CHICAGO!
March 15, 2008
STARTING OFF THE DAY WITH
is guaranteed to positively affect your day. Continuing the trend of good-ness, we were hosted by two inspiring, welcoming, laugh-inducing ladies. We had good friends, good sleeps, and good food all within 12 hours arriving in Chicago.
The good continued into our visit to Metropolis Coffee and our conversation with Chris Schooley, the chief coffee officer. From a simple scan of the website, one can see that Metropolis is focused on community local and global. The following is an excerpt from the Metropolis philosophy.
A coffee house should be a neighborhood center. A coffee house should be a showcase for artists, a forum for ideas, and a catalyst for conversation. It should be a place to meet and to reflect, to pause before, in the midst, or at the end of the day. Community and the regard for differences among people and their ideas are central to our coffee philosophy. Each bean and tea leaf is sourced with two groups of people in mind: the people that taste them, and the farmers that grow them. Coffee, like art, has an aesthetic. Respect is at the core of our coffee philosophy, and taste is paramount. .
Hazzah to that! Finding this philosophy months later has helped me recall the feeling of being in Chicago and at Metropolis. You walk in and you can feel this in the air.
Sitting on bar stools next to the Diedrich, we learned about the ceramic tiles used to reflect heat into the roaster, whcih provides more gentle heating and helps maximize energy use. Chris and CoffeeInAction discussed the craft of roasting, the sensuality of coffee, the importance of passing on the craft and creating community. We came up with this: Coffee is a craft that requires pursuing something amazing, not something perfect. The community has this amazing ability to feel intimate and incredibly meaningful while spanning the whole entire world and affecting pretty much everyone living on this globe. Working together; coffee shop to coffee shop, farm to farm, farm to coffee shop, and so on, can only enhance the efforts of us all and make live a little bit easier.
Two delicious soy cappucino’s made by barista Eric Komosa were followed by a trip to the roof to see the after burner.
-Sara Rose and Melanie
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