Jonathan Rubinstein - Joe: The Coffee Book

H ow many times have you heard someone say, Id like a nice, hot cup of coffee!? (I know, I know, it really should be a nice cup of hot coffee, but nobody ever says that!) In our family, it was my mom, Alice, who was forever on the quest, not for a nice cup of hot coffee but for the perfectly made latte. For years, she was obsessive, going from coffee shop to coffeehouse to bistro to trattoria scouting out that elusive cup. Shed order, sip, grimace, and move on. Moms infatuation became a family joke, but we were so often on the trail together that her passion lured the rest of us deep into latte-land. We all joined in the chase for the perfect cup.

What had been our in-house gag turned into a serious venture when I found myself (joyfully) unemployed and thinking about changing careers. I had always been fascinated with food and the world of hospitality, but I had no interest in cooking or opening a restaurant. Besides, New York City, my home, had an excess of world-renowned dining and drinking establishments, and frankly, I didnt think that I knew enough about the restaurant business to make an impact in this mecca of all things culinary. But, interestingly, back in 2002 New York City didnt have one great coffee bar, a place where people could socialize, ponder, read, advocate for change, or just sit back and relax, all the while enjoying a matchless cuppa joe. So, coffee moved to the top of my career-change list, and along with my sister, Gabrielle, and my parents, Alice and Richard, the hunt for the perfectly made latte became a search for a perfect coffee bar of our own.

Unfortunately, none of us knew much about how to accomplish our dream bar. We knew little about the when, where, and how of great coffee, except that we seemed inherently to know it when we tasted it. We did know a bit about real estate and had a clear idea about the kind of location and coffee bar we wanted. It was Gabrielle who made the first connection to the long line of serendipitous links that created our first joe .

Apprenticing as an opera singer at the Tanglewood Music Center in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, Gabby discovered the elusive cup at Lenox Coffee, owned by a partner at Barrington Coffee Roasting Company in Great Barrington. Not only did she find great coffee, but she also discovered the Barrington owners, Barth Anderson and Gregg Charbonneau. They stood right on the cutting edge of the third wave of coffee, using select beans and roasting them in-house. At Gabbys urging, we made the trip to the Berkshires, not to hear her sing, but to sip, sip, sip. Barth and Gregg became our mentors, introducing us to some of the history of coffee, the necessities of a great cup, and the people who would help us bring our own style of coffee bar to blas New Yorkers. In fact, they led us to Amanda Byron, our first employee, who had worked at their roastery. Amanda is still with us and has gone on to become vice president of our all of the joe stores.

We chose Greenwich Village for our first location, mainly because of its coffeehouse history. The area had traditionally been the landmark for bohemian life in America, with new ideas, political movements, and artistic chaos emanating from its cafs, homes, and streets. Historically, the Village had been the home of writers, artists, and thinkers who gathered in the many dark, smoky coffeehouses that were the signature watering holes of the area from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Not only did art and culture thrive in the liberal atmosphere of the neighborhood coffee caf, but in the late 1950s, the off-Broadway theater was born at Caff Cino, one of the most enlightened coffeehouses of the era. Although bohemian life in the Village has given way to expensive real estate, the coffeehouse culture has prevailed, and we could think of no other area of the city in which a new style coffee bar could thrive.