It takes around three hours to travel between Philadelphia and DC. It’s takes around four to five hours if you stop for John’s Roast Pork sandwiches, a tiny hole-in-the-wall that is littered with James Beard awards and “Best Sandwich” placards. You might also lose a little extra time if you stop at the gas station for Jalapeno Ranch Blast Ruffles, “real cheese” Toasted Sandwich crackers, and Sour Patch Kids. Oh, and do take an extra half hour to pay your respects to the late Divine at her grave in Towsen, Maryland (don’t forget to “leave makeup, food, and graffiti“).

So all-in-all, it takes around 6  hours to travel between Philadelphia and DC.

IMHO, the Counter Culture Coffee DC Training Center is perhaps the most refined of the bunch, located as it is on the second floor of a beautiful building in the middle of Adams Morgan. The view from the roof is just stunning, and the space itself is just so darn charming. Fermentation & Fruit Bombs continued its tour here in this space, bringing together around 45 DC residents, including newcomer Faith Ortiz, formally of Spruce St. Espresso in Philadelphia.

So how was my evening? Well, Tim Hill busted out his cupping (profiled in Philly here and Boston here), then Katie Carguilo busted out her fermentation presentation (profiled here and here). How was yours?

We threw together a little video of Katie’s signature beverage presentation, which BTW is caps lock DELICIOUS. Check it out:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Stray Observations:

• Julia’s Empanadas are great. But if you’re going to go across the street from the Training Center to the Jack Rose Dining Saloon, it’s best to eat at least ten or fifteen of those empanadas first, especially if you’re going there for an endless whisky/scotch tasting flight. Oy. 
• A cafe called Tryst in Adams Morgan is chockablock with DC power bloggers. Most were sipping a beverage called the Chaipuccino, which is like a frozen dirty chai. It’s absolutely the most perfect hang over treat.
• You absolutely have to check out the new Peregrine Espresso at Union Market, which is like the Ponce City Market, which is like the Chelsea Market, which is like the Ferry Building.
• When I get back home, I’m going to start hanging all of my brewing equipment up like this.

The post Fermentation & Fruit Bombs: Washington, DC appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Sprudge.com co-founder and writer Jordan Michelman is embedded with the La Marzocco Road Show crew as they tour the great state of Texas. Follow along as they tour Houston, Austin, Dallas, and all points in between all week long.

Live from a moving vehicle, speeding down I-35 E towards Austin…

Last night was the second in a series of three La Marzocco Texas Road Shows. The event itself went down at The Union Bear, a two-story craft beer and food emporium in the West Village shopping district of Dallas. Union Bear is part of a restaurant group that includes Oddfellows, a breakfast spot serving Cuvee Coffee and featuring the first Strada MP in all of Texas. Visit Oddfellows when you’re in Dallas, enjoy their unique walk-up outdoor counter tops, try some espresso and get a Chemex

Union Bear gave over much of their lower floor to a crowd that topped out at around 30 people, with attendees from as far away as Austin (Houndstooth Coffee) and Tulsa (Topeca Coffee). On the main floor Cuvee brewed their San Jose Ocana (a washed red bourbon from Guatemala) using a Clever dripper and a Marco Ecoboiler; downstairs, they set up their sleek, shiny blue and white Strada EP 2 group, serving Cuvee’s Reserva, a blend of three processes (washed, honey, and natural) from the Ilamatapec region of El Salvador. This is the same coffee Lorenzo Perkins used to win this year’s South Central Regional Barista competition, which is convenient, because Mr. Perkins was on hand for the event in Dallas, pulling shots using his own custom Strada EP parameters.

Highlights from the party in Dallas included: Kent Bakke himself pulling shots on a GS3; listening in on multiple (very serious) ongoing beer conversations (the coffee nerd to beer geek ratio in Texas is literally 1:1); and drinking multiple and consistently delightful shots from Mr. Perkins.

On the way out of town the LM crew had a chance to visit Cultivar Coffee, a specialty coffee shop in north Dallas that shares space space with a progressive, high-end taco shop – think caramelized broccoli and onion with grains and red pepper, or waffle battered chicken with sweet potato and honey butter. While there, we had a super tasty shot of their house espresso, a Latin American washed blend comprised of 60/40 Costa Rica / Guatemala Typica & Bourbon, clean and sweet with dark cocoa in the last sip. Visit Cultivar when you’re in Dallas; sit at the worn wood front bar to reduce the size of the space, and chat with the friendly crew.

