Stopped in at Everybody’s Coffee as I wanted to see the coffeehouse that hosts the Great Lakes Coffee Showcase, Aeropress competitions, and the Barista Fight brewbar competition. Love their passion for being a multi-roaster coffeehouse that features the regions best coffee roasters. Was equally impressed with their mastery of a wide range of brewbar devices and their warm and inviting art-filled space.
Looking forward to stopping in a Everybody’s Coffee more often, as well as attending to competitions they host. This place is a true asset to Chicago and the coffee industry in the Midwest.
Although common in other parts of the country, the practice of coffeehouses brewing roasts and selling whole-beans from multiple coffee roasters is still rarely practiced in Wisconsin. The advantage is that the coffeehouse is able to offer the best of the best from their area or from around the country. many choice a primary roaster to work with and rotate in beans from other roasters.
Most multi-roaster coffeehouses also practice hosting “guest-roasters”, which is a limit time feature on a roaster that is not normally offers. Some multi-roaster coffeehouses also roast a percentage of their menu from their own roasting company.
While doing my Southwest Coffee-Culture Project we saw many 3rd-Wave coffeehouse engaging in multi-roaster practices. As a customer, this gave me the change to try a wide range of coffees from different area roasters in one setting. This allowed to better compare and contrast what we were tasting.
Here is my SHOUT-OUT to the Wisconsin coffeehouses, that I know, that are engaging in offering coffee from multiple coffee roasters.
Multiple Roasters & Gourmet Hot Dogs at Frank: We’re Down
FRANK, a restaurant/bar/music venue in Austin, Texas, is known for high-quality encased meats, handcrafted cocktails, well-selected beers, and a very accomplished multi-roaster coffee program (not necessarily in that order). The coffee program at Frank is as important to them as what’s going on in the kitchen and behind the bar, a fact we appreciate here at HalfWit Coffee. The story of how this came about bears telling, because it’s about connections, and so is life.
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Six Degrees of Coffee Geeks
Okay, it goes something like this. Ethan Billips is the coffee director at Frank. Currently. The guy who begat the coffee program at Frank, which you’ll find out is fairly intense (especially on Sundays) was Tyler Wells, co-founder of HANDSOME COFFEE ROASTERS, who WE FEATURED IN THIS BLOG POST.
“I came into it when Zaida [Dedolph, HalfWit Coffee] was here and she and Zak Rye [co-founder of GASLIGHT COFFEE ROASTERS] had worked together in Chicago,” says Billips. “When Zaida took over coffee at Frank, Zak said, ‘Call this number.’ I did and was hired.” Billips worked under Zaida for about a year before she headed back to Chicago and he then inherited the coffee program from her.
The Rise of the Multi-Roaster Cafe
Billips breaks it down like this: “We’re a multi-roaster coffee bar inside of a hot dog store. They’re super legit hot dogs, big focus on the sausage.” Chicagoans, think HOT DOUG’S. We’re proud to let you know you can find our coffee at Frank on a regular basis.The roster of coffees served at Frank is impressive: Handsome Coffee Roasters, HEART ROASTERS, COAVA COFFEE ROASTERS, Ugly Mug, and more. We’re glad to be served alongside these quality roasters, no doubt. There is also no doubt the multi-roaster concept has been growing over the last decade. METROPOLIS CAFE EVEN CARRIED INTELLIGENTSIA AT ONE POINT, and they’ve been carrying multiple roasters at THE WORMHOLE for years now. Some of their first forays into offering other roasters’ coffees included buying said beans at retail price in San Francisco and bringing them home to Chicago to sell them on what has now become an established fixture at The Wormhole, the guest roaster retail shelf. It wasn’t always this way. Bean diversity was lacking. “I got really excited when COMET COFFEE opened in Ann Arbor, a multi-roaster shop,” says Billips. “We were always interested in what other roasters were doing at the Mug, but we’d only get it when they sent it to us or we had a friend go to California. At some point, we realized we can be in Ann Arbor and host these roasteries we’d never tasted before.
Back in the present, at Frank, they offer lots of variety on their pourover bar, around five different selections at any one time. They have a full espresso bar (usually two different coffees on espresso), a full cafe menu, and are all about trying to make everything they can in-house. “We use chocolate, vanilla and caramel syrups that are all house-made,” says Billips. “Also we focus on offering our customers a wide array of coffees and I’m always looking to get new coffees.”
You know how we mentioned the coffee program at Frank gets even more serious on Sundays? That’s because they do: tableside siphons on Sunday only. “It’s terrifying to make them at the table, but it’s also a lot of fun,” says Billips. When it comes to serving coffee, “We over-brew all our coffee on v60, our standard method” says Billips. “We brew 14-15 ounces so we can taste every coffee that goes out and we keep a log as to what’s tasting good, or tweak the grind a bit. It’s important to check quality constantly, serving that many coffees.
To Be Frank, It’s About The Dawgs
More purveyors of artisan sausage (their tag line!) than a hot dog stand, Frank was begat by co-founders Daniel Northcutt, Geoff Peveto and Christian Helms. CLICK HERE for more about how Frank came to be. “Daniel has a long history with cooking, the service industry, and all of that, while Geoff and Christian are branding and marketing wizards, and they joined forces to create what’s pretty much a sausage factory,” says Billips. “We work with the highest-quality ingredients and give our customers variety–we’ve served antelope, kangaroo, all kinds of meat.
