Aldo Coffee Company

Aldo Coffee Is Now Orbis Caffe

2012-02-21T22:37:18-05:00

Legacy

2012-01-20T14:22:09-05:00

Just discovered this video, which was shot shortly after the sale but before the Orbis remodeling. Kinda touching. Guess we'll be looking forward to seeing an Orbis barista or two in a competition soon?

Orbis Caffe Now Has Its Own Website

2012-01-15T14:45:06-05:00

If you came here looking for Aldo Coffee, we're not here.

But there's still great coffee being brewed in our former location, courtesy of the new owners. And you can now check them out here: www.orbiscaffe.com.

Lots more pastries. They brought back Intelligentsia Coffee and Big Train Chai. And panini. Plus an excellent Sunday brunch.

So bookmark it. And visit often.

Orbis Caffe Featured in Table Magazine

2012-01-04T14:01:49-05:00

Nice article in Table Magazine. Congratulations to the Schutte family on a successful transition. They're doing a fantastic job with the place. We've stopped in most every weekend since selling the place and the espresso and cappuccinos are as solid as ever. Even though we're no longer there, you'll still find great coffee, talented baristas and friendly service.

Thanks for the Memories

2011-11-15T01:03:49-05:00

These are tough to write. We know we're going to forget someone or something important. But it must be done.

And it must be done now as on Wednesday, this site goes to redirect mode. We're assuming the redirect site will be live by then :-)

In short, back on December 30, 2004, we opened with the thought that we'd try to do something different than yet another Starbucks knockoff. We'd do something radical for Pittsburgh for that time - we'd study brewing, serve only really good ethically sourced coffee, train appropriately and see where it took us.

Some of it worked. A lot of it didn't. Over the next seven years we converted a lot of people to our way of thinking about coffee. We pissed off a lot of others (well, Rich and a couple others did, anyway). Which brings us to a pet peeve:

People really need to look up pretentious in the dictionary before slinging it around. You're using it wrong. If someone can actually deliver the goods, it ain't pretentious, folks. If we charged you another two bucks and presented your coffee under a silver dome with some exaggerated performance while your drink got cold, yeah, then you'd have a point. But the way coffee is brewed and presented here is far from pretentious. It's simple. It's true. It's what we say it is. If you think all coffee should be about a buck and taste like a tire, that's your problem, not ours.

Whew. Feels better to get that out of our system. It wouldn't be us without saying something :-)

Anyway, talking to folks who came in this week, even we were stunned by the number of people who've been near-daily regulars for four, five and six years or more. Not all of them coffee drinkers. Lots of chai and tea folks too.

We hope they'll stay with the new owners. It'll be the same coffee, chai and tea for now.

We never had kids. It wasn't planned that way, just never happened. So a few of our baristas became surrogate kids. As a result we have an extended family we hope will stay together for years to come. Lauren, Melinda, Belle, Frank, Ruthie, Johnny C., Alyse and on the current crew, Clara, Sam and Max all became our "kids" at some point. It's been fun watching them grow up.

We had fun with customers (sometimes even for a cause). And then we had more fun with other baristas. We tried to play well with others. We were always transparent (and often misunderstood because of that).

We actually had 72 people in here once for a tango band. Don't know why we thought of that just now, but we did. And we had a steel drum band play. It was really loud. Bad idea. We've had many. But we'll take credit for having the first dog water bowl on Washington Road. And we will miss spending our Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings with you here in the cafe.

We tried to be innovative where it made sense. We were the first Pittsburgh coffeehouse to blog. Possibly the first to tweet (seems none of those "find your first tweet" services work well or we'd post our first). We glommed onto Flickr when it became the new hotness. We even tried to get all Washington Road businesses to create an umbrella online presence. We were proficient enough at social media that early on we were probably better known nationally than we were within the South Hills.

On the coffee side, we competed and did well. We looked at the Clover (you didn't think much of it). We tried pourovers. And then we tried them again. (most of you didn't think much of those either). We got a terrific high-tech roaster. And the coffee that came out of it was served at the best restaurant in Pittsburgh.

Since Rich has to catch a 6am flight, time to wrap this up...

