Tag: coffee

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Grind City Coffee Xpo Returns for 2023

Prepare for some great roasts. (Photo: Courtesy Grind City Coffee Xpo)

People have been drinking coffee since 800 A.D., so says the internet. But the Grind City Coffee Xpo is only going on its fourth year, so says Daniel Lynn, the event’s founder.

If you haven’t been to the event that has only grown each year since it’s been around, Lynn describes it as “really focused on education of the whole coffee experience, just trying to spread the coffee culture to people who maybe aren’t as familiar.” For the day, as in years past, more than 20 vendors, both local and from as far away as Wisconsin, will pass out samples — anything from cold brews to pour overs — and folks are encouraged to ask vendors questions. “I’ve heard from multiple vendors in the past, especially from our out-of-town vendors, that Memphis always has some of the best questions that they hear.”

Grind City Coffee Expo at Wiseacre HQ in Downtown Memphis on Saturday, November 5, 2022 (Photo: Mark Adams)

Being able to host both local and out-of-town vendors, Lynn adds, “really increases the value of the expo. I look at it as like showing people from around the country how cool the Memphis scene is. It’s really spreading our coffee community around. Everybody in the community around here is so cool. Like, that’s why I keep doing the thing.”

This year, for the first time, the expo will have coffee-infused cocktail samples, latte art demonstrations, and panels. The panels will be about sustainability around coffee, coffee’s journey from farm to cup, and an “Ask a Barista.” The panels, Lynn hopes, will lend themselves to creating a bigger picture of the coffee industry.

Sustainability itself is a theme within the event, with all the profits going to Protect Our Aquifer. “We like to say that you can’t have good coffee without good water,” Lynn says. “That’s why the coffee and beer in Memphis are so good. So, we gotta we gotta make sure that doesn’t change.”

Grind City Coffee Expo at Wiseacre HQ in Downtown Memphis on Saturday, November 5, 2022 (Photo: Mark Adams)

Additionally, Lynn says the expo plans to be as zero-waste as possible, thanks to the help of the Compost Fairy. Plus, tickets include a ceramic tasting mug made by Kelsey Berry.

Tickets can be purchased at grindcitycoffee.com and are priced according to entry time (i.e. $35 for 9 a.m., $30 for 11 a.m., and $25 for noon). After the expo, all are invited to the free Grind City Throwdown, “a latte art competition in a party wrapper,” at Comeback Coffee at 7 p.m. Guests can expect Grind City Brewery beer, food from Kinfolk, a live DJ, and, of course, coffee — and lots of it.

Grind City Coffee Xpo, Bridges USA, Saturday, November 11, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., $25-$35.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Comeback Beverage Co.

Hayes, Finn, and Amy McPherson with Ethan McGaughy (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Comeback Beverage Co. is “up and running,” says Hayes McPherson. “We officially moved into our new space roughly May 29th, and we started operations June 5th. That is, brewing our coffee sodas and also roasting our own coffee, as well.”

The impressive facility in the Pinch district, with its 160-gallon temperature brewing tanks, is at 354 North Main Street, right next door to Comeback Coffee, the comfortable coffee shop that Hayes, 28, and his wife Amy, 28, opened four years ago.

Comeback Beverage Co. is “four things in one,” Hayes says. “It is our headquarters for Comeback. It is our roasters. It is our coffee brewery.”

It also shares space with Amy’s plant shop, Golden Hour, which is set to open June 17th. It features an all-glass greenhouse, which is the front entrance to Comeback Beverage Co. “If you’re walking down North Main, it’s this beautiful all-glass greenhouse filled with beautiful green plants.”

With the new beverage facility, Hayes says, “We are essentially quadrupling our space.”

They began producing canned coffee soda in 2021 during the pandemic. “We started off in our kitchen and we were doing 100 cans at a time. And we were selling out in 30 minutes or an hour.”

They then moved the beverage business to a garage behind the coffee shop. “That allowed us to do 600 cans at a time.”

The new space “allows us easily to do four times that with new equipment coming in and the scope in general.”

It also fulfills part of Comeback Coffee’s mission, which is to give people “an opportunity to grow with us.”

Ethan McGaughy, who has helped them “every step of the way,” is now their “right-hand man,” helping brew, roast, and create recipes.

Hannah Sisson and Kelsey Taylor will “help us push this thing to a different level,” says Hayes, who wants Comeback beverages to be available “on the national stage.”

Comeback Beverage Co. currently makes two canned Comeback Coffee Sodas: Southern Style, which is lemon and thyme, and Field Day, which is strawberry and lime.

“We’ve got one coming up — pineapple cinnamon coffee soda — and a few up our sleeve as well.”

They’re able to test their coffee beverage ideas in their coffee shop by putting a coffee beverage on their special menu and testing its popularity. “Memphis is literally creating these drinks with us, in a way.”

Hayes and Amy launched their coffee soda with their first two flavors at the 2018 Grind City Coffee Xpo and introduced the cans at last year’s event. “We threw it on the bar last year. They got a really good reception.”

They knew from the overwhelming response they’d start making those two flavors as soon as they got in their new space.

“Because of the space we’re in, we have the capacity to play how we want to. And get to be creative with our offerings. So, it allows us to be who we are at our core, which is coffee lovers and coffee professionals. What we’ll do is make fun, interesting, tasty coffee drinks for our coffee shop.”

And, Hayes says, “The space and equipment we’ve got will also enable us to have cold black coffee. We pride ourselves on our flash chill coffee — how we make our cold brew coffee. It’s a special method that we believe holds all the good things of cold coffee, and coffee in general. And we’ll be canning that.”

Comeback has also partnered with Grind City Brewing Co. “We’re roasting the coffee for them for their coffee beer.”

Future Comeback Beverage Co. plans include making their own “flavored sparkling waters.”

As for the big picture, Hayes says, “The past two years we spent shaping out what this will look like. And, ultimately, what we want to do is be the Wiseacre for the coffee of Memphis.”

Like Wiseacre Brewing Company, which “put its beer on a national stage,” Hayes wants to do the same thing “for the coffee industry. Whether coffee sodas or canned flash chill or roasted coffee, when people think about Memphis, I want them to think about our coffee industry.”

“Memphis is known for barbecue, beer. I want them to think Memphis is also known for high-quality coffee.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Vinculo Coffee Roasters

Andrew Banker (Photo: Michael Donahue)

You might say Andrew Banker’s introduction to coffee was “slow roast.”

“Growing up, I would love just the cheap coffee and putting chocolate in it with my dad,” he says.

