An Interview: The Coffee House in Geneva

A while back, there was a huge sigh of relief, combined with a huge huge hurrah when Geneva, NY finally got some decent coffee places. The one on Exchange Street is called the Coffee House, and I admit I love their coffee. It is in the old Kyo's site (pictured here, courtesy of www.downtowngeneva.org). So, one time when I was in there getting a caffeine fix I asked: would you do a blog interview. And Nicki Crowe (of the team that owns the Coffee House, Mike and Nikki Crowe), eventually said yes. So, here are Nikki’s words!

Bibliochef: Can you tell us when you opened the Coffee House and what led you to do so?

Nikki: Mike & I opened The Coffee House in September 2007. We finalized the purchase of the building in June '07 and took the next two months re-inventing the space for our purposes. Mike & I both served in the Coast Guard but we weren't going to make a career of it - we always knew that we wanted to be "our own boss" and were just looking for the right opportunity. As Mike was finishing his last year, we started seriously making plans for what our next career move would be. We looked at marinas that were for sale, we checked into a boat maintenance business, we considered selling all of our stuff and sailing the world for 6 months - but throughout the entire brainstorming process we were in coffee houses. Going to a coffee house to brainstorm was perfect because it was away from our house (where days of laundry and dust were piling up) and away from the atmosphere of restaurants and bars (where you really are only allotted a certain span of time before you are unwelcome, and pulling out a pile of papers is frowned upon). There is no time line at a coffee house - its pretty laissez faire - and its also one of the few places that can offer a great/gourmet product to everyone - its almost like a melting pot. Well, after weeks of late nights in one particularly disheveled coffee house, Mike & I started looking around the place we had been "brainstorming" in and realized it was actually a pretty depressing atmosphere. Dusty knick-knacks and fake plants scattered about a darkened room with old tattered furniture. The staff was openly rude, but we had gotten used to that. The only thing we couldn't ignore any longer was how awful the coffee was - it was becoming undrinkable for us. That started our whole adventure into figuring out if we could start our own coffee house, what it would take, etc. Once the ball got rolling, the idea really took off - we found we both had a real passion for great coffee in a great atmosphere and as our research continued we repeatedly found that that combination is a rare one indeed.

Bibliochef: So, why Geneva?

Nikki: In our search for a place to open a coffee house we started making a list of properties. Our criteria limited our search to smaller towns with an institution of higher education, some element of tourism, and a body of water. That narrowed our search down to about 12 initial properties to look at (we both preferred the idea of owning the building we would have our business in. We didn't want the extra burden of working with a landlord and the restrictions that go along with that.). The first property on the list happened to be the one in Geneva, NY. Mike put in for leave from the Coast Guard and we made the 6 hour drive with our dog Pepper to check out the building. We both went into it with the mindset that this was our first experience looking at buildings and that the first one obviously wasn't going to be the one we'd end up with - and we were wrong. We drove into town at around 9 pm. It was dark and the lights were reflecting off the lake and the downtown was all lit up...and we were sold. The next night we ate at Kyo [editorial comment: a restaurant formerly in the space which now houses The Coffee House] to look over the place before we met with the realtor and it just kept getting better and better. The space was perfect for our needs and we were in love with the town, so we went for it and never looked at another property from our list.

Bibliochef: Do you have a background that relates in some way to coffee? If so, what is that? If not, how did you come to be a barista?

Nikki: We actually both have been coffee addicts since college - how can you not be (?) so having that natural taste for it definitely helps. Once we decided on actually going ahead with the coffee house idea we both took steps to learn more about the industry. Mike went to a school for Barista training and I worked at a local shop to try to learn the day-to-day operation side of things. In hindsight, both of those steps really have helped us out a great deal. But the great part about America is that if you have a good idea and you have the passion and determination to make it work - it usually does. You don't have to have a doctorate in the pollination process of coffee trees to open a coffee house - but you do have to put in a lot of hard work.

Bibliochef: How do you choose what coffee to sell? Do you use fair trade coffee? And the teas?

Nikki: One of our focuses was to try to stay as local as possible. We currently use two roasters: Gimme Coffee out of Ithaca, NY and Canaltown Coffee Roasters from the Rochester area. [editorial note: it is in Pittsford as well.] We spent about 2 months traveling to most of the small roasters in NY state (and you'd be amazed at how many there actually are). We really wanted to go with a roaster that could successfully work with a small business like our own. Going with a roaster that focused on large companies would have led to The Coffee House falling through the cracks as far as special needs and requests. With Gimme and Canaltown we have weekly interaction with them and feel like they appreciate what we are trying to do in Geneva and that they are interested in supporting us in any way that they can. We visited some other roasters that gave us the impression that small shops were just another order form to them. We rotate through the "roasts" of coffee that we offer - so at any given time it is some combination of the coffees that Gimme and Canaltown provide. For our teas we went with DiviniTea out of Schenectady, NY. We thought we might have to go with a national brand for loose leaf teas, but Canaltown actually recommended DiviniTea and we have been blown away by their product. They hand blend organic loose leaf teas and offer herbal options as well. If you haven't tried it yet, I'd recommend the Licorice Spice tea (I know it sounds bad, and I don't like licorice either, but it's a great tea!)

