Paying your dues - coffee style - 2011 · Sunday February 6, 2011 by colin newell
Andrea and I spent an early Saturday sitting in my all time favorite rural cafe – The Drumroaster – Just off the Island Highway at the Cowichan Bay turn-off.
We eschewed sleep, this 1st whole weekend back from a month in Hawaii, to hang out with foodie Don Genova and his lovely wife Ramona. We have been corresponding for some time now – and considering we are taking some cooking classes with Don – well, we thought it was a good idea to meet up and catch up.
Photo right – Don’t diss the gurus. Geir Oglend (and company) at Drumroaster Coffee knows his stuff. So, sit, listen and learn newbies…
So over a pot of Bunn Trifecta brewed Ethiopian coffee (the Trifecta was a completely new experience for me…) Andrea, Ramona, Don and I compared pleasant stories about our recent time in Hawaii – Like, what is more fun or almost as fun as going somewhere? Answer: Spending an hour talking about the highlights – and talking about future trips.
Let me say this about Drumroaster Coffee – one place on the Island that has that special edge. Like several other Victoria area cafes and bakeries, The DR has that rare quality of making every customer feel like family. It could be the intense attention to detail, greeting every familiar face, the owners and staff table surfing and taking that extra moment to find out what happening with folks.
It took me a long time to figure this out. Guess I was looking in the wrong direction. Owners Geir and Pat Oglend (and their coffee active family members – Courtney and Carsen) have played critical roles in shaping the Island coffee scene; co-creators of Serious Coffee, Broadwalk Coffee, and the first espresso carts ever added to Victoria.
My point is: When the Drumroaster people talk, listen… Listen if you want to learn something about coffee culture. Same applies to Habit Culture and Discovery Coffee… even Cafe Fantastico. When folks like Mark Engels talk about food and coffee culture at Bubby Roses Bakery, it is the straight goods. These people have been doing it right for a long time.
And the other thing I learned is – there is no “pecking order” in food and drink knowledge locally. We all know who has the most knowledge (named above) and that is not going to change. There is always going to be the elder statespersons in the local scene. Their knowledge is never going to be irrelevant.
This little rule (for me) applies here… in Vancouver, Seattle and beyond.
So shut up and learn.
That, folks, is my thinking today.
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Events of the year - new coffee shops 2010 · Friday December 31, 2010 by colin newell
2010 saw an infusion, a near cavalcade of new coffee places in Victoria – and a surprising exodus and hand-changing of a few others.
Expansions included HABIT coffee and culture which branched up to the Yates and Blanshard Atrium property. Sharing space with the B.C. Ferry Group, Zambri’s restaurant, PIG BBQ and Cook Culture Kitchen Supply and culinary school (Andrea and I are enrolled in a class in March with Don Genova.
Photo below – Habit Coffee Culture at the Atrium during an increasingly rare quiet moment.
Ryan and Kristie Taylor of Cafe Fantastico set their sights on a new Humbolt Valley location that promises food service and a liquor license.
Mark and Valerie Engels (and partners) are unveiling a new Bubby Roses Bakery in a new Cook Street Village building near the corner of Cook and Oscar; bigger space, more food and baked options, expanded coffee service – bubby better than ever!
Doug Crothall of Black Stilt has sold 2 locations to Mocha House – will be interesting to see which direction Mocha House takes these 2 thriving businesses.
Bill of Cairo Coffee is closing down an operation that has been in business in Victoria since 1922. His Deidrich roaster has been in the window on the 700 block of Fort Street since the 80’s and was on Douglas near the Bay in the seventies. At a youthful 75 years of age, Bill is moving to the next chapter in his life; spending more time with grand-kids, mountain climbing and sailing.
Derek and Gina Lucas of Buon Amici Coffee on Tyee quickly sold off their cosy operation on the West side to a new venture. Not too much buzz on the new owners. Rumor has a new Buon Amici operation rising from the ashes in the Uptown Center.
Credits for helping me move forward in my coffee learning curve include:
Geir, Pat, Carsen and Courtney Oglend for their inexhaustible support and sharing! Thanks for all the Hario Kit this year. Hario V60 reshaped my brewing experience completely.
Reg James and the boys of EspressoTec.com for their continuing support and access to the EspressoTec inventory. Thanks for the entire HARIO hand grinder product line samples!