“My first real cup I enjoyed and really appreciated was once I got married. My brother-in-law gave me some fresh roasted coffee and it opened up a whole new world for me.”

Banker is now the founder of Vinculo Coffee Roasters, which offers fresh roasted coffee from Mexico and Ethiopia.

Born in Collierville, Banker used various coffee makers, but none of the coffee was satisfying. Then his brother-in-law Jake Gaines brought him coffee beans “just roasted within the past 30 days. The flavor was very unique and I’d never experienced that. So many more flavors were coming out.”

Banker and Gaines began roasting beans with a ReadyPop popcorn machine, which they put on top of a gas grill. “We needed the heat to get the beans to the right temperature. We’d be on his back porch cranking the popcorn popper and waiting for the first crack in the coffee-roasting process. As you crank, it rotates the coffee beans so there’s even cooking of the beans.

“When you get the beans to the right temperature, it sounds like a soft popcorn crack. That’s when you know you’re at the point that it’s coffee worth drinking.”

They made coffee with the popcorn popper and gas grill five or 10 times “just to experiment and have fun. Then, a few months later, Santa Claus brought us each a one-pound roaster. It’s called a Behmor. It looks like a small toaster oven. It has a cylinder inside of it and it roasts up to one pound.”

Banker’s coffee was called “Buddy’s” and “901 Roasted” before he came up with “Vinculo.” He got the idea for the name on a church mission trip to Mexico. “The church that connected us with Mexico is named Iglesias de Vínculo, which translates to ‘connection.’ They connect their congregation to God. Because they connected me with coffee farmers, it fit organically and naturally as a new name.”

His mission pastor introduced him to farmers in coffee-growing regions in Mexico. “He connected us with a guy in Pueblo and a guy in Xalpa. My first trip I bought very little beans. It was just to see the culture, see their setup.”

Banker recently received 2,000 pounds of coffee beans from Mexico. An even larger shipment from Ethiopia is due in a few months. With Mexican beans, coffee lovers get a “very smooth, nutty, chocolate, cocoa flavor coming out of the coffee.” Ethiopian beans provide a “very fruity, very floral, very bright cup of coffee.”

He plans to introduce Ethiopian coffee in a few weeks and Peruvian in a few months.

Banker first began roasting coffee commercially in 2019 after his family opened Happy Glaze Donuts in Germantown. He no longer roasts there, but he continues to sell his bagged coffee as well as his chocolate-covered coffee beans at the shop.

He now works with a commercial roaster in New Albany, MS, to create his roasted coffee beans. 

Banker’s coffee is also sold at The Ginger’s Bread & Co. It can be ordered online at vinculocoffee.com.

What sets Vinculo’s coffee apart? “I think the intentionality of trying to be supportive of the coffee community where we’re getting the coffee is the biggest differentiation.

“Building those relationships, we can help those farmers produce coffee better.”

And buying the “fresher and higher-quality coffee beans” gives “a great cup to the consumers.”

Banker wants to place his coffee in more locations, including grocery stores. “I talked with a brewery in town about using our beans.”

His future plans go beyond coffee. Through his Peruvian contacts, he can buy “cacao” or cocoa beans to make cocoa — “a new avenue down the road,” says Banker, who adds, “I’m open to any door that is waiting to be opened.”

By the way, Banker isn’t a heavy coffee drinker. “Only just maybe a cup or two a day. I’ve never been an addict of coffee. But I consider myself a coffee snob, for sure.” 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Ramblin’ Joe’s Coffee

David Lambert, Kim Lambert, Drew Smith, and Teagan Griffith (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Meet Ramblin’ Joe’s Coffee. It’s that same little coffee shop that used to be called Ugly Mug at 4610 Poplar Avenue at Perkins Extended. Ramblin’ Joe’s is the new name of their shops that sell the familiar Ugly Mug coffee.

“We made a name change,” says Ramblin’ Joe’s owner David Lambert.

But that’s just the store name. “Anything called ‘Ugly Mug,’ we own it. Except the stores. ‘Ugly Mug’ is our online grocery, and we sell Ugly Mug in our stores. The deal is we can’t call the stores themselves ‘Ugly Mug.’”

They also have Ramblin’ Joe’s stores in Nashville and Knoxville, and they plan on opening one or two more in Memphis in the near future.

The recent Grind City Coffee Xpo was “the official launch” of the new store name.

Last March, they hired a franchising company because people were inquiring about opening Ugly Mug franchises. “They came back and said, ‘Hey. We got a problem. Somebody took your trademark.’ I tell you, you could have knocked me off the chair. I had no idea.

“I did not realize trademarks expired. Every 10 years what you have to do is send the U.S. government proof that you’re still using the trademark.”

Their “Ugly Mug” trademark expired a year ago, and somebody picked it up. “It was a guy out in California.”

He was opening a little shop called The Ugly Mug, Lambert says. “They weren’t even open yet. They just got the trademark. I talked to the guy. I said, ‘Hey. This is the deal. We’ve had this brand for 20 years, and we have a lot of credibility built into this brand. I talked to the guy for three months. He just would not deal on this.”

Finally, Lambert thought, “If we want to grow, we have to come up with a new name.” They asked customers to submit names and got about 600.

“I was thinking about ‘Joe.’ ‘Joe’ is a name for coffee. I was driving to Nashville. I turned on the radio. ‘Ramblin’ Man’ was on. The Allman Brothers.”

He thought, “People enjoy going places if the place has a story and some depth to it rather than a place to just buy something.”

So, Lambert came up with a story. “Ramblin’ Joe is basically the coffee taster that works for Ugly Mug coffee. He’s been tasked to go around the country and around the world and find different regional products and bring those flavors back. And we feature those flavors in our Ramblin’ Joe’s coffee choices.”

Lambert and his wife, Kim, found a coffee shop in Maine that sells a salted latte. They now sell a Maine Salted Maple Latte at Ramblin’ Joe’s.

“I guess I’m kind of ramblin’ Joe. We like to travel a lot. We always go places and we find unique products that are regional. We should just, from time to time, have products and coffees that come from other parts of the world.”

And their coffee, including Full Moon latte, which originated in Memphis, will be introduced in other states and countries as they open Ramblin’ Joe’s franchises.

In 1971, Lambert’s dad, Bill Lambert, began Lambert’s Coffee, a non-retail business that services restaurants and offices. In 2005, David purchased the Ugly Mug coffee brand and began selling it online and in stores, including Kroger and Walmart. Around 2015, they started renting the coffee shop on Poplar. “For the past five or six years, we’ve won Best Coffee Shop and Best Coffee Roaster in the Flyer,” he says.

