (131 W 21st St).

On Friday, November 16th, Joe NYC will host Alon Y. Halevy, the renowned computer scientist, coffee enthusiast, friend of Sprudge, and author behind “The Infinite Emotions of Coffee“. Here’s more from the Joe event listing:

“Join us later this week for a book signing and talk with Alon Y. Halevy. His book, The Infinite Emotions of Coffee, documents Halevy’s travels to over 30 countries on six continents and describes his findings about how coffee has shaped and is influenced by different cultures.”

Mr. Halevy is an absolutely fascinating fixture in the San Francisco specialty coffee scene. In a nutshell, here’s his Google Research index entry, in which he’s published volumes of work in the fields of data management, information retrieval on the web, and data mining- that’s Alon, harvesting coffee in his icon. We had a chance to interview Mr. Halevy when his book dropped last year, and he’s a super interesting dude to say the least, so check him out and have him sign your book at this event.

But that’s not all of the fun stuff happening at Joe Pro! On Monday November 19th at 7PM, Joe welcomes Katsu Tanaka, the quirky owner of Bear Pond Espresso. He’s got a book, too!

He’ll give a talk, sign copies of Life Is Espresso, and create his original beverage DIRTY (two layers of espresso with milk).

Do it! Dig it! We’re jealous!

The post Reading Rainbrew: Two Literary Events at Joe Pro NYC appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Sprudge.com caught up with Mike Phillips and asked him a few questions about his wild ride.

Sprudge: Hey Mike! Can you tell us more about the HCR – Brooks Brothers partnership?

Michael Phillips: Handsome Coffee Roasters has been pretty lucky so far in the folks that it can call friends. One of the more intriguing and unexpected ones is that between us and Brooks Brothers. For those that do not know, Brooks Brothers is actually the oldest men’s clothing company in the US and was based on a motto that it practically feels like we unwittingly lifted when we started Handsome.

Their stated goal was “To make and deal only in merchandise of the finest body, to sell it at a fair profit, and to deal with people who seek and appreciate such merchandise.” Pretty much exactly how we feel about coffee.

Anyways, we have teamed up to do occasional events at their locations. This one involved us going to their Flat Iron district store and serving iced coffee for a week free of charge to thirsty New Yorkers. Kind of awesome. Along with this the fabulous Jonathan Rubinstein of Joe gave me a chance to run a guest shift at their new Pro Location and to also host a tasting of Handsome’s line up. Add into that seeing all my besties in the big Apple and you have the sum of what I was doing out there.

Sprudge: Was this your first time working bar in NYC?

MP: I am glad to say I am no stranger to NYC. I have managed to pull a few shots at (rest in peace..) RBC NYC and have even plucked a few hours of working at Southside Coffee. This was certainly the longest stretch however being at the Brooks store for 8 days and Joe for 2.

Sprudge: Was the NYC coffee drinking scene different than the LA scene?

MP: That’s a pretty big “yes” but I don’t think it’s a coffee specific issue. I am pretty sure folks in both of those great states would proudly proclaim a difference in many areas of life from one another and they would be right. With that said, we ran a bar that was only serving iced coffee and iced coffee with milk. No sugar, no decaf, no flavors… just clean, sweet, balanced single origin coffees and people loved it, the exact same response we get in Los Angeles. For my part however, I am solidly from the Midwest, so they’re all a bit different from me…

Sprudge: At Joe Pro Shop, you were using a Kees van der Westen Mirage Indrocompresso. What was that like?

MP: Ohhhh boy… that machine is something else. I am humble enough to admit when I have met my match and that Kees van der Westen Mirage is a brawler. Kees is well known for making souped-up beautiful espresso machines that play outside of the lines and this one is particularly rambunctious. It is a lever version of the Kees Mirage making the extraction an entirely different beast from the rotary pump drive vehicles we are all so familiar with.

Coming from a world of highly dialed and programmable pre- and post-infusion on Handsome’s Linea SG, I was looking to the Joe staff for advice on this one. All in the abilities on it were very intriguing (can we say foot pedal operated steam wand) and hopefully some day I’ll get some more time on it to catch up with all the cool kids who normally work that bar.

Sprudge: For people in NY, are there places one can purchase/consume HCR coffee?

