Hospitality Insider: The Coffee Committee

First a little preamble. Every hospitality group has one guy in a suit. We have one here at PlumpJack, and as far as I can tell every other SF hospitality group (Kimpton, Joie de Vivre, the French Mafia, and Olivier’s micro empire (is he separate from the French Mafia?)) probably has one. The hospitality suit is a completely different entity than the downtown suit. They cruise around from property to property saluting regulars and dignitaries, they remember everyone’s birthday, and they are within five feet of anybody important should anybody important be anywhere within their jurisdiction.

The hospitality dress code is as such: uniforms for most of the infantry, rags for the chefs, glossy pages glitz for the marketing squad, grubby jeans and the same shirts I’ve had for years for me, and a suit for one man. Today was the summit meeting of the guys in suits.

As a regular coffee drinker, I was summoned over to the Balboa for a coffee tasting. I walked in with Ingrid, another coffee enthusiast, to the backroom by the kitchen where three pots were set up and five different men in suits, in addition to our in-house suit, stood at the ready. Handshakes were had, we were instructed to wait three minutes and then to move from left to right through the pots, or from lightest to darkest roasts.

During this summit meeting, we were told to start with black, then add cream if we so desired. I added milk as this is my normal deal, but everyone in the coffee world I guess refers to anything white that you add as cream. I liked number three the best, and upon this announcement, a chorus of profilers piped up, “you’re a serious coffee drinker.” “You like real coffee.” “That’s the French Dark Roast Italian. That plays well up against Peets.” Moments later, a few other tasters arrived, and when one of them admitted that she doesn’t like black coffee, at least three guys responded. “Then just cream it.” “Go ahead and add a little cream.” “Number three takes on cream really nicely. The lighter roasts don’t incorporate cream as well.”

Fucking shit man. Next stop - Wine Spectator photo shoot at the Café at 11:15. Coffee, check. Donuts, check. Next stop a review of Jim Jarmusch's upcoming movie, Coffee and Donuts, featuring obese people talking about sports? Perhaps.