They will open the first Ramblin’ Joe’s franchise in March at Memphis International Airport. “Our focus as a company is going to be more on franchising and expanding Ramblin’ Joe’s and trying to expand it all over the country.”

Lambert wants to give people “a little flavor of Memphis.”

“There are lots of coffee shops in town that are awesome and do a fantastic job. We want to be a little more accessible as a drive-through. We want customers to come to our shop and not only get a great cup of coffee, but get it fast. Good-quality gourmet coffee for the everyday person. For the average Joe.”

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Cover Feature News

What’s Brewing at Grind City Coffee Xpo?

A fresh latte from Dr. Bean’s (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

The fickle Memphis weather threatened to rain on Daniel Lynn’s parade when he launched the inaugural Grind City Coffee Xpo back in 2019. Gathering storm clouds eventually morphed into a raging monsoon, with Lynn worried that the gales and heavy rain would keep people away.

“I was concerned for sure, but we had about 500 people come out that first year,” recalls Lynn. “After seeing that, I knew we were onto something. If we got 500 people to come out in a monsoon, that convinced me we could build on the event.”

Lynn has sustainably grown the Grind City Coffee Xpo over the past couple years. Every successive iteration sees the addition of a few new vendors, representative of the organic growth of Memphis’ coffee community. Inspired by the Science of Beer event held at the Memphis Museum of Science & History, the result is a celebration of all things coffee, with everything from roasters to traditional shops to various health and wellness vendors. The comprehensive package covers everything that coffee enthusiasts would want from an event but also strives to welcome newcomers and give advice on how they can best approach coffee.

The scent of roasted beans fills the Xpo. (Photo: Jonathan Amado)

“Our event puts beauty over competition,” says Lynn. “Many similar expos will have shops competing against each other, and there is, of course, some friendly competition here. But this is about bringing everyone together under one neutral roof. It’s all about building community. And it’s also hyper-educational. We ask vendors to come prepared to answer any questions people might have.”

Don’t expect to find only simple roasts at the Grind City Coffee Xpo, held this year at Wiseacre HQ on November 5th. Lynn gives the vendors free rein to experiment as they will, whether that’s focusing on their prime product or trying something outside the box. And if previous Xpos are anything to go by, prepare for a few pleasant surprises along the way. “I remember our first year, Comeback Coffee debuted their coffee soda,” says Lynn. “That’s become so popular that they’re building a cannery for it.”

Xpo-goers this year can look forward to four new vendors: Memphis Grindhouse Coffee, Muggin’ Coffeehouse, Southaven’s Coffee Central, and Ounce of Hope. “I’m a big believer in health and wellness,” says Lynn, “and we’ve got that represented here, too.”

While, at the end of the day, many coffee shops are in competition with each other from a business perspective, Lynn says that Memphis’ growing coffee community has always been supportive of new members. “What keeps me doing this is the community and culture around coffee in Memphis,” he says. “Everyone is so welcoming in the industry. Folks like Charles Billings over at Dr. Bean’s have been doing trainings and other things like that for newcomers, helped them open their doors. From what I’ve seen, everyone is willing to bend over backwards to help others, no matter what.”

As for Lynn’s favorite coffee shop? There’s no right answer to that question. “Every place in town has a couple things that they really excel at,” he says. “I go to different shops when I’m in the mood for different things and am never disappointed.”

The Grind City Coffee Xpo allows Lynn and the coffee community to take that supportive ethos and extend it to one of our greatest treasures: the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Lynn doesn’t profit from the event, and vendors are donating their time and product to a good cause, since 100 percent of the proceeds go toward the Protect Our Aquifer organization. After all, high-quality water is intrinsically linked to the Xpo. “You can’t have good coffee without good water,” says Lynn, “and the water we have here elevates it to another level. I think sometimes people take it for granted, but look at what’s happening over somewhere like Jackson. It’s so important to maintain high-quality water levels.”

To help enhance the Xpo coffee even more, Lynn has partnered with Third Wave Water, a company that creates packets which can change the mineral content of water. That allows vendors to customize their water for whatever their preferred brewing method might be, and each participant at the Xpo will be doing so. “You combine that with our already amazing water from the aquifer,” remarks Lynn, “and you’ll see some amazing pours.”

Looking ahead, Lynn believes that Memphis can continue to grow its coffee community. “We’ve got so many great shops, but we can handle more, too. The passion is there on our end 100 percent, but I can see us expanding in a healthy and organic way going forward.”

And there’s plenty of good stuff in store for caffeine connoisseurs and newcomers alike. Read on for a closer look at five participating vendors at this year’s Grind City Coffee Xpo. — Samuel X. Cicci

Attendees sample roasts from 15+ vendors. (Photo: Jonathan Amado)

Boycott Coffee

Boycott Coffee just celebrated its first year in business, but it has been putting cups in hands for far longer. As co-owner Alexander Roach explains, since 2017, “Boycott Coffee was already an established social program working with language communities here. We had a few pop-ups and a few language centers. I was popping up wherever I was invited to present ideas, drink coffee, and create spaces.” As his recent social media post announces: “Boycott Coffee wants to help!”

Now, with the help of Mersadies Burch and Averell Mondie, Roach’s vision has a permanent home. Calling themselves “the three-human ownership team behind Boycott Coffee,” the trio of activists’ shared progressive values have led them to open a storefront cafe combining coffee with community.

Burch and Mondie “started consulting and working with this building during its redevelopment,” explains Roach. “Fast-forward a year, and it was a shared project between the three of us, a kind of a weird coffee/potluck in the back. Then they asked us to move to the front of the building.” That’s where you’ll find the pink interior of Boycott; the place still retains the clubhouse vibe of Boycott’s earlier incarnations.

All that’s missing is a bookshelf. But you may want to reach for your phone for some heavy reading. As their website states, “We call on you to question how coffee is really made and who it belongs to along the value chain. To revolt and protest alongside the producers, traders, mill workers, carriers, roasters, and baristas.” And, we might add, to tip generously. — Alex Greene

Comeback Coffee shows off its coffee soda. (Photo: Jonathan Amado)

Comeback Coffee

Hayes McPherson, who along with his wife Amy, owns Comeback Coffee, is excited about the upcoming Grind City Coffee Xpo. “That was kind of where we got our start,” he says. “We were at the first Xpo three months before our opening day.”