It's been really nice to hear from people we've inspired in some way (Wiggles almost brought us to tears). A number of people have come up to us this week to say we're the ones that put Pittsburgh coffee on the map. It's a nice sentiment for a legacy. Partly true even.

Thanks to Tom, Casey, Guy, Elizabetta, Mike and Dave for being early to the party and getting the word out for us. And to Roger, Greg, Sunil, Chris for their prolific tweets over the past couple of years. There are too many to mention on Facebook, although it seems over there our most prolific posters are customers who moved away. Or relatives. We miss you too :-(

Thanks to the folks who've been with us since the start. A special thanks to Angela (whom we apparently never could please, but she always comes back and leaves generous Christmas gifts), Ron and Pipi, all of our upstairs neighbors, and the late Giovanni whose spirit lives on in our kitchen and the late Jack, who, when he had the voice to tell us stories, told amazing ones. And we miss Fisherman Bill even though he's not actually dead. Dave, Bruce, Tom, Chris and Cheryl (and Porter), 61C John, Gary and Deb, Kim, Nail Shop Guy, Sybil, Jay, Larry... ah, this is long list. Heck, we'll even thank Bernardo Katz who used to hold his meetings here before he fled the country and was wanted by Interpol. So thank you to everyone who has amassed a fully stamped customer card. Or two. Or three or more. Thank you all very much.

Thanks to everyone who's had us cater an event. That was a nice side business. And we had fun doing those. (Except for trying to unload at LeMont). And thanks to everyone who's ever attended a free coffee class or paid training session here. Your desire to learn more about coffee is the best feedback we could ever ask for.

Special thanks to our straight espresso and traditional cappuccino customers. You're why we train hard to understand espresso. When there's not much else to hide the taste, the coffee needs to be exceptional. Special thanks also to everyone who's ordered a pourover. You get what we've been trying to do here and we appreciate your trusting us to brew a great cup.

Thanks to Intelligentsia for leading the way. Thanks to Stumptown for being way too generous. Thanks to the folks at Fresh Roast Systems for answering all our questions, even on weekends. Thanks to Daryn Berlin for the singlemost hysterical moment we've ever had here. Thanks to Walter who built the roaster platform, which is now the brunch station. Thanks to Al Liu/Atlas and Thom Owen/Shrub for amazing green coffee for us to roast and serve. Thanks to Scott Rao for writing two great books we use to train and for replacing our lost Barista's Handbook gratis (even though he hates Rich). Thanks to Nick Cho for staying out of jail so he could continue his solid work at raising the public's perception of the barista as a professional and promoting our community. Thanks to Jay Caragay for being Jay Caragay. Thanks to James Hoffmann for letting Rich win the first MidAtlantic sprodown. And thanks to Troy Reynard for hosting that event and for all his work to support our region's coffee professionals. And thanks to Mary Diamond for her hospitality at LaMarzocco and Piero for utterly confusing Melanie on the history of machines. Thanks to Anne and Neil for being neat houseguests and playing with the dog. And thanks to every barista out there who's ever given us a great drink. There are too many of you to mention, yet still too few in the world.

Local thanks to China Millman for all the great words about coffee and mentioning coffee in almost every restaurant review. Thanks to Matt and Luke & Alexis and Barb & Amalie and Melanie's BFF Amy Enrico for pushing the boundaries of coffee excellence in Pittsburgh. Thanks to Chef Sousa for believing and trusting in our coffee (and for that box of neato chemicals). Thanks to Bill Swoope Jr. for drinks at just about every coffee convention we've attended and for being a sounding point for us all along (and more importantly, for this). Thanks to everyone at Farmers@Firehouse for welcoming us into the club and buying lots of our coffee.

Last but definitely not least, thanks to the folks who are Aldo Coffee Co.: Our baristas. There have been a lot of them, but there are three distinct crews who merit special thanks.

First is the early "fun bunch" crew with Lois, Cara, Petra, Andi and Steve. That was the first crew who could actually make drinkable coffee and pour art.

