How the two largest of the
city’s local roasters stack up, in employees …
Alterra
– about 300
Stone
Creek – about
80
…
roaster capacity …
Alterra
– 135 kilos, or
about 298 pounds, between the company’s two Probat-brand roasters. Alterra
cranks out about 25,000 pounds of coffee a week, according to co-founder
Lincoln Fowler. “There’s not a lot of slack in this system,” he says.
Stone
Creek – about
125 pounds, otherwise known as a “one-bagger” because it fits a 150-pound bag
of green coffee. According to a 2011 report to customers, Stone Creek roasted
an average of 5,865 pounds of coffee a week in 2011.
…
locations …
Alterra
– about a dozen
outlets, between kiosks, cafes and flagship locations, with more on the way
Stone
Creek – eight
outlets with a ninth at the Stone Creek Factory headquarters set to open in
late summer
… and
training regimens.
Alterra
– rates its
baristas on a tiered system, up to “lightning rod” status. These are Alterra
ambassadors and barista-mentors who are strategically placed at each location
(ideally) to further the coffee company’s brand.
Stone
Creek – places
a huge emphasis on sorting through a large field of job applicants to find the
right people. Potential employees are interviewed in groups at the Factory and
asked to bring a short essay on something they’re passionate about. Most
interviewees are rejected. Barron says the company looks for “immediately
likable people.”
 |
| Anodyne owner Matt McClutchy |
Why
Anodyne could be catching up.
This
summer, the Anodyne roasting team was really sweating it, tossing out loads of
roasted coffee all day, and the head roaster was coming in some nights to work
an extra two or three hours to meet demand. “When you’re up against the wall,
you’ve got to get the orders filled,” says Steve Kessler, director of wholesale
operations.
Stone
Creek’s customers are barn-stormers.
In
overhauling its cafes, Stone Creek is designing a runway for customers to come
right in, order their coffee, stop at a station for additives and buzz back out
the door in a single graceful motion. Owner Eric Resch commissioned a study in
2010 (by the Kubala Washatko architecture firm) that found that 70 percent of
customers were stopping in just to purchase, not sit. To learn this, a
representative of the firm sat in cafes, sly-like, and traced each customer’s
course on a map of the store.
The
coming wave of Dunkin’ Donuts is really a threat.
A group
of six Dunkin’ franchisees from the East Coast, where they collectively own
more than 300 stores, are opening another 20-25 in the Milwaukee area over the
next three years, according to John Clark, their man on the ground in the Brew City.
Dunkin’ was strong in this city in the 70s and 80s, but fell by the wayside
long before the specialty coffee movement got off the ground here in the early
90s.
“We
offer a cup that’s different in flavor profile. It’s a consistent recipe,” he
says. “It’s the same day in and day out. If that’s what you’re looking for,
that’s what you get.” That might be what Milwaukeeans are looking for – Clark
says the first stores are meeting their sales targets.
And
don’t forget the other chains.
Starbucks
still has 50+ locations in Southeastern Wisconsin and the muscle to drop in
another dozen on a whim. Minnesota-bred Caribou Coffee is another player to
watch. It has a few sophisticated outlets around the metro area (Glendale,
Wauwatosa, Waukesha and Racine) and is still growing apace. A company official
says Caribou is expanding its worldwide store count by 10-12 percent in 2012,
though he couldn’t say if that would mean another cafe in Milwaukee.
Pulling a shot of espresso the
Stone Creek way, as told by Retail Director Kendra Barron and other company
officials.
Mound 18
grams of freshly ground espresso into the “brewing group” and tamp. Ensure that
the espresso pump is set to deliver water at 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit and at
8-9 bars of atmospheric pressure. If needed, adjust for prevailing conditions.
Initiate the extraction. In 14 to 25 seconds, the “mouse tail” of the downward
flowing espresso liquid will turn from light brown to camel, signaling that the
extraction has finished releasing the best of the coffee’s oils, alkaloids and
flavors. Cut off the flow.
Is
Riverwest’s Fuel Cafe as cool as it used to be?
A point
of intense debate. The cafe that started as the city’s first uber-cool coffee
shop still holds the title, by most accounts, but has it slipped? Years ago,
owner Scott Johnson gave up displaying art and installations on the walls,
surrendering part of the old Fuel’s philosophy of throwing stuff, in a
metaphorical sense (usually), at the walls and seeing what sticks. “After a
while, it got kind of tedious,” he says. “A lot of people didn’t put that much
care and time into their artwork.” Now, the décor is given over to motorcycles,
and mostly recently in the form of a photo mural of dirt track racers from the
mid-1970s.
Could
there be another Fuel Cafe someday? Is a chain in the works? “We talk about it
all the time,” Johnson says. “I sort of wish we had moved on it more back in
the day, but I think the Milwaukee market is pretty saturated as far as chain
coffee shops go.”
(photo of Matt McClutchy by Adam Ryan Morris)