Bibliochef: I heard that you also make some of the pastries that are sold at the Coffee House. Can you tell us about them and why you choose to make what you do?

Nikki: We actually make all of our pastries in house with the exception of Stony Brook Cookie Company's cookies (they make the best cookies we could find, they're local, and we can't make cookies to save our life - so it worked out good that way). Our main objective with the pastries was to offer individual size portions (i.e. a pecan tart instead of a slice of pecan pie) and to make everything the day we serve it. Most of what we choose to make is what tastes good to us. We are constantly trying out new recipes and finding better ways of making the staple items (scones). We ended up selling so many pastries that we had to hire on 2 employees to help with the prep work. Now we've got both of those employees working on new recipes at least once a week. We go through a fair share of flour to find out good and bad recipes - but if we didn't we'd be serving thawed items from a national distributor and maybe they would taste good, but I don't think we'd feel as good about what we were offering our customers. After all, we're shooting to provide something that a customer cannot get elsewhere.

Bibliochef: I assume that days vary at the Coffee House. But, could you describe your basic day? What is it like doing both retail and owning the place? Does that add to the balancing act?

Nikki: There is a great deal of balancing going on daily at the Coffee House. Our day starts at 5:30 am with starting the ovens and warming up the coffee equipment. By 6 am the first batch of scones are in and coffee is brewing. Around a dozen espresso shots are pulled before we even open to make sure we have the right "grind". Our doors open at 6:30 am (and yes we do have regulars that early in the morning) and things really start rolling about 7:15am. All of our espresso drinks are made to order which means they take longer to make but are better than what you would get elsewhere (the coffee shop I use to work in would steam up a large pitcher of 2% and skim milk and just wait for orders to be made - if the milk got cold they would "nuke" it with the steam wand, which are both very bad practices). So in between acting as cashier or barista (sometimes both) we keep the cafe space clean, restock a lot of behind the scene items that would bring our operation to a stand-still if they ran out (sugars, cups, milk, utensils, dishes, etc.) and try to keep up on admistrative tasks (accounting, sales tax, health department, payroll, etc.). In the midst of all of that we are constantly trying to tweak the business to make it better and offer more products to our customers without compromising our quality. We are technically closed at 9pm but we don't get out of the shop until around 9:30 most nights. The good thing is that we live right upstairs so we crash and then get up and do it again the next morning. That's probably what I miss most right now - sleep - I'm a big lover of sleep, so Sundays (our day off) is mostly a big nap for me.

Bibliochef: If you were cornered and asked what your absolutely favorite coffee is what would you say? Your favorite coffee/food pairing?

Nikki: Mike's favorite right now (because we are constantly changing them) is the medium Americano which is four shots of espresso with hot water - it is a strong drink that hits you pretty quickly. We have a couple of customers that will do 2-3 of those in a matter of hours. My favorite right now is Hazelnut coffee with Honey, Heavy Cream, and lots of cinnamon - I like my favorites to be a drink where I'm the only one who can make it right :)

Bibliochef: What about the best coffee you have ever had away from the Coffee House?

Nikki: I can't remember the name of the place, but in Ithace, in the Commons area, there is a Mate Cafe that's got a really cool atmosphere and they had a great americano. [Editorial note: it is Yerba Mate Cafe -- and I agree it's swell.]

Bibliochef: And now for some of the questions I ask all of the people! What is the absolutely best meal you have ever had? What made it the best meal?

Nikki: Last year, Mike & I went on a 10 day sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands. We were with family on a 55' sailboat - surrounded by gorgeous blue carribean water. We snorkeled every day, never showered, and ate nothing extraordinary or exotic. Sometimes its not just about the food - In the BVI's every meal was the best meal we ever had!

Bibliochef: What do you eat for comfort food?

Nikki: Ben & Jerry's. Nachos

Bibliochef: Do you have a favorite restaurant in the Finger Lakes?

Nikki: Mike and I closed down early during the week of Christmas and we were able to make it to Port's for dinner - I ordered some sea scallops and lamb and Mike got a bacon wrapped filet mignon - both were outstanding! Madderlake Cafe's duck out-ranked the duck I was ranking all others against for about 7 years. We love the Red Dove for so many reasons - we can't eat calamari anywhere else - we've been spoiled on tender, lightly breaded little pieces of heaven with the best special sauce (what's in that yellow sauce?).

Bibliochef: So, thanks Nikki. Now Cooking with Ideas readers will have much more understanding of what happens to get them that cup of coffee. See you over the coffee counter! And thanks again for taking the time to join us here at Cooking with Ideas.

WHERE IS THE COFFEE HOUSE?
486 Exchange St
Geneva, NY 14456
(315) 789-2028