Hayes, Amy, and Ethan McGaughy, who work together on all the flavor combinations, also launched their strawberry-lime coffee soda at that first Xpo in 2019. The native Memphians are bringing a “new coffee soda to promote” at the upcoming Xpo, says Hayes. It’s going to be a surprise. They’re also bringing a “non-coffee-related product,” but it’s a secret. “It highlights that really special water we have in the city.”

The McPhersons opened Comeback Coffee in March 2019. Food & Wine magazine named it one of “The Best Coffee Shops in America” about six months after they opened.

“We just try to do our thing really well. Good coffee. High specialty coffee. We bring in roasters from all over the world and showcase them here in Memphis. We highlight those people and those stories.”

They’re “physically building out” the business. “We’re pretty far along in construction of our building. It’s still on North Main two buildings down from Comeback. We hope to be in there by March.”

Chef Cole Jeanes brings his Kinfolk restaurant pop-up on weekends and sells fried chicken on cathead biscuits and other items. “Our slogan is ‘Stay Awhile.’ I think we’ve nailed that.” — Michael Donahue

The Xpo shares samples and roasting techniques. (Photo: Jonathan Amado)

Crazy Gander Coffee Company

Crazy Gander welcomes Memphians with their open atmosphere and creative selection of frappes, unique coffee renditions, and delicious pastries.

Enjoy anything from a traditional Americano and hot tea to their cookies-and-cream frappe and a seasonal drip coffee served with a cookie. This quaint storefront is found in the heart of Memphis providing a simple yet aesthetic space filled with immense love and efficiency. With every cup, each staff member and owners Dana Bunke and Kevin Crow strive to connect with the Memphis community.

Abby Sexton, a member of the business development and operations team, states that Crazy Gander’s main mission is to “serve a continuously excellent cup of coffee and be consistent with our product.” Along with consistency and care, Sexton says that Crazy Gander connects with people by treating “every new visitor like a regular.”

As for Bunke and Crow, each are local entrepreneurs working to better the community, raising millions of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and environmentally safe organizations. And that same love and care go right back into their coffee as a “small neighborhood way of doing things for the community.” But stay tuned: Sexton says to “look for new and exciting things coming your way from Crazy Gander.” — Izzy Wollfarth

Guests watch a pour-over coffee procedure. (Photo: Jonathan Amado)

Memphis Grindhouse Coffee

Ten banks turned down Dwayne Chaffen and Rick Askew’s loan application to jump-start their new coffee shop. “One particular bank asked us if we had a white business partner,” says Chaffen. “It was 2019. We really thought they were joking.”

They weren’t joking, the two friends soon realized, so instead, they invested their own money into the online shop that has become Memphis Grindhouse Coffee. Being online, though, has had one major benefit: reaching a global audience. So far, they have customers in 22 states, plus Canada and Australia.

The coffee is made-to-order in Memphis. “That is the freshest you’re going to get,” Askew says. “Sometimes the bag is still warm when you get it. And we only buy the highest-quality beans you can find. The light roast comes from Peru, the medium roast comes from Ethiopia, and the dark roast comes from Guatemala.”

Plus, with every product sold, the company donates money to ongoing literacy efforts and buys books to give away to kids. They’ll even ship books free of charge to kids in need.

“We’re two inner-city Memphis kids,” Chaffen says. “We love our city, and we understand the unique challenges that many people in our city face, especially the children. We wanted to find a way to give back.”

Still, the two hope to open a brick-and-mortar location to provide a physical space where young students can sharpen their literacy skills. For now, it’s a matter of finding the right place at the right time. — Abigail Morici

Muggin’s Mary and Ken Olds  (Photo: Jonathan Amado)

Muggin’ Coffeehouse

Ken and Mary Olds believe that coffee should be accessible to everyone, not just connoisseurs. And when it comes to their coffee, they don’t concern themselves with fancy names. After all, what’s more accessible than a coffee named Zippin Pippin or Flickin’ on Beale?

According to Mary, if you walk into Muggin’ Coffeehouse, located at 1139 Brownlee Road in Whitehaven, asking for “that caramel thing,” they know exactly what you’re talking about. Mary says that coffee connects people, and that there should not be barriers like pronunciation standing in the way of enjoying a fresh cup.

The Olds wanted to take away the “pretentious stigma” surrounding coffee and opened Muggin’ in June of 2020. They also wanted to make sure that coffee is approachable to the people in their community. In fact, according to Mary, 90 percent of Muggin’s employees had no prior background in the coffee industry. The Olds sought to teach their community more about coffee, while also giving back.

The uniqueness of Muggin’ can be pinpointed to a number of things, such as the way Memphis culture is intertwined within the shop and its products (Hard Out Here For A Drip, Looking for the Brewin’). However, Mary believes that being a Black-owned business and demanding a standard of excellence from their staff has played a major role in the success and brand of Muggin’. “We want to make sure we represent in a great way,” she says. — Kailynn Johnson

Grind City Coffee Xpo takes place Saturday, November 5th, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Wiseacre HQ, 234 E. Butler Ave. For tickets, visit grindcitycoffee.com. All proceeds go toward Protect Our Aquifer.

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News News Blog News Feature

The Anti Gentrification Coffee Club

(Credit: Anti Gentrification Coffee Club via Instagram)

There are four horsemen of the gentrification apocalypse.

According to Maurice Henderson II (the founder of CxffeeBlack better known by his pen name, Bartholomew Jones), craft breweries, ladies walking their poodles, Whole Foods, and coffee shops are markers to the “gentrification population” that a community is ripe for harvesting.

For Henderson and his wife, Renata Henderson (Memphis’ first Black female coffee roaster), there’s irony in this. Coffee’s origins can be traced back to Africa, and according to Henderson, it’s the “traditional African medicine” for Southern Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti.

“Coffee is such an amazing ritual in the motherland, but that’s not the perspective we generally see in shops that come into our neighborhoods,” says Henderson. “In fact, somehow there are spaces that are almost anti-Black. Even though coffee is literally black, and historically Black.”

Henderson dives into the history of how coffee was made into a million-dollar industry through the slave trade in Brazil, Haiti, Latin and Central America, and the Caribbean, and that West African slaves were used to grow coffee into the industry that it is today. 

The irony intensifies for the couple, as they ponder how something that is historically Black, discovered by Black people, grown by Black people across the world, becomes uncommon or even “unexpected” to see Black people work with, or even be in ownership roles. Especially when these coffee shops are in Black and brown neighborhoods.

“You have these shops that are in these neighborhoods, but you don’t see anyone from the neighborhood in the shop,” says Henderson.