The coffee scene in Dallas is small, but there’s tons of room for upside. In some ways the city is hamstrung geographically; Austin is an obvious pull for talent and ambition, being only around 3 hours south (slightly more if you stop at Czech Stop), and boasting all manner of cred and attractive young types, etc. More than that, Dallas truly is (and has always been) a city that looks to places like New York and Chicago for architectural and cultural inspiration, and this can’t help but impact the growth of food, cocktails, and of course coffee. But the back end of that is comparatively cheap rents and lots of opportunity. Cuvee is leading the way there, and Cultivar is doing an awesome job on the home grown side. There’s a version of the future where in-the-know Austin types are driving north for a change, to check out a high-flying concept restaurant, or an art show in a garage off Bishop; but people from elsewhere in Texas, and elsewhere in America, owe it to themselves to spend some time in Dallas when they can. Check out that gorgeous “Blade Runner” skyline (the patio at the Belmont Hotel offers an ideal vantage point), hang out in the Bishop Arts District, drink some great beer at Union Bear, and divest yourself of the “who shot JR” stereotypes as quick as you possibly can. Dallas is a cool place that’s only getting cooler.

View Sprudge Follows Strada: Dallas in a larger map

The post LM Texas Road Show: The Dallas Stars! appeared first on Sprudge.com.

Sprudge.com co-founder and writer Jordan Michelman is embedded with the La Marzocco Road Show crew as they tour the great state of Texas. Follow along as they tour Houston, Austin, Dallas, and all points in between all week long.

The city of Houston is not boots and barbecue. It is not George Bush Jr., or 10 gallon cowboy hats. Houston is dim sum, all-night phở, weird oil field vistas, and 30 mile “short” drives. It’s palm trees, in-house butcher shops, and a seemingly endless network of tiny water ways tinted in mud and sun. It’s the Los Angeles of the South, the fourth largest city in America, startlingly diverse and weird and cool. The people here doing great food, great drinks, and great coffee have done it all themselves, in the process developing a kind of gracious, polite chip on their collective shoulders; there’s amazing stuff to eat and drink in Houston, and they’re damn proud of this fact, and they want you to know it. Houston is growing into something very special, and as is so common with these narratives of fine dining and awesome beverages, small businesses and young entrepreneurs, those roasting and serving great coffee are helping to lead the way.

Sprudge and La Marzocco were lucky enough to experience this town as part of the first-ever Texas installation of the La Marzocco Road Show. The event itself went down at The Hay Merchant, a tastefully appointed beer bar in the historic Montrose neighborhood. La Marzocco had their own little landing pad set above the seating floor, where they set up an impressive tech line-up: a three group Strada EP, a GS3, Robur E grinders, a Marco grinder, and a Marco water tower. The Hay Merchant is part of an enormously influential and forward-thinking restaurant group in Houston, whose other spaces include Underbelly (high-end Houston locavore) and Anvil (nationally recognized cocktail-palooza). All of these are located in the historic and uncharacteristically dense Montrose neighborhood; if you’re in Houston and you enjoy beer, consider The Hay Merchant to be your first stop.

Around fifty people filtered in and out throughout the event, making this one of the most successful LM Road Show events yet. Props for the turnout are owed to the event hosts, Greenway Coffee and Fusion Beans. These small independent businesses are doing fascinating work here in Houston.

Greenway Coffee is the work of David Buehrer and Ecky Prabanto, a boyfriend-girlfriend business combo on the forefront of Houston’s burgeoning coffee scene. Mr. Buehrer is a native Houstonian, and has worked in the coffee industry for more than decade. Ms. Prabanto is the roaster for Greenway. They currently have their flagship space in a office park in metro Houston, described to us as being a Third Rail-esque microcafe. Coming soon is a second flagship cafe, called Blacksmith, located in the Montrose neighborhood and adjacent to the current Hay Merchant / Anvil / Underbelly triumvirate. They’ve purchased, and are now in the process of restoring, a beautiful and historic former gay bar called Mary’s, which was the epicenter of Houston gay culture until closing in October of 2009. Greenway’s plans for the space include a lush outdoor patio space, food service, and a showcase for Greenway’s coffee offerings, with a tentative opening date projected for this Fall. At the event itself, we enjoyed a variety of Greenway espresso including   the Cocatu Cooperative from Rwanda and a single origin espresso, Hunapu, from Guatemala (Alterra Coffee also serves Hunapu, and was the espresso choice of BCRBC finalist Sam Brown last weekend.)

