We've had poor luck with restaurant coffee as consumers and have found dining establishments to be a hard sell to do better coffee (of course our idea of better is a pretty lofty goal). We've got some places locally that do a good job but as a restaurant community in Greater Boston, there's not much to be proud of with the coffee services in high profile restaurants. The solution is complex and not necessarily a clear cut one that can be pitched as a package to interested restaurants. The initial investment is often too steep given the impression fine dining has about coffee costs. Seeing something like this coverage of Canlis and the progressive program there makes us think things will get better over time.
In other coffee bar news, this little bit of coverage leaked out about the new space which is still a couple of weeks out. The program will feature some guest rotation of mostly small batch roasters found to be moving in the same direction as ourselves (at barismo). At dwelltime, they'll give the larger roasters a shot on the bar but the core will be highlighting smaller hardcore roasters. What makes it interesting is that at dwelltime, customers will have some input on coffees that get featured on bar which will be collected for the blog. They'll have some fun cuppings and weekly tastings where it gets turned over to mob rule. Making the assumption your customer base is intelligent and discerning enough to give quality input is something fairly novel in our industry. Expect posts on the dwelltimecambridge.com site about cupping results to give full transparency to the process. Announcement of the first roaster (you'll be shocked) and even some guest barista over there will come in November. We're excited to see it lift off, the buzz is building!