The Hendersons noticed that their neighborhood would be gentrified soon — the city planned on putting money into the intersection at Summer Avenue and National Street — and wanted to see what it would be like for their neighborhood to have their own coffee shop before the “gentrifiers come in.”

“It’s weird,” says Henderson. “Our neighborhood has the best Latin American food in the city — like, I will fight people about that — and yet a Chipotle just got built on Summer in our neighborhood.

“What if we created a place for us, by us? What would that look like? Could we return coffee to a tool that is actually empowering for Black and brown people, and something that supports our neighborhood? That was the experiment we started,” says Henderson.

The experiment in question manifested itself into the Anti Gentrification Coffee Club, located at 761 National Street. According to Henderson, the experiment turned into a hub for local creatives, those living in boarding houses, and local activists.

The Hendersons hired people from their community, and people who come in and fall in love with the shop. They aspired to make a safe space for their neighbors to enjoy “culturally congruent” coffee experiences.

With community playing such a large role in the Henderson’s reason for creating their coffee shop, it would seem inevitable that they valued input from the community. However, in listening to input, they recently did something that they had tried to avoid.

On the morning of October 5th, 2022, The Anti Gentrification Coffee Club opened its doors much earlier than usual at 7:30 a.m. This new opening time allowed for those on their early-morning commute to stop by and grab coffee.

Henderson’s perspective is shaped from his experiences as an educator, an indie-rapper, and a part-time barista. He says that his least favorite interactions were during early-morning shifts, where he experienced frequent micro-aggressions.

“It’s almost like ‘man, you’re not even a human being,’ when you have your stereotypical experience with someone at a coffee shop,” says Henderson.” They’re behind the bar, and people assume you don’t know what you do because you’re Black. They think people want what they want. It’s a very individualistic experience, which is so different from coffee in Africa.”

The Hendersons have been to Ethiopia twice, and even talked about their experiences in a documentary, CxffeeBlack to Africa, that will be shown at the Indie Memphis Film Festival. The defining difference between coffee in Ethiopia and what they have experienced in the states is that coffee in Ethiopia is “communal.”

“Things are slow,” explains Henderson. “They do these three processes called Abole, Tona, and Bereka, where you have these really small cups called ‘Sinis,’ and you get three cups. There’s no going into traditional African spaces and getting a big cup of coffee to go.”

Henderson explains that in Ethiopia, this process is led by Black women, where the coffee is roasted fresh, prepared, and then served. 

“There’s a traditional Ethiopian blessing that is said when you receive it,” says Henderson. “Buna fi Nagaa hin Dhabiinaa, which means ‘May your house lack no coffee nor peace.’ They wish peace upon you and your family. You sip the coffee, say ‘amen’ in response. You’re doing that with a group of other people who are sitting there, and waiting on coffee to be prepared for you by these Black women.”

Centering Black women as the planet’s first baristas, and coffee roasters, is something that Henderson and his team try to do, and is something that he says is “uncommon in a space.” Creating space for community and creating space for people to “slow down” is antithetical to an early rush experience at Starbucks, he says.

It’s a very transactional experience, Henderson adds. In fact, this is why they chose to not open early in the beginning, so that they could avoid contributing to these types of interactions with coffee in their neighborhood. Henderson says they would rather create a space where people expect a different type of coffee experience. They sought to have a more Black, a more African, a more indigenous perspective, and for these reasons, they opted to not open early.

Henderson says that they don’t hire traditional baristas. Instead, they hire people from their community. In hiring people from their community, they would bring the problems of the community with them.

“Transportation is an infrastructure issue in our city,” Henderson says. “Opening later allowed us to still hire the people we wanted to hire. If we say ‘you have to have a car,’ then there’s a lot of people in our neighborhood who would be left out of that.”

The Hendersons had periodically experimented with early openings, but they concluded that it was more “human forward, and human friendly,” for them to be open late.

According to Henderson, your traditional coffee shop is going to make money by getting as many people through their doors as possible. He says that through this, the people that are prioritized are wealthy patrons, or patrons that are “upper-middle class.” Coffee at his shop is pay-what-you-can with suggested prices, but “it’s free for neighbors who need it.”

“Most people have coffee as a morning routine, so your general coffee shop will have a business model where you’re really expecting to get a bulk of your revenue in that morning rush, from people who are driving to your space because of some type of brand you’ve been able to generate,” says Henderson.

“You think about these shops that open up in Black and brown neighborhoods. How are they able to get people from Germantown and Cordova to drive there early in the morning for their coffee?”

The answer, according to Henderson, is by creating some type of “chic” or “urban-chic mystique” that makes their coffee seem different from what they can get at the gas station or Starbucks. A lot of this is by using the aesthetic of poverty to market a shop as something that is “urban,” which in turn makes your coffee and shop “desirable to people who are looking for a cool ‘coffee experience.’”

“We know that Blackness is generally the arbiter of cool,” says Henderson. “So by being in proximity to Blackness, your shop obviously becomes cool.”

Henderson says that the issue with this is that there is no actual care for the Black people in these neighborhoods. He says that the aesthetic and sexiness that comes from the sense of “Oh, this is dangerous. I’m driving through an urban community. Oh, this is cool, this is artistic,” is being used to drive sales, but the people in these communities are not being considered as possible customers.

“There’s a myth that Black people don’t drink coffee,” says Henderson. “Through our e-commerce store, we’ve been able to build a multiple, six-figure business just from selling coffee to Black folks online. You know, the roasted coffee that my wife roasts. So obviously, this isn’t true.”

Henderson says that a lot of times, there’s a certain type of coffee, one that differs from Folgers, but is rather a more “craft coffee experience,” that many Black people have not been introduced to.

“We wanted to see what it would look like for us to make a coffee experience that would allow for people to taste these really exotic coffees from all over the world, coffees that come from our motherlands, but in a way that is conducive for Black culture to thrive, and not have assimilate,” he says.

Categories
Cover Feature News

New Year, Screw You

Illustration: Bryan Rollins

Welcome to the Flyer’s first cover story of 2022.

Traditionally, the first cover story of the year is our “New Year, New You” feature — a collection of small steps to take toward self-improvement. We’ve written about dry January, reading more, getting outdoors, taking up a hobby, learning to meditate or play an instrument or how to do yoga. In short, over the years, we’ve covered a lot of ground with this feature. Last year, buoyed by a vaccine rollout and a naive hopefulness that closing the door on calendar year 2020 would make some sort of difference, we embraced optimism in this space. This year, though, we decided to focus on what we’d like to leave in the past.