MP: Why there actually are, so glad you asked! We are lucky enough to have a home at the Joe Pro Shop on 21st, off and on at the ever wonderful Sweet Leaf locations, the super tasty Marlow and Sons in South Williamsburg and at my favorite breakfast spot in all of NY, Cafe Iris in Brooklyn Heights.

Sprudge: Did you get to visit a lot of cafes/restaurants/bars in NYC? Any favorites?

MP: After doing all of my bar shifts, I mainly spent time with coffee folks outside of coffee bars… is that bad?

Sprudge: We totally understand.

MP: Food wise I made the rounds best I could… Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe, and Gramercy Tavern were pretty awesome, as Handsome puts Danny Meyer on a pretty high pedestal. Lot 2 and Cafe Iris are always great eats as well. For bars I finally checked off PDT (amazing…) and also feel in love with McSorley’s Old Ale House. You have to go there to understand but trust me.

Stay abreast of the Handsome shenanigans via the Handsome Coffee Tumblr.

The post Pillow Talk: Handsome’s Mike Phillips Grinds In NYC appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Happening this Thursday, August 23rd, the second in an ongoing series of “Baristas For Boobs” benefits hosted by our friends at Joe NYC. These events raise funds directly for Carrie Webster, a longtime barista, former Portlander, and current Assistant Manager at Joe who is currently undergoing for treatment for breast cancer. The event takes place at the Joe Pro Shop (131 W 21st Street, Manhattan), beginning at 7pm. If you live in New York or are within easy Bolt Bus distance or something, you should totally go.

The first “Baristas For Boobs” event was held last April at the Joe NYC 13th Street cafe  – around a hundred and fifty people attended, and close to $3000 was raised, according to industry do-gooder Matt Banbury, who is also a manager at Joe. The second Baristas For Boobs event is a little different from the first, so Mr. Banbury was kind enough to take a few moments to speak with us on what attendees should expect (hopefully that means you, because you should absolutely go if you can):

Sprudge: Matt, thanks for taking a second with us. Can you tell us just a little bit of background about Baristas For Boobs?

Matt Banbury: Last winter, my friend and coworker Carrie Webster was diagnosed with breast cancer. Carrie moved out to New York from Portland not that long ago, and she’s become a part of our family here. Carrie actually has good health insurance through her job, so the focus here is not to pay for her treatment, which is of course a good thing. But having had a lot of friends and family who have been through cancer treatment, it always seems like even with medical insurance, sometimes the reimbursements don’t come quickly enough, or there’s gaps, and the financial burden is SO massive…a lot of times people who are in those situations can’t like, go out and get a sandwich, or see a movie, because they’ve got to go pay for chemo.

Sprudge: So the first event you held – it sounds like that went really well? Tell us more.

Matt: Oh for sure.  Specialty coffee in New York is such a tight knit group right now… Jonathan [Rubinstein, Joe's owner] is of course always supportive of anything staff wants to do, and we had a ton of other people sponsor that first event, like Third Rail Coffee. People just came out of the woodwork, and we raised almost $3000 for Carrie.

Sprudge: Tell us a little bit more about what you have planned for this upcoming event.

Matt: This time around, we’re asking $20 a pour from competitors – it should be a big throwdown, and we’ve got some great prizes for the winners. It’s a great way to set the bar, and make this a one-time ticket price on the door kind of situations. You get a shirt, you get to pour, there’s beer, and you don’t have to worry about anything else. People can still absolutely contribute if they don’t plan on pouring, and there will be opportunities to make direct donations to Carrie at the event. There’s also going to be an open coffee bar beforehand in the Joe Pro Shop.

Sprudge: Around how many people total are in the latte art competition bracket? And can you tell us more about prizes?

Matt: Last time it was around 24 people total, so my guess it’ll be right around that many again this time. There are a bunch of prizes: Mike Philips from Handsome Coffee Roasters is in town, and he’ll be giving out bags of Handsome to competitors; Joe NYC will be offering bags of coffee off the shelf of any Joe store, one per week for a whole month; and Keith Gehrke from Able Brewing helped us put together a great prize package for the winner, which is a brand new Kone 3.0, an 8 cup Chemex, a scale, and a pouring pitcher.