Then there was the middle "Best Baristas in Pittsburgh" crew of Lois, Belle, Frank, Johnny C., Sonja and Lauren (with thanks also to Ruthie and Melinda who both just missed being in the "official" photo). They put us (and Pittsburgh) on the espresso/coffee map. That was an amazing time. If there's a version of "We Are Family" that pertains to baristas, they were it.

And now the current crew of Lois, Jess, Clara, Sam and Max who will remain with the shop as it transitions to new ownership. Because they earned it and we've learned that they can run the thing themselves.

We couldn't have done it without you. Our unending thanks for everything.

The Worst-Kept Secret In Mt. Lebanon

2011-11-13T15:10:08-05:00

We are selling the store. The papers are finally signed.

As Melanie always said when asked if we would sell, "The business, any business, should ALWAYS be for sale." The thing was, at what price? We put a lot into this over seven years. The price had to be worth it. And then the timing had to be right.

Well, both those things happened.

Rich got a job in Connecticut and is back running and marketing tradeshows again. Melanie will be putting the house up for sale and moving east as soon as that's done. We would've loved to stay here, but neither of us could find a decent job, not for lack of trying.

We think owning a suburban coffeehouse is a nice second income. In fact, you might be seeing us again, this time in the Connecticut coffee scene. But it was always part of the plan that one of us (er, Rich) would have a full time job and we'd use Aldo for a second income and an asset. For the first few years Rich managed a decent income from consulting, but as the economy turned south, so did the opportunities.

We'd say more about what's taking our place here but are waiting for the buyers/new owners to tell their own story.

That said, come 6pm on Tuesday, the era of us owning Aldo Coffee Co. in Mt. Lebanon will come to a close. We think the new owners will open on Wednesday, keep things as is through the weekend and then close for a few days before Thanksgiving to give the place a facelift. They will be open for LightUp Night.

As those close to the story know, the buyer used to work for us. She's a two-time regional barista competition finalist and also competed in the US Barista Championship twice. She is wonderful and you do or will soon love her.

To the best of our knowledge the entire staff is staying. The new owners will be using the same coffee, at least to start. And they have some new ideas and a lot of energy they'll be putting into the place. It'll be good. We are looking forward to being among their most enthusiastic customers when we are in town.

We'll say more within the next 48 hours. Just wanted to get this tidbit out in the public before people started making up their own assumptions.

Coffee: Complicated and Confusing

2011-11-12T10:12:21-05:00

Brand loyalty in coffee is a weird thing to us. To be fair, there was a time and place for brand loyalty when there so few roasters/importers doing good work. But now there are many excellent roasters. And they're all over the place.

We see reviews from Yelp and other sites where 'reviewers' leave comments like, "Intelligentsia (or Stumptown or Counter Culture) is the only coffee I'll drink" or various variations on that theme. Those comments leave us scratching our heads. Especially since so many of those reviewers self-categorized themselves as people who really know coffee.

We still drink Intelligentsia from time to time. We served their coffee for many years because it was usually very good. We served Stumptown for awhile because their coffee was also generally exquisite.

But not always.

We've had some less-than-spectacular coffees from every roaster we've ever dealt with. When we were roasting our own we had some sketchy batches. It happens. Coffees are sometimes released for retail that to our palates are not fully developed, underroasted, overroasted or have other consistency issues. It happens.

We're not talking ethics here. Buying a brand based on a company's outstanding ethics is certainly a good thing. When you're talking Intelligentsia, Stumptown, Counter Culture or most other microroasters that are following a direct trade model that includes sustainability in its practices, then the ethics are about equal. We're talking about taste.

One of the key reasons Starbucks became successful was due to their overroasted profiles - a level of darkness that provided amazing consistency by covering up (or roasting out) flavors and nuances of a particular origin. A practice which of course they learned from Peet's. Every cup had a trademark Starbucks "bite" from overroasting, regardless the origin of the coffee.

To this day, millions of consumers think that Starbucks, or Peet's, (or Folgers or Maxwell House for that matter) is how coffee is supposed to taste. That makes at least a little bit of sense as those coffees have very distinct and singular flavor points that most anyone with a decent palate can pick out as being theirs and theirs alone.