So instead of hopefully embracing a new hobby, we’re kicking bad habits to the curb this year. We’re saying “screw you” to everything we don’t want to carry into the new year. If you, too, are feeling a Marie Kondo-esque urge to simplify your life, let this list of bad habits, addictions, and annoyances be your guide.

Leave Your Comfort Zone

My new life coach is Luca Paguro, the Italian child/sea monster star of the film Luca.

Last year, the world watched as Luca swam, crawled, walked, biked, and fell outside of his comfort zone. It wasn’t easy. If it were, Disney probably would not have made a movie out of it.

Luca is a hardworking, responsible sea monster child. He listens to his parents and does his chores without complaint. Still though, he’s curious about the world above the water, the one place he’s not allowed to go or even talk about. Like Reba McEntire before him, Luca wondered, “Is there life out there?” If so, how did he fit into it? Did he at all?

He drags himself to the edge of his comfort zone but can’t quite stick his head out of the water. He’s yanked out of it all by Alberto Scorfano, another sea monster child who’d become Luca’s friend and out-of-the-water mentor.

Alberto teaches Luca to walk, and that ain’t easy for someone who’s only swum his entire life. Luca fails and fails again but eventually (and awkwardly) finds his footing. That’s where Luca’s magical journey begins.

That’s really where all magical journeys begin — outside of the comfort zone. Yours. Mine. Everyone’s. Nothing new happens inside your old routines and habits. So, if you want change this year, you have to — have to — do something different.

Do you want to start a YouTube channel? Want to travel? Want to write? Want to lose weight? Want to play piano? Want to cook? Want to garden? Want to get a better job? Want to save money?

Every single one of these journeys begins at the same place, that spot right outside your comfort zone. It’s going to feel weird and probably not great in the beginning. That’s how you know it’s working.

If Luca had stayed inside his comfort zone, he wouldn’t have met new friends, ridden a bike, played soccer, tasted ice cream, eaten pasta, climbed a tree, ridden a Vespa, ridden a train, fallen in love with learning, gone to school, or won the Portorosso Cup (spoilers, sorry).

Be like Luca this year and leave behind your comfort zone. — Toby Sells

Screw the Screens

If you picked up this issue of the Flyer from a newsstand and are reading it in all its ink-on-paper glory, I salute you. Too few these days remove their eyes from digital devices often enough to read things in print. To be fair, I’m equally pleased with those of you visiting this article via our website — we know that’s how many folks consume information, and we’re happy to have you stumble upon memphisflyer.com to read this online. My desire to leave obsessive screen time behind in the new year has more to do with mental and physical health, and the ways in which we interact.

Did that status update receive any new likes in the past 20 minutes? Did I get a new email? Is there a text message I need to respond to right away? It seems, especially after enduring varying levels of isolation throughout the pandemic, I’ve spent the majority of my time shifting through screens — laptop for several hours of the work day, phone while doomscrolling social media in the evenings, occasionally switching to the iPad to play some time-wasting game, television to binge-watch the newest season of That Show Everyone Is Talking About.

Not only does it create a sort of time warp (is it really already 11 p.m.?), but it steals from us precious hours we could spend outside in nature, visiting friends or family, crafting, creating art, turning the pages of an actual book, pursuing our passions, learning, growing. Too much screen time is believed to increase anxiety, contribute to short attention spans, and can make it more difficult to fall asleep. In 2022, I hope to avert my eyes more often — put away the screens and be present in the real, tangible world. — Shara Clark

Leave the Grind Behind

There was a time when reading the above section headline would have made me roll my eyes right into the back of my skull. “Leave the grind behind? That’s fine for you, Mr. Moneybags, but some of us have to grind to survive,” I would have thought.

If you have a similar response, I get it. For some people, the “grind” is the only way to keep the lights on and food on the table. Heck, I started working when I was too young to legally clock in, getting paid “under the table” to fetch and carry young orange trees at a plant nursery, and I continued that workaholic trend, holding down two jobs for most of my life so far.

That said, many young Americans have internalized the belief that everyone needs a main hustle, a side hustle, and some kind of monetized hobby at minimum. So for me, saying “screw the grind” doesn’t mean quitting doing the work necessary to survive. It means that I don’t have to say “yes” to every odd job and freelance gig that comes my way. For years, I worked at the Flyer, at another business on nights and weekends, played (usually paying) gigs, and took on whatever landscaping, yard work, house-sitting, pet-sitting, and freelance writing or editing gigs came my way. I felt, as Bilbo Baggins tells Gandalf, “like butter scraped over too much bread.”

Because the grind is what brought me here, I won’t hate on it, but I’ve come to realize that it’s not something to be prized in and of itself. It’s a means to an end, or a necessity of circumstance, not a personal identity, no matter how good it feels to be needed.

So if you’re feeling like Bilbo’s butter, I hope you can find time to take a breath. I hope you can make more room for yourself in your life and can step out from the shadow of your job or jobs. There’s more to you than your career or passion project. — Jesse Davis

Get Over Yourselves

Every year around the time when the numbers on the calendar tick up by one, we are called on to find ways to improve ourselves. Increasing our self-esteem, we are told, is the way toward happiness and greater productivity.

Well, look around you. Is it working? We’ve been gassing ourselves up for years now. Is the world a better place because we have better opinions of ourselves? Quite the opposite. Look no further than the damned pandemic — and really, can you look at anything else? There’s a whole generation of people with so much confidence in the innate superiority of their immune systems that they think they don’t need a vaccine — which, make no mistake, is an actual miracle of science — to help them avoid the deadliest disease in a century. How’s that working out for them? Badly. But they don’t care because to care would mean acknowledging the fact that they are not all that.

Instead, we should all get over ourselves. Accept the truth that you are a mistake arising from a mishap built on top of an oops. On the cosmic level, your imagination is not adequate to conceive of your insignificance. Nothing has any meaning except what you imbue in it.

Does this sound bleak and horrifying? It’s actually liberating. That racist who thinks the color of his skin makes him better than you? Who cares what he thinks? He comes from the same genetic slop pond as the rest of us. Stressed about the big deadline coming up at work? Relax! Your work will crumble into dust long before the sun expands and reduces the Earth to a cinder. Unlucky in love? Look at all those miserable married people, then redefine “luck.”

When we all accept that we are garbage, maybe we can make our dumpster more livable. In the immortal words of Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, “This don’t matter. None of this matters.” — Chris McCoy

Screw You, Musical Tribalism!

