I love a good pop-up, and Los Angeles’ Bar Nine is adding an interesting twist to the temporary coffee bar. Inspired by the Japanese manufacturing concept known as Jidoka, which translates to “automation with a human touch,” Bar Nine is ditching many of the manual processes in coffee making in favor of automation, allowing more focus to be on hospitality.
For their six-month pop-up at Highland Park’s Amara Kitchen, Bar Nine is implementing pre-ground, nitro-flushed coffee packets for batch brew, espresso grinders with automated dosing and tamping, and an espresso machine with pre-programmed weight-based yield. The goal of taking what many would consider to be the art of barista-ing is to create a quieter, less messy bar that also allows the barista to focus more singularly on the customer service aspects of the job, to have “hospitality to be the thing that is felt first and foremost” as Bar Nine puts it.
The service-forward idea for a coffee bar is nothing new, but Bar Nine’s introduction of the Jidoka concept is a new wrinkle. It’s definitely worth checking out for anyone in the greater L.A. area.
Bar Nine’s six-month Amara residence began last Wednesday and is open 8:00am to 4:00pm daily.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*top image via Bar Nine