To suggest that Intelligentsia or Stumptown or Counter Culture or a hundred other microroasters who buy direct from farmers, sell primarily single origin (single farms/coops/plots/lots) coffees and roast much lighter than the mainstream brands have a common and distinctly singular flavor point tied to their brand across all their origins is silly.

Here's why: It's all about the coffee, not the roast. If you were to taste a triple picked Sumatra Aceh from each, you'd note that they were all tasty and certainly less earthy than any Sumatra you've had from a national brand. But you couldn't name which of the three companies roasted which coffee, even if you'd had prior experience with each company's offerings from prior years. One might have more acidity, one might be sweeter, one might be rounder.

But to say, "That one is definitely Intelligensia," no, you can't do that (unless perhaps you were cupping lots at origin).

It's fairly obvious even to the least educated palate that a Sumatra Aceh tastes different than a Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and a Kenyan tastes different than a Mexican Chiapas. The varietals are completely different in each case - bourbons vs. heirlooms vs. SL28s vs. caturras, etc.

But varietals are just one differentiator. You've got the country, the region within the country, the elevation on the mountain on which the coffee is grown (higher is generally better), the skill of the farm in terms of harvesting and sorting ripe cherries, the skill of the processors (pulping, drying), the handling post-processing, and all the variables one deals with during a growing cycle (rainfall, temperature, etc.)

In short, each harvest from each farm is completely unique each and every year. One year a coffee from X farm in Bolivia may feature grapefruit acidity with milk chocolate notes, the next year lime or tangerine acidity with more of a baker's chocolate in the background. It's not the same year to year in many countries.

You can make certain assumptions about certain origins - generally speaking Ethiopia Harrars will taste of blueberries, Sumatrans will have more earthiness than other origins and Kenyans will have some level of black currant. But even there, year to year, lot to lot, there are differences that most coffee consumers would perceive if they looked for them.

The bigger point is not every roaster handles each origin similarly. As much as we loved Intelligentsia the first five years we carried the brand, the year we offered Intelli side-by-side with Stumptown, we felt many of the latter's offerings were markedly better, particularly those from Costa Rica, Colombia, Burundi and Ethiopia. And it may have been that we would've felt differently the year before or the year after. During that same time, Counter Culture's PNG offering was the best we'd ever had from that island. Just last week Rich had an El Salvador from Handsome Roasters that he said blew away any El Salvador he'd had this year from any other roaster.

No brand is bigger than the coffee. No brand has a monopoly over the "best" way to roast a particular origin. Sure, some roasters can be counted on to consistently do a good job so you'll never (or rarely) experience a bad cup, but each origin, each crop, presents an opportunity for you to experience how a different roaster presents a coffee from a particular region.

If you really want to call yourself a coffee nerd or geek or connoisieur - or even a full-fledged foodie - you owe it to yourself to get out there and try as many as you can for yourself instead of remaining married to one brand and one roaster. We're certain you'll be surprised at what you taste and your eyes will be opened to even more of coffee's potential to delight and amaze.

And we haven't even touched espresso blends. That's another topic for another day.

What He Said...

2011-10-25T19:25:58-04:00

Ben Kaminsky of Ritual Coffee in SF speaks the truth about top-end specialty coffee shops and why those of us who specialize in single-origin coffees and promote manual brewing have a love-hate relationship with lattes.

This Is Why You Get Into Coffee

2011-10-25T11:48:03-04:00

A post that says everything about a personal experience every true coffee pro would love to share from a man we've never met but for whom we have had the ultimate respect, Hunt Slade.

Early Closings Through Halloween

2011-10-24T19:57:23-04:00

Clara and Sam have college classes. Max has a play he's in up in New Ken this week. Rich has a contract job in Connecticut from Wed-Fri. Neither Lois or Jess has availability in the afternoons. Meaning we don't have enough people to staff late afternoons and do everything else that needs to be done here.

Thus we'll be closing at 4pm all this week, 2pm on Sunday. There WILL be Sunday brunch - this week's origin country theme is Colombia. We'll be closing right after brunch service.

Regular hours will resume on Monday, October 31.

Apologies for any inconvenience.