Logan Gray and John Riopka at Discovery Coffee for keeping me on top of the scene when I could not do it alone.
Shane Devereaux and the gang at HABIT for a never ending stream of sharing, learning and support.
To Mark and Valerie Engels for their support and solidarity – and keeping us all supplied with great coffee and bakery from Bubby Roses Bakery!
Winter storm series The Victoria food scene chapter 1 · Wednesday December 1, 2010 by colin newell
Hey folks. We Vancouver Island residents live in, quite arguably, one of the most beautiful and moderate places on Earth. This is Canada after all – home of white winters for most of us North of 49. But not here in the North west. Snowfall is pretty rare up here and often an entire winter will pass without one flake of the frosty white stuff.
So it’s not bitterly cold. And it begs the question: Why is there so much hit and miss in the food department – especially when it comes to what should be hot.
We try and make a point of getting out at least once a week for a nosh, ideally somewhere new. Because it is easy to fall into a habit of finding a favorite and eating it to death. So we mix it up.
So my beef is this: What is wrong with so many restaurants in Victoria? We live a boat or plane ride from two gastronomic super-powers; Seattle and Vancouver. Two totally World class cities that have more 4-star eateries than they have any right to. And I am not saying that we do not have any winners folks… No, it is just that we have way too many losers. Why?
A couple of examples. There are a couple of “Earl’s and Cactus Club” type places in Victoria that are wildly and frustratingly uneven. And they shouldn’t be. One is Brown’s Social House. Great concept. Passionate staff on the floor and in the kitchen. And yet more often than not they fall flat on their faces. I have had orders show up at my table stone cold. The only thing that should arrive at the table stone cold is ice cream… Not a side of fries, pizza or a burger. These items should be piping hot.
Another is the Canoe Club. The food and service is up and down like an express elevator at the Empire state building – and for no good reason. I had a burger and fries there last weekend and the potatoes were raw and mealy and the burger was pinker than ahi tuna sashimi.
I have a theory. Victoria is a tourist town. We have a lot of folks that show up once. We have a lot of folks that show up often. My thinking is – some of these “so-so” places are depending on the “once served, never seen again” much like the Vancouver airport RCMP detachment. No sense giving your best if there is no return business. Which is to say that the local joints are merely keeping the bar up for one reason. This is does not explain the wild swings in overall quality.
We pay a bit of a premium for eating out in Victoria… because it is a tourist town. We have some of the best (if not the best) coffee culture in Victoria, per capita. One would think the food scene would be in step with the cafe scene. But it’s not.
And it bugs me.
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Fall Fun Food and Follies 5 Things to do while you are alive · Monday November 8, 2010 by colin newell
Yesterday my wife and I set aside some time to meet with a neighbor.
A new neighbor in fact. A lady who has located to Victoria after her husband had retired.
They had lived and worked around Canada… in places as far flung as Halifax, Ottawa, Saskatoon and Regina.
She grew up in Germany and was a young child as Hitler was beginning his reign of terror on Europe.
She is actually an amalgam of German and Danish. A handsome and studied woman, she had seen a lot of stuff in the mid-forties – and although just a child at the time (she) formed a solid impression of what Nazism and Fascism truly represented. And how we need to be watchful even today.
And here she was in 2010 telling us about what life was like for a young girl in Nazi Germany and then for a young woman starting a new life in the West.
Her story has an interesting and tragic twist. Her husband and she had just started to settle in Victoria (in their late seventies and in perfect health) looked forward to the golden years pursuing their mutual passion of sailing and travel.
A freak accident however took her husbands life a few months ago – and now she has to carry on the journey alone. Sad.
In just under 3 hours we covered a stimulating chunk of Western history, from life in Germany in the War to new beginnings in Canada in the late 50’s – The magic of Canada in the 60’s – the evolution of the Canadian identity in the early 70’s and so on.
She has over 30 years on me, with a correspondingly more encompassing sense of the big picture and an acute sense of the absurd in how some aspects of Western society have remained virtually unchanged since the last Great War.
Sobering stuff indeed.
I learned a bunch of stuff from this gal. One of them is: Tomorrow really never comes. Every day really is your last until proven otherwise. Care for those around you. Love your friends. Leave your mind entirely open for new ideas. Embrace strangers because, hey, you never know.
Keeping doors open. It is what we all need to do.
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