I’m just curious! I’d love to know what type of cafés anyone here is working at.
My current café is kinda old-school Italian style coffee-wise but much more laid back and add some hippy-granola vibes for good mesure. Our beans are roasted in-house, and pretty much all the food we sell is made in-house as well, down to the sauces, and anything we don’t make ourselves is bought locally.
I’ve worked in two other cafés prior to this one. The first was a kinda upscale third-wave spot that mostly attracted yuppies, and the equipment far surpassed the training of any of the staff. We had pourovers on the menu and maybe 1 and a half employees actually knew how to brew with a V60.
The second was a hardline traditional Italian-style café, which, if you’re familiar with the coffee culture in Canada (where I live) vs Italy, is a silly idea. A lot of people here only know Tim Horton’s or Starbucks, especially in a mostly rural province like where I’m situated. You have to meet people where they’re at; scoffing at people for wanting sweetener in their latte isn’t likely to encourage them to jump into the coffee world in whichever way one deems proper. It’ll only encourage them to stick to Timmies or Starbucks instead of checking out local cafés with actually good coffee.
Glad to see some baristas on here! I don’t work in a cafe, but I work in coffee. Super happy to see people that aren’t pretentious. It really struck me with some of my favorite customers early on. No judgement and willing to help people learn and explore.
Keep up the good work!
I’m intrigued, what do you do?
And yeah, I have no patience for pretentiousness or snobbery. Sharing something like good coffee with someone is a lot easier if you approach it with enthousiasm and understanding rather than a false sense of superiority.
I had an experience when I was younger and just getting into specialty coffee where a barista made a snarky comment after I ordered an americano. I didn’t get a drink from a café for like two years after that. If someone comes into my café and is clueless about coffee, I’ll share my knowledge if they seem interested, or suggest whatever’s closest to their usual chain coffee shop order if they just want caffeine. I don’t get the judginess.
Yeah use your knowledge and skill to get them a coffee they like rather than feel bad about the coffee they like.
I work in equipment. Fell in love with coffee ages ago, and love to build things. It made for a fun intersection of hobbies.
Before I fell in love with it, it was just a thing that I drank in the mornings that tasted kinda gross and I’d add some sweet shit to in order to wake up. It took a bunch of folks like you to show me things like that Ethiopian coffee could taste like blueberries before I realized that there was a whole world of flavor that I hadn’t found. Similar experiences with things like wine or beer.
I’m glad that people like you exist to help invite a new generation of folks into this world!
That’s cool! I’d love to learn more about that side of things. My current boss has a side-hustle as an espresso machine repairman; I should really ask him to show me a thing or two.
Totally, we can always use more technicians! The machines aren’t all that complicated. We’re just heating and moving water around. 🙂