Perhaps most essential to reopening the cafe today was reinstalling the espresso machine. Though it sounds simple in theory, there are in fact many different elements at play, and it takes a technician's patience to do it right. For all of this and more, we have Joel to thank.
Joel came by late Friday afternoon, and continued to work with the machine up until 6:00pm, when Ali and I had to leave to go return her mom's car (which we had been borrowing). We dropped off the car and ate some dinner, and it wasn't until around 9:30pm until we finally got back to the cafe.
Joel was still there...working.
Thank you Joel, for not only roasting the coffee and biking it out to us, but helping to make sure that we can serve it to the best of our abilities.
Just in case he left before we returned, Joel penned the details of all of his labor on one of his coffee bags.
As you can see, he worked really hard.
He even attached a pressure restricting device which among other things will help ensure that turning the water on and off in other parts of the cafe will not disrupt your espresso as it pours.
4 comments:
wow. "yours bent back like new"
now he's my hero too. :)
I know that Joel's hard work is not a laughing matter, but I cannot help but chuckle when I read his anecdotes of the work he does. Which makes the window blog an amazing read, always. You rock Joel!
its nice to have time to go through everything. Little Red Bikes espresso machine (a two group synesso) has been kept well. It was awesome to get it set up again, and this time to attend to the details. The drain tray is the tightest its been ever, the water straight from the steam tank is very tasty, and i learned a ton in the process. The dispersion screens that i bent back were something of a new discovery for me. the screens brand new are slightly convex and fit tightly. these screens had loosened up. i took proper care and used appropriate tools thoughout the reinstallation, no teeth marks, no adjustable wrenches. and what was even better I had a chance to talk with Ray the next day at the cafe about what could be better about the Synesso. Evan and Ali and Annmarie and Alice and Ray made a terrific first day back. It was the highlight of my saturday. I had one of the sandwiches!! it was delicious.
Congrats on the recent mention in Gourmet magazine. I don't live in Portland and haven't visited your establishment, but I enjoy your blog and was happy to see the cafe praised in a national publication!
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