Murky Coffee’s Shot Glasses Are, Um, Murky
Though I am a former barista (having first worked at an indie joint and then Starbucks, beginning in 1993), I do live in the DC area, and I have been to Arlington, Virginia’s Murky Coffee on a few occasions, I didn’t weigh in on this summer’s headline grabbing espresso-over-ice controversy for the following reason: all parties involved in the argument were perfectly capable of making asses of themselves without my help.
To recap–for the benefit of those of you who were lucky enough to miss the story–Brooklyn hipster goes to Murky and orders espresso over ice. Barista says um dude we don’t do that. Customer asks like why not? Barista says it makes it taste yucky. Customer says but that’s how I want it. Barista… Well you get the picture.
Boring. And boorish. And blogged to death.
Ultimately, Murky should be able to decline to serve its customers whatever it wants. And the customer should be allowed to ask for his order however he wants it. But Murky should still be able to decline, and said customer should–if he feels so moved–take his business elsewhere.
I was in Murky earlier this week while killing some time waiting for a friend who works nearby. Frankly, if another place was closer and better, I’d have happily gone there. See, I have always found Murky’s coffee to be, frankly, not very good. It’s reasonably priced, and the shop offers a nice space to sit in and read if you can find a table, but let’s be clear that no one should go to Murky for the quality of its coffee.
But that’s not how Murky views itself. What always got me during the summer iced-coffee fiasco was the owner’s public stance about the “very exacting technique” Murky baristas use to brew their espresso drinks. I’d watched them before–as I’m wont to do, as a longtime barista and former Starbucks quality-control inspector–and hadn’t noticed them take any special considerations.
Earlier this week, though, after I ordered my drink, I noticed something quite different than the claimed “very exacting technique”: dirty shot glasses used in drink pours.
It’s barista/bartender 101 that you rinse out a shot glass between pours. Hell, I’ll go so far as to suggest it’s merely common sense. These are photos of my drink being made. The first shows the dirty shot glasses on the espresso maker. Moments later, you can clearly see espresso going into the same dirty shot glasses. (For good measure & authentication purposes, here’s a wider pan snapped seconds later at Murky.)
All of this is to say not that Murky sucks–it doesn’t–or that the iced-coffee guy was right. He probably wasn’t. But it is to say that when you claim to hold yourself to higher standards, and take a holier-than-thou approach with your customers–some of whom are themselves “very exacting” when it comes to the product you sell–you can expect to get bitten in the ass from time to time. As here.
