The Bear is back for season four. The FX show that blends prestige television with a service industry fever dream follows Carmen Berzatto as he takes over his deceased brother’s Chicago sandwich shop and tries to turn it into fine dining. The award winning show has been praised for its realism in depicting the inner working of the restaurant world. And true to that level of realism, season four nails one particular aspect of most restaurants looking for a Michelin star: a wildly uneven coffee program.
Eagle-eyed Redditors first noticed the latest addition to The Bear in the form of an espresso machine. First, the good part. The Bear (the restaurant) serves Metric Coffee. Which makes sense. The show has been a love letter to Chicago for its entire run, highlighting local restaurants as well as focusing on a very Chicago-centric soundtrack. Thus, picking a local coffee roaster is very on brand. And it’s the sort of show that’s going to show its bona fides by not making the easy choice, which in this case would be Intelligentsia. So that’s the good part.
The bad? What’s going on with that espresso machine?
After some digging, we discovered that it is a two-group Rosito Bisani Synchro, a semi-automatic espresso machine. You’d be forgiven if you haven’t heard of the machine. You can pick one up at Restaurant Supply.
Now look, I’m not here to cast any aspersions on Rosito Bisani or the Synchro in particular. I’m sure they are fine machines. And certainly not the worst I’ve ever seen at a $$$$ restaurant.
But when are we going to start seeing well-appointed coffee in fancy restaurants? Picking a good roaster is the easy part, the fun part even. But why wouldn’t Carmy and Co. go for a Linea? Or even a nice undercounter Modbar situation? He could use one of the hot water taps for uh, staff meal ramen or whatever. I want to see a workhorse machine that’s easy to service, which is exactly the sort of thing that should be in fine dining. I mean, you use tweezers for microgreens but you can’t be a little more intentional with the coffee?
And in this way, The Bear accurately depicts high end restaurants, frustratingly so. Which explains my two-stage reaction to that particular scene. First, elation in that weird coffee geek sort of way whenever they see a coffee thing in the mainstream. Then, disappointment at the lack of followthrough. It’s the plight of the coffee person. But hey, at least we made it to The Bear. That’s not nothing.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
