Saturday Night Smackdown

This Saturday

FRANK – Austin, TX

6:00pm – 10:00pm

When: February 6th, 6pm-10pm

What: “Saturday Night Smackdown was inspired by our dear friends atOctane, those dedicated souls keepin coffee alive in the heart of the dirty south, Atlanta, GA. The idea is similar, to create an event for the surrounding coffee community to gather and share ideas, experiences, knowledge, and a whole lotta love.” – source

The Rules

p.s. – “Instead of the one pour-three judges, winner is picked format SNS will now be done in a more fast paced and thrilling head to head style pour offs. Enter the Single Elimination Bracket System, a tournament style latte art throwdown wherein two baristas pour head to head and one winner is chosen to move to the next bracket unitl we reach the last top two baristas to see who walks away with the top honors.” – source

Who: This one is organized by Tyler Wells(FRANK) and Lorenzo Perkins(Caffe Medici).  the      blog(http://saturdaynightsmackdown.blogspot.com) is run by Lorenzo Perkins.

So, if you want to get down with some latte art love in th ATX, you know what to do!  Be there.

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.

A local photography enthusiast was kind enough to document the last two of them.

Here are a few photos from these two throwdowns.  Enjoy!

The first four photos are from the first Sprodown.  The rest are from the second.

Hey Texas Coffee People!!

We’re having yet another Saturday Night Smackdown. Caffe Medici on Guadalupe in Austin is closing down early on May 30th, we’re pulling out the keg and pulling out the steaming pitchers. It’s listed under the events page on bX, or you can find out more at www.saturdaynightsmackdown.blogspot.com.

We’ll be doing a tasting and discussion on processing methods, then getting a little tipsy and pouring some lattes. Hope to see ya’ll there.

So, the poll is in place.  What do you think?  When you are visiting a shop, is latte art expected?  If they are not pouring art, do you feel something is missing? Do you consider latte art a novelty not worth paying attention to?

Cast your vote, and tell us what you think.  The poll can be found on the sidebar to the left of this post.