KC Perky

I’m looking at you, awesome shops that have recently closed.  Crave Cafe.  Magazines and Coffee.  Cafe Nouri.  Nighthawks.

http://www.coffeeshopprofits.com/
http://www.crimsoncup.com/open_sevenstepstosuccess.php
http://www.espressobusiness.com/book.htm
http://www.homerscoffeehouse.com/new%20book.htm

Sure, each of these sites wants to sell you a book, but perhaps that’s what you need.  When not drinking coffee or grinding away at my day job, I do improv comedy pretty seriously.  How many books do I have on the topic of improv comedy?  Over 25.  And its not even my livelihood.  Certainly, you can afford 3 or 4 books before you go and buy your massive espresso machine.

Bella39, a brand new restaurant and ‘coffee shop’ on W 39th St was originally slated to open down in the River Market, right next door to Eljay’s.  Their main thrust is local, fresh food, trying to be all eco-friendly.  Farmers markets and whatnot.  When they were planning on opening on Delaware St, the coffee shop was not a part of the concept, they were right next door to one.  It should be no surprise then, that this morning, they continued to treat the coffee as an afterthought.

Do not let what I say next affect your perception of their food or juice drinks, which I’m sure are supurb.  After all, InkKC said Bella’s watermelon sippers are awesome, and their menu looks quite respectable.

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Once upon a time, there was a mousy haired boy named Brownilocks (or Scott, take your pick). He wanted some morning coffee on W 39th St.

First, Brownilocks stopped by Starbucks. “Ew. Too cookie-cutter,” he said.

So he walked half a block east. There he found Crave Cafe. “Dang, too indie,” he said. Usually this was far from being a problem. However, Crave Cafe’s over-indieness probably led to its closing its doors 4 months ago. It is STILL in process of being remodeled and re-opened as a much snazzier Javanaut. Someday Brownilocks will return here… if it ever decides to open again…

So he walked a half block west. There he found Room 39. “Ahh, just right,” he sighed. Room 39 is a very respectable little bistro. A good breakfast menu, good lunch menu, a classy dinner menu, and very pleasant staff. All this, and they’re not above serving up some very fine coffee. The mochas here have consistently been brewed at a very high caliber of quality. This makes Brownilocks happy.

Then a bearista ate Brownilocks. The end.

//update: Bella recently opened at 1403 W. 39th St.  Didn’t mean to leave them out of this 39th St round-up… I can only have 1 cup before work each day!  Look for a review soon.

Cafe Nouri, the coffee shop with a heart, has closed.  They were a wonderful little shop that not only had good coffee, but gave a portion of their proceeds to needy people in Africa.  Sadly, this wasn’t sustainable.  Perk Up has now opened their second Grand Blvd location in its stead.  We’ll see which kind of Perk Up this becomes:  the good kind or the bad kind.  The owner is still working at this location, so the coffee and service are still good.  Lets see what happens once its flying on its own.

The downtown library is full of books.

One would have hoped that one of those books explained how to make at least espresso, maybe even a mocha.

I had to try to explain it to this barista today. One burnt pull and 6 pumps of chocolate later… ::shudder::

She did, however, have one of the most awesome looking espresso machines I’ve ever seen. A brass tower.  At $9,290, one would have hoped the library could have afforded to hire somebody who knows how to work it.

Another top-ten shop bites the dust.

I tip my fedora to you, Nighthawk’s.

Hit up the Top Ten Shops to see the fallout.

As a total aside, I’ve never seen a coffee shop as busy as I did see City Market Coffeehouse on Saturday morning. People jammed in everywhere, the 3 baristas were brewing as if their lives depended on it.

But the real news is Ethos. The Ethos Coffee Cars of the Ethos Coffee Company are quite a new twist. We’ve had delivery pizza, Chinese, sandwiches, and burritos. But now, you can call up the espresso cars (888-697-2392), they’ll drive to you, and brew you a fresh latte right out the back of their Scion xB. There is a minimum order, just like anywhere else, so grab your friends, but you never again have to whine about there not being a shop nearby! No word yet on how good it tastes.

I stumbled across Ethos at the Celebration at the Station. I could easily see them doing other large events, parking next to the kettle corn trailer and the funnel cake trailer. Its like the ice cream truck… for adults.

Eddie Delahunt’s Cafe & is a fantastic coffee shop (good coffee, great service & atmosphere), and unlike many other shops in town, is expanding!

Eddie is moving 1 block east from his 43rd & State Line location to 43rd & Bell. The website claims there isn’t an ETA for the move yet, but sources say the soft target for the move is June 9th. If you haven’t gotten tasty coffee from a friendly Irishman before, I suggest stopping by the old shop soon and then again after the move. You won’t regret it. Why is it called ‘Cafe &….’? Its because Eddie is not just the proprietor of a coffee shop, he is also a notable local musician. The cafe doubles as a music venue, a bar, and friendly neighborhood meeting point for all.

Now you may say, Scott, just one friendly Irishman is not enough for me with my morning coffee. You’re in luck. For the exact same price, you get as many friendly Irish people as can fit around the back bar. In this picture, you see just one of the 6 I met this morning. Eddie’s got the strongest accent, but it doesn’t stop everybody else from picking up a little bit of it.

When I got to work, I did a little jig.

The non-caffeinated Germans here didn’t understand at all.

[map to Eddie Delahunt's Cafe &]

JP’s Winebar and Coffeehouse is a great little joint, for food, wine, & coffee. Very comfy atmosphere, good coffee, good service, etc, etc. It was about to break into my top 10 coffee shops.

But then they went and shortened their hours. They don’t open till 8AM now, a near-cardinal sin for a coffee shop. They used to open at 6AM, one of the earliest in the area. I suppose we can excuse it a bit in this case since they’re also a fantastic lunch, dinner, and late evening hang-out too.

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What would this city do for coffee without God? A Cup Above is yet another installment of the church-group-fronted coffee shop series. I suppose that its not entirely a bad thing, as coffee shops have a tendancy to be barely-or-un-profitable. They need a 501c3 status to stay afloat.

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