We all know the smug certainty of those who proudly refuse to “get” a whole genre of music or dismiss you for not knowing certain groups. These people, real or imagined, often live rent free in our heads. Like a High Fidelity character in overdrive, it’s that guy who “only likes the Ramones,” or can’t believe you’ve never heard so-and-so. I even embody that to some. “Oh, you know, I’m not hip like you.” If they only knew!

But, as Tower of Power once asked (“Oh no, not funk!” I hear someone exclaim), “What is hip?” The proliferation of the hipster stereotype in today’s culture is really just a marker of the bewildering plethora of music now available. None of us can keep up with it. Yet these imaginary, bearded oracles supposedly can.

The blunt reality is, no one can. You don’t need to wear your records like a badge, and no one cares about your pure aesthetic. Contrary to lay opinion, there is no Memphis version of High Fidelity. Some from the suburbs often confess an insecurity about browsing this city’s brilliant record shops, and the first thing I tell them is: That smugness is illusory. That clerk behind the counter? I happen to know she digs free jazz, rap, old country, punk, and funk. And on rainy nights, maybe even a little classical. Give up your FOMO and move on. Crates of undiscovered records stand before you: Get to digging! — Alex Greene

Screw Fear of Covid

Yes, I know, the OmiGOD! variant is sweeping the country, making more people sick than ever before. But you know what? If you’re vaxxed and boosted and get it, your odds of being hospitalized are next to zero. You probably won’t even get very sick, if at all. Yes, the number of infections is way up, but the number of deaths is way down. With very rare exceptions, Omicron is not killing vaccinated people. So be one of those people.

This is not March 2020, when we had no medicines, no vaccines, and no real knowledge of how to fight Covid. Those days are gone. We now have incredibly effective vaccines available to keep us from getting Covid, and new meds and treatments to fight the disease, if we do catch it. And we have a president who believes in following the medical science instead of recommending bleach, hydroxychloroquine, horse meds, and magical thinking in a nightly dog-and-pony show.

“The hiding-in-our-basement-behind-the-pile-of-sandbags moment has come and gone,” says Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California at Irvine. “If the rationale is that there’s Covid outside the door, well we’re going to be hiding in our basement forever, because there’s going to be Covid next year, and the year after that.”

Exactly. Predictions are that a wave of Omicron is about to sweep the country, but we know what to do: Make sure you’re vaccinated and boosted, mask up in public spaces, and avoid large gatherings when a wave is passing through. But we also need to recognize that Covid is becoming endemic, meaning that it’s likely to become a recurring disease, like the flu or a cold, and — except for the very elderly, the immunocompromised, and the ideologically stupid — the rest of us are going to have to learn to stop being so afraid of it. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Quitting Coffee (Well … Kind Of)

Since my routine was to drink about three or four cups of coffee before I even got in the shower each morning, I thought maybe I’d place less emphasis on coffee this year.

The first thing I do in the morning is make a pot of coffee in my electric stainless steel percolator.

The last thing I do before I go to bed is clean my electric stainless steel percolator.

If there are just four cans of Chock Full o’ Nuts on the shelf at the grocery store, I buy all four — just in case they won’t have any the next time I need it.

I asked for — and got — a stainless steel stove-top percolator for Christmas. No electricity needed. So, if the power goes out, I can still make coffee on my gas stove. Providing I have water.

I was at a dinner party around the holidays and one of the hosts knew I would select the coffee-flavored gelato from the selection of gelati during dessert. They know.

I have come a long way since the time I used to buy a cup of coffee every night on the way home from work. A large cup. But since we’ve mostly been working from home, I drink my own coffee at night at home.

For the past few days I’ve been limiting my coffee to four cups in the morning. I look forward to each one instead of slamming them down. I admit, I do wake up faster when I slam them down. I seem to move faster and get more things done.

So, I’ve just about finished my fourth cup of coffee today. I’m done. But maybe I’ll have one more cup because this is the first day back at work since my vacation. And because there’s snow on the ground. But maybe I won’t. Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. — Michael Donahue

Resolved: De-Politicize the Virus

The oddest bit of news from the year just passed was the report that Donald Trump confided to a crowd of his friendlies that he’d had a booster shot — and was booed! Have we not been accustomed to believing that anything the Donald emotes is gospel to his minions? In fact, is it not part of our own catechism, we of the non-Trumpist majority, to draw connections between the former president’s actions in office (or lack of them) and the spread of the seemingly endless coronavirus malaise? So what’s up here?

It’s worse than we thought. Not only has political factionalism intruded into matters of health and wellness — a problem that is, in theory, correctable — but the disbelief in reality has become an illness more lethal and intractable than the troublesome Covid-19 spores themselves, and one wholly beyond the borders of ideology. Quick fact-check: Who is more antagonistic toward the principle of vaccination, Robert Kennedy Jr. of the sainted Democratic clan or the recently deposed ex-president? The answer is the former. Upon occasion, Trump has actually been heard to take credit for the quick emergence of vaccines, via Operation Warp Speed.

The fact is that common sense, even in matters of survival, is in short supply. People smoke, they drink too much, they drive too fast, they burn fossil fuels because, in the short run, it seems inconvenient to them not to. The Republican Party, by and large, has weighed in against mandates for masks because it is now, and always has been, easy to score political points against an abrupt call for hard discipline. People resist having to take cold showers.

If there is a high side to the current ubiquity and rapid spread of the Omicron variant, it is that at some point, a truly common peril becomes undeniable. One way or another, everybody “gets it.” And the virus becomes so universal as to erode all these self-serving political barriers. While we still can, let us make it a firm resolution to hasten agreement on the point. — Jackson Baker

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Avenue Coffee Announces Closure

CREDIT: Avenue Coffee/Facebook

Avenue Coffee/Facebook

After six years in business, the U of M area coffee shop announced on Facebook Friday that it would close on Sunday, April 19th.

The shop — a quiet study spot for college students and a go-to pick-me-up for Normal Station residents — operated as a nonprofit. The “coffee shop with a cause” donated a portion of each month’s proceeds to a variety of social justice organizations.

Late last month, the shop created a GoFundMe campaign to help cover expenses and barista pay as business decreased dramatically due to COVID-19 closings, including a shutdown of its dine-in business and shuttering of the nearby U of M campus. The campaign had not yet reached $1,000 as of publication of this article. Avenue has recently been open for curbside/to-go service only.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Grind City Coffee Hosts Caffeine Crawl this Weekend

CREDIT: Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Grind City Coffee is bringing Caffeine Crawl to Memphis on Saturday, November 16th, with three caffeinated routes.

