ksummers's Profile
Birmingham: Nice restaurants, mediocre coffee
We at o kafes! found great resistance among restaurants to carry quality coffee. I think there are numerous reasons why they tend to choose Royal Cup: 1) quality coffee costs more and restaurant owners don't think that quality coffee can increase their bottom line; 2) restaurant owners care more about getting free machinery and maintenance assurances than they do about how the coffee tastes [one local restaurant called and said they would buy my coffee if I would provide them with an espresso machine and brewer, a $5,000 investment]; 3) many restaurant owners don't know that there are varying grades of coffee. It seems to me that if a restaurant owner would pitch that his or her establishment carries Fair Trade organic, locally roasted coffee, that would increase the perception of the restaurant's quality. One rising problem: some corporate roasters are claiming to have 100% Fair Trade organic coffee when they do not.