Sprudge: You’re right, Matt, that is actually a great bunch of prizes. We really wish we could be there for this event…

Matt: Yeah, well…you guys will just have to come to the one we throw when Carrie is in remission.

Baristas For Boobs is Thursday, August 23rd, at the Joe Pro Shop [131 W 21st Street, Manhattan] beginning at 7pm. Out of town, or unable to attend the event? Email baristasforboobs@gmail.com for more information on how you can help.

The post NYC: Baristas For Boobs II On August 23rd appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Journey back in time on June 11th with Sprudge contributor and Joe NYC barista Alex Bernson, as he transports your imagination through the history of Western cafe culture, past and present. Featuring 21 unique slides and a unique design perspective, this lecture is a public expansion on Mr. Bernson’s thesis dissertation at Wesleyan University, which was entitled “The Social Space of the Cafe: How Service and Physical Design Condition Social Performances.” More from the event’s Facebook listing:

Come join us for a special class that examines the history of cafes and coffee consumption in the development of modernity.

We will explore the rise of cafe culture, from its earliest spread in the Ottoman Empire, to the London Coffee Houses and Parisian Cafes, through the post-WWII commodity coffee boom in the United States, to our current speciality coffee movement.

Space is very limited, so please RSVP jessica@joenewyork.com. Price for the class is $30.

It’s all too rare for specialty coffee and academia to be presented as more than mere study buddies, which makes this an event we sorely wish we could attend. If you’re in New York when you wish you could be in Vienna for WBC, this night will make for a damn fine surrogate. There are a limited number of reduced price spaces available for members of the coffee industry. Please contact Mr. Bernson for discount details.

The post NYC: Bernie Down The House With This JoeED Lecture appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Is it time you “Found A Job”?

This is an awesome time to be armed with a specialty coffee skill set, as some of North America’s top coffee concerns are in need of man power, gal strength, and general industry know-how.

Joe NYC and Verve in Santa Cruz are now hiring. If you have aspirations of living and working in Vancouver, BC, well, there’s a job there too with the fine folks at Revolver Coffee.

In fact, if you want to stay abreast of all the myriad hiring going on in NYC, there’s a handy dandy website doing the hard work for you. New York Coffee Jobs currently has listings for Stumptown, Kaffe 1668, Sweetleaf, and Toby’s Estate, among others. You officially no longer have an excuse to sit around all day, reading this website. Unless of course you worked your way up to a marketing job in specialty coffee, in which case, you’ve earned every right to sit around all day reading this website.

Now Hiring:

Joe, New York City

Revolver Coffee, Vancouver, BC

Verve Coffee Roasters, Santa Cruz, CA

Craft Coffee, NYC

Cafe Imports, MPLS

Additional resources:

New York Coffee Jobs

The post Now Hiring: Coffee Jobs Coast To Coast [Update!] appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Have you always dreamed of re-enacting some TV show or movie or something, and moving to New York City? Are you just exactly like that girl from “Girls“, except without rich, connected artist parents in the fucking first place? Introducing New York Coffee Jobs, a brand new website for baristas considering making the big move to the big city. It’s also an excellent way for New York cafe owners and managers to avoid the now-dreaded Craigslist.

New York Coffee Jobs is a collaboration between Shotzombies and Joe New York. Inspired by London Coffee Jobs, the goal is facilitate the connection between coffee professionals living in (or visiting) New York, and the cafes that require temporary and/or permanent assistance.

Current job offerings for baristas include work at the Grand Central Station location of Joe, and a position with Sweetleaf out in Long Island City, Queens. Cool! Now’s the time!

The post Now Hiring: New York Coffee Jobs Online appeared first on Sprudge.com.

This email from Matt Banbury arrived in our inbox yesterday:

We here at Joe are throwing a fundraiser for a particularly close cause. One of our Assistant Managers and former PDXer, Carrie, was diagnosed with breast cancer recently. To help this fiesty gal fight the good fight, we are hosting a get together/throwdown Friday April 13th at Joe 13th St.
$10 for the door
$10 to pour

Beer will be served, things will be raffled.

So far, 39 folks have RSVP’d for next week’s event. We sincerely wish we could be there.

RSVP for Barista For Boobs via Facebook.