Caffeine Crawl is designed to be a fun, educational, pub-style crawl from venue to venue that allows participants to taste, learn, and talk about different kinds of coffee with like-minded java enthusiasts. Stops on the crawl include Dr. Beans at Puck Food Hall, Comeback Coffee, Vice and Virtue, INSPIRE Community Cafe, and Ugly Mug Coffee, among many others.

“I think this is going to showcase that Memphis is more than just Beale and barbecue,” says Rachel Williams, co-founder of Grind City Coffee. “We are growing a lot. We have a lot to offer.”

Williams explains that not everyone is aware of the coffee scene in Memphis, and Grind City Coffee is trying to change that through events like Caffeine Crawl and Grind City Coffee Expo.

“A lot of people sometimes get a little nervous to kind of step out of their comfort zone,” she says. “So being able to have something more approachable that’s introducing people to this, whether it be through a caffeine crawl or through the [Grind City Coffee] expo, there’s something for everybody.”

Co-founders of Grind City Coffee, Daniel Lynn and Rachel Williams, love to promote a “community over competition” mentality when it comes to showcasing and celebrating local coffee spots.

“This is just another example of that,” Lynn says. “Plus, you know, people like to have non-alcoholic alternatives sometimes, so this provides that as well.”

Williams and Lynn see an opportunity for more and more people to get involved in local coffee culture, so bringing Caffeine Crawl to Memphis was a natural next step for Grind City Coffee in serving that mission.

“Every time I look on social media, there’s another home roaster or coffee shop. So, it’s fantastic to see all the growth,” Lynn says. “But that’s also what we’re hoping for this as well as other events to keep putting the voice out there about what we have right here in Memphis.”

Tickets are currently on sale at caffeinecrawl.com.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

On the culinary properties of coffee and wine.

CREDIT: Ari LeVaux

Thanks to the impact that coffee and wine have on my taste buds, breakfast turns me into a speed freak. Steak, meanwhile, converts me into a temporary alcoholic — at least until it’s gone.

Put me in front of a greasy or sweet breakfast, and I’m going to drink coffee like it’s oxygen. This is how my body extracts maximum pleasure from the muffin or omelet I’m chewing — by bathing my mouthful in coffee. The coffee’s acidic bitterness makes the flavors of the food stand out and completes the meal. I’ve researched this relationship at many a greasy-spoon diner, where servers endlessly circle to keep your cup full. What the coffee lacks in quality, it makes up for in quantity. That’s important when you’re eating with a beverage condiment, because the last thing you want is for that well to dry up.

Later in the day, there are many foods that essentially command me to drink wine. If I’m chewing a succulent piece of meat, for example, I need to be drinking wine at exactly the same time. Otherwise I get distressed, like an addict in withdrawal.

While there are many foods that go well with wine, only one, meat, will make me drink wine like a dehydration victim would drink Gatorade. When meat and wine are available, it is a scientific fact that I will be stuffed and wasted. And that is pretty much the only time you will see me wasted.

Other than producing buzzes, coffee and wine otherwise seem completely different. But if you look beneath the surface you can see that they are competing for the same niche in the ecosystem of your dining table: the acidic beverage niche.

Acidity serves to enhance the pleasure derived from fatty foods. The fat coats your taste buds and the acid washes that fat away, exposing and stimulating the taste buds and creating fireworks of juxtaposition. If necessary, you may have to adjust fat levels to achieve this balance. I generally do so with mayonnaise.

This principle of creative tension is at the heart of established pairings like wine with cheese, coffee with cream, and 10,000 other flavor combinations.

One thing you rarely see is coffee and wine together. One of them always needs to be there, but having both would be like having two alpha males in the same room. Potentially rough, and at the very least, awkward and uncomfortable. It turns out that another one of my favorite foods — chili pepper, aka chiles — can smooth over this tension.

Like wine and coffee, chiles go exceptionally well with fat, from the jalapeño popper and its elder, the chile relleno, to the requisite squirt of hot sauce upon your big greasy breakfast.

Like coffee and wine, chiles produce their own kind of buzz — an adrenaline rush, to be exact. And like the others, chiles have many proven and suspected medical benefits, including reducing body inflammation and improving lipid levels in the blood. But unlike coffee, wine, or fat, there are few apparent reasons not to indulge one’s chile-tooth to its fullest.

For years, I took it as a given coffee and wine simply don’t mix. It’s an either/or situation. But this assumption was discredited when I bit into a piece of pork belly that had been braised with red wine, coffee, and red chile.

Amazingly, the coffee and wine were able to join forces and forge a common flavor all their own. This union was mediated by the chile, the sharp bitterness and sweetness of which formed a narrow bridge between the normally disparate flavors of wine and coffee. That all this flavor alchemy came together in the context of a succulent piece of pork made the experience all the more mouth-melting.

This revelation went down at the magical, and sadly defunct Casa Vieja in Corrales, New Mexico, where I consumed this dish next to a crackling fire of fragrant desert wood. Since then I’ve endeavored to recreate this recipe, and somewhere along the line I think I actually surpassed the original, stealing tricks from similar recipes I found online.

My current version combines pork and venison, but any meat will work, even chicken. Bones, whether in oxtail, osso buco, or ribs, will improve the result. The tougher the meat, the better. But if using very lean meat, there needs to be some fat, like bacon or olive oil.

The wine and coffee-based broth tastes kind of disharmonious when you first combine the ingredients. But it eventually cooks into something special, a flavor that is deep and darkly delicious and thoroughly unique.

Ari LeVaux

Bitter rivals unite.

Fatty meat cooked in coffee and wine

2 lbs meat

1 cup wine, of a quality you would drink

1 cup of strong coffee (no greasy spoon brew here)

3 bay leaves

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons mild red chile powder

2 Santa Fe-style dried mild red chiles, seeded and crumbled

2 mild pasilla chiles (or more red chiles), seeded and crumbled

Salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Olive oil

Brown the meat in whole chunks under the broiler. In a pan, sauté the onions, garlic, and bay leaves in oil. When onions are translucent, add chiles. Cook a minute, stirring, then add the coffee and wine. Cook until the volume reduces by half. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Add the meat. Cover meat with stock or water, and slow cook or braise for four-to-eight hours, until meat is completely tender. Add water, wine, or stock as necessary to replace any evaporated liquid. Season again.

Serve in a bowl with minced onions and a hunk of bread, which will absorb the mysterious broth and deliver it to your mouth, where no further adjustments will be necessary.

This dish won’t give a caffeine high or a wine buzz, but it provides a kick all of its own. It was, after all, the pursuit of a flavor fix along these lines that got me into coffee and wine to begin with.