Progress Coffee
Austin
Favorite coffee shops don’t just serve terrific joe; they also act as a modern-day meeting place. This Eastside spot with Owl Tree coffee and fresh biscuits is the best hangout in town. 500 San Marcos Street, Studio 105; 512-493-0963; progresscoffee.com

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2010/01/top_10_best_boutique_coffee_shops

(if you love to cook, this magazine has a lot of great info for a shockingly low subscription price)

The author (Andrew Knowlton) begins his list with a disclaimer of sorts:

A coffeehouse used to be just a few couches, ho-hum muffins, and free Wi-Fi. But a new generation of artisinal roasters and enthusiastic baristas is offering not only a quality cup of joe, but also sophisticated menus and innovative design. End result? Now you’ve got a real reason to hang out.

So take from that what you will, but you’ve got to love seeing Progress on the list! Congrats!

(Congrats to Owl Tree for the mention as well)

“The Pearl Cup is participating in a winter coat drive to gather clean, gently worn coats for ages kids through adults. Our neighborhood DISD schools have voiced a need and we would like to help.  So, bring by one that you can live without, inform the staff at TPC and get $1.00 off of any drink we prepare.  Thank you in advance for sharing this season.”

Donate a coat and get $1.00 off any drink in the house.

The Pearl Cup

Sugar Brown’s Coffee is feeling generous. Espresso happy hour – take a break from your back-to-school shopping with a free espresso macchiatto Tuesday from 1-3 pm!

You heard it here.  What a great way to promote new customers to try them out.  Also a great way for existing customers to try a real macchiato, risk free.

Some readers may already know about Fioza, but since I just found out about them via Flickr (and their ties to Catalina), I figured I’d give them a mention.

I have not been, but I get the impression that they care about the quality of their coffee.

Straight from their website:

Fioza wants the best that coffee has to offer. We are constantly learning, constantly improving, constantly creating, and constantly adjusting anything that can be improved. From fresh locally roasted coffee to well crafted espresso drinks using the best equipment we know, we strive to create a great coffee experience.

Pair that with the fact that they hosted/sponsored a latte art throwdown with Catalina Coffee, and the implied result sounds promising.

Here are a couple of pictures from their website as well:

Have you been to Fioza?  How was it?

Fioza Cafe has been added to our list of Retailers.

Also, if you are a consumer and you post videos of coffee industry news or establishments, you are welcome to be added as well.

The hope is that this new feature can help connect Texas Coffee People who use YouTube together in an effort to further develop the specialty coffee community in Texas.  (as usual)

We would also love to post a promotional video for your event, shop, roasterie, or other related subject matter to our channel, if you would like.  Just let us know via our Contact page.  We’d be glad to hear from you.

I received an email recently asking that The Coffee Haus Downtown be added to our list of Roasters and Retailers.

This shop was apparently one of the first businesses in the downtown Arlington’s urban renewal, and I suspect carries the same Coffee Haus name as has been present in the DFW area for years, though that has not been verified.

The Coffee Haus Downtown has been added to our list of Roasters and our list of Retailers.

FREE Food! Live Music! iPod Give Away! Open House Saturday May 16 @ Coffee N Cream

Please join us this Saturday, May 16th, 2-4p.  We are formally introducing our CNC Own Baked(tm) line of fresh baked, “home made” bakery sensations.  Come sample some of your favorites ”N” celebrate with us.  We have a fun afternoon planned!

mycoffeencream.com

As taken from an email:

Come one, come all to ONCE OVER COFFEE BAR’S GRAND OPENING PARTY!

There were bags of Oak Cliff Coffee hanging around on the shelf, along with some coffee from their other supplier,Buy Well.

Apologies for the “pocket pc”-quality picture. There is a latte in each cup. The milk was frothed well. I have had better, and I have had worse, but overall, the foam was good.

They are pulling shots on a Rancillio 2 group with a Super Jolly-sized solitary grinder.

The espresso was dosed (less than full), “jiggled”, and tamped, with no post-dose distribution. While the latte wasn’t bitter in the overextracted sense, it was neither sour, and it was difficult to place the coffee. In fact, it didn’t taste very much like coffee at all. It tasted like a tall cup of frothed milk. Not offensive, but also not what I was hoping for in a caffe latte. I did notice a tinge of “earthiness”, which implies a Sumatran coffee to me, although I don’t want to say anything definitive without knowing for sure.

The art on the walls was from a Dallas-born photographer living in Brooklyn, NY.  The photography was a great accent, and was quite good. The walls and decor are easy on the eyes, but the seating arrangement left much to be desired. For how much space there is available, it seemed that not many people could fit comfortably in the space due to this arrangement. Furthermore, the chairs that were available were downright uncomfortable. I felt much too cozy to our neighbors at the other table, while at the same time trying to figure out a way to sit comfortably in the chairs that we had found vacant. (the only two at the time)

I wanted to try the brewed coffee to give Oak Cliff Coffee a whirl, but I didn’t want to hang around due to the lack of comfort, and it was later at night (so it was one or the other, and I thought it to be more fair to try the skills of the shop being visited).

Worth dropping by if you’re near the area, but don’t plan on spending too much time there, and you may ask for an extra shot in your latte (or just stick with a cup of brewed coffee instead).

Times are tough especially for coffee houses. I would like to help out by offering a program to all interested coffee shops to “Pay what you think is fair” for our Farm to Market Fair trade coffees.  Perhaps any interested party could e mail me and suggest a price they might want to pay and I will get as close as I can (restraints of our accounting system)  ex if someone wants to pay  $4.00 a pound and the lowest setting was 4.25 we would go with the 4.25.  COD or credit until they establish credit.

This was such an interesting and ethical (of sorts) approach, that we had to pass it along.

DuncanCoffee.com