Fusion Beans is owned by Sean Marshall, another Houstonian coffee entrepreneur with big plans for expansion. Fusion Beans has been roasting and selling to Houston-area clients since 2007, and they’ll be opening their first permanent cafe just down the block from The Hay Merchant and Blacksmith. Mr. Marshall is calling his new cafe Southside Espresso, and he’ll be offering fine coffees from Fusion Beans and various guest espressos, as well spirits and beer. Immediately prior to the Road Show event in Houston, Mr. Marshall had been in Yemen, where he has established and is now operating an entity called Red Tree Trading Company. Red Tree specializes in Yemeni coffees, and they’ve built their own mill there called Rayyan, located near the capital city of Sana’a. The Rayyan mill specializes in natural processed coffees, on account of tradition and also due to a nation-wide water shortage. The coffees processed at Rayyan comes from the Beni Ishamel region of Yemen, where it’s grown not on estates or via co-ops, but rather by individual farmers cultivating in their own backyards. Mr. Marshall and Red Tree will soon make available three distinct – lots for sale as green coffee: Al Dha’im, Al Maharaba, and Al Malala, and also a peaberry lot called Lul Beni Ishmael and a blend of lots called Zumirid Ishmael. He expects around two containers to be produced and shipped from Rayyan in the coming year.

It’s worth mentioning that Mr. Marshall and Mr. Buehrer are longtime friends; Mr. Buehrer told us the two “grew up together in coffee”, which is a characteristically sweet way to describe their longtime professional and personal relationship. This owes much to why these guys are opening specialty coffee shops within a few blocks of each other. They want to aide in the Montrose neighborhood’s growth into a major destination for consumer experiences, and to add great coffee to the list of reasons why Westheimer Street is worth visiting, regardless of where you hail from. Other reasons include: amazing and historically reverent Tex-Mex at El Real; the fried pig ears at The Hay Merchant; lunch at Underbelly; food truck Chinese from The Rice Box; and surely lots of other stuff we didn’t get to see on this trip.

On the way out of town we stop at Revival Market, a foodie nerd’s dream of a grocery store in the Heights neighborhood, offering in-house charcuterie and butchering, a wide variety of preserves, jams, and condiments, and delicious sandwiches. Coffee before hitting the road: Greenway’s Scrimshaw espresso – “a tribute to 2008 Black Cat”, according to David – made up of 60% Daterra Estate Sunrise, 40% Bella Carmona from Antigua, Guatemala, processed by Beneficio, paired with a cappuccino and some Topo Chico mineral water from Mexico. This is, we’re told, the quintessential Houston coffee experience: Topo Chico and great espresso and an outstanding cappuccino made with grass-fed, local dairy from Revival. David and Ecky and Sean are keenly focused on making Houston better, but if you’ve never been before, or your experience there is limited to last summer’s USBC convention center moonscape, please do not be misinformed: people in Houston already have it pretty fucking good.

The post LM Texas Road Show: Houston Report appeared first on Sprudge.com.

In Houston! On Monday, March 26th at The Hay Merchant (11oo Westheimer Road), for an event hosted by Greenway Coffee and Fusion Beans. Fun begins at 4pm.

In Dallas! On Wednesday, March 28th at Union Bear (3699 McKinney Ave), for an event hosted by Cuvee Cofee. The fun begins yet again at 4pm.

And in Austin! On Friday, March 30th at the Cuvee roastery (22601 State Highway 71 West, Spicewood), home base for our hosts at Cuvee. 4pm works for this one too!

We’ve got lots to learn about the coffee scene in Texas, and also lots of barbecue to eat. Stay tuned for all the findings (and trimmings) right here on Sprudge.com.

The post La Marzocco Road Show Redux: Texas Edition appeared first on Sprudge.com.