The post Baristas For Boobs Benefit At Joe NYC appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Newsflash: There is good coffee in New York City on the Upper West Side! The UWS is a largely untapped resource for specialty coffee, perhaps due to the frankly odd way of life that exists there – $6500 a month apartments directly next door to $500 rent controls! doormen that make more during Christmas than you do all year! that remarkable park, right there within walking distance, close enough to call your back yard! - but more likely on account of ludicrously high rents. Opening a new cafe there is risky, but the folks at Irving Farm are betting big by setting up a flagship space at 264 W 79th, between Broadway and Amsterdam, in the heart of the UWS. Here’s some more from the Irving Farm blog:

We’re completely reconstructing a 1500 square-foot space on the ground floor of a historic brownstone on West 79th Street in Manhattan. From the building materials and brewing equipment, to the coffee menu and food offerings, we’re designing a space that will be unlike anything we’ve built before, and a cafe experience we hope will be unlike anything you’ve ever had before!

We’re still several weeks away from opening the doors, but we can’t help our excitement as all the new components begin to fit into place. On the counter, we’ll have a La Marzocco Strada and a beatifully hand-crafted bar for our Kalita pour-over gear—all of this to present our dynamic menu of blended and single-origin coffees that Dan Streetman (Ed. note: that’s him riding the Wooly Mammoth), our Coffee Director, has been working hard to source. In addition to the coffee, our menu will feature craft beers, a small list of wines and local meats and cheeses. And, to take it all in, we’ll have a back lounge with a skylight and a 10-foot community dining table made of reclaimed wood.

Irving Farm’s new cafe is designed by the architecture firm LEVENBETTS (we understand they prefer the full capitalization), whose website is here – we dare you not to lose an hour there.

Let’s put this is New York context, shall we? To reach the new Irving Farm cafe, one takes the oft-ignored 1 train, which, if you haven’t been on it in a while, is actually quite nice – there’s usually the full dot-tracking stop service in each car, and the tone of your train will be its own whole thing, a mix of Columbia students, incognito (or accidental) billionaires, and collected sociological samples from that odd para-world that exists along the Northern finger of Manhattan Island serviced by the 1, all the way to that amazing castle-thing in Fort Tryon Park. Take the 1 and get off on the 79th Street stop – Irving Farm UWS is a proverbial hop, skip, and jump away.

Irving Farm joins Joe NYC’s space on W. 84th (Ecco) and the Momofuku Milk Bar space on Columbus and W. 84th (Stumptown) as outposts for high-end non-Starbucks coffee options on that side of Central Park. It is also worth noting that Irving Farm’s new space will be within mere blocks (and a $19 suggested donation) from the T-Rex fossil on permanent exhibition at the American Natural History Museum. We’re working on an approbative thesis now: “Good Coffee and Dinosaurs: Towards A New Duality”.

More, we say! We want more good roasters represented above and around Central Park, and we want it now! Don’t you realize these neighborhoods are chockablock with curious billionaires, surreal vistas, and all manner of cool / weird stuff to do? Coffee is such a lovely way to enjoy and explore New York, and we don’t just mean the New York below 34th Street. This very promising development from Irving Farm gives us one more excellent excuse to go see the Aptosaurus, the wooly mammoth, and the Hayden Planetarium….summer softball in the park, anyone?

The post Betting The Irving Farm: Moving To UWS appeared first on Sprudge.com.

1. The two actors don’t get espresso teeth (the temporary browning of teeth) so they’re obviously faking it.

2. Joe NYC was the inspiration for this video. Via FRSHGRND:

“Joe opened a shop near my apartment a few years ago. I began going every morning, and soon twice a day. One day I was there in my early-morning pre-caffeine stupor, and as I sipped from my 4 oz. cup of deliciousness the world came slowly into focus – colors became more vivid, sounds more resonant – and for those precious few moments, my entire world was infused with that wonderful little caffeine buzz. In that blissed-out state, I thought: I have to make a music video about this! I called a friend of mine – Alan Smith – a brilliant filmmaker whose obsessive coffee needs rival my own. He, of course, loved the idea – so we got to work.”

The post The Jitters: Espresso Nirvana [Video] appeared first on Sprudge.com.