It's an amazing place to live, much less to visit. Glitter Gulch, Sin city, What Happens Here Stays Here. You name it, we've seen it. Sigfried and Roy, white tigers, Elvis Jumping the fountains, heck we even have a museum dedicated to Liberace.
Follow the I-15 corridor south and you'll find some of the largest mega resorts on the planet and head up the 95 going west you'll find Forrest's and skiing and to be east a huge manmade lake. All of this stuff you can access in one day.
The one thing that you won't find in th city that never sleeps, aside from a good kosher deli, is a culture devoted to the love and expansion of coffee. "Coffee you say. Heck who needs coffee anyways!" Well, before you put your head in the sand and dismiss these ramblings as that of a sour coffee addict just wanting to be heard, let me fill you in on what every other civilized community is enjoying.
Culture in Our own Backyard
Travel in any direction and you will find a Starbucks shop. Next to them you will find the familiar green logo with the fish lady or whatever she is adorning the side of a building, shopping center or strip mall. Usually they are positioned at the entrance of a freeway, to maximize their access to the rushing hoard of workers on their way to and from work.
As their humming Escalades, BMWs and Chevys idle in the long lines that form starting at about 5a, you wonder how in the world are these folks going to make it out of the slow creeping line and make it to work too.
But day after day, they do just that. With no thought to , who is in the building, what the grade of, origin from or process by which that cup of Java got to them. Too much in a hurray to worry about taste. That's why their is a drive thru. Who has time for taste. Day in and day out they blindly gulp over processed, sugary, syrupy concoctions that from the drive thru ledger claim are lattes, cappuccinos and Americanas.
Outside of Las Vegas
Fast forward to another locale in San Francisco. The smartly dressed business man enter the front door of the quaintly adorned artisan cafe owned by Dan Fife and his wife Danielle. The air is awash with the first batch of freshly roasted Papua New Guinea, Danielle sourced from Estaban, a local farmer at Origin. You can almost still hear the sound of his kids playing in the fields as Poppie (Estaban) works his family plantation.
Cafe Vibe
The vibe inside the cafe is simply relaxing. Pictures on the wall are of the many trips the Fife's have taken to the farms where their beans come from. Keepsakes of their visits are major talking points with the friendly patrons who have been coming to the cafe for years. They even remember when the couple planned the trip because it was all over social media and letters they received announcing the trip.
Connectedness
In the door walks some local baristas, who said that they had a new technique, flavor or process that they wanted to share. All of the sudden the quiet cafe becomes a noisy den of excited family members, who act like they haven't seen each other in years. There is a couple on the corner playing UNO that stop their game to find out what the heck all the commotion is all about.
What was That!
What you've just witnessed is the difference between what happens in locales all over the westcoast and well everywhere else, other than Las Vegas. These aren't isolated cases or made up instances, they are real. They happen in places like San Francisco, to place like Oregon, Idaho, Seattle, Japan, London, Brazil, Australia, etc... And it can happen her in Las Vegas too.
The Las Vegas Coffee Culture Magazine is here to chronical and highlite the growing world of coffee culture in Las Vegas. In the coming weeks we will bring to light, the hidden world of Specialty Coffee shops that do exist here.
In a world of Corporate giants, there is a special class of shop owners, we call Artisan shops. They work tirelessly, to bring to you the best in coffees, teas and information on coffee. For many years these shops have not had a voice. They eek out a meager existence serving the community while the "Big Box" stores compete for the hearts and souls of the masses.
Specialty shops gallantly retrain the palates and minds of their clients, who have been fooled into believing that coffee has to be bitter, sugary or frozen with a crown of whipped cream on it to be good. Heck it's a job that most of the folks I've spoken with wouldn't trade for the world.
Each person that comes into their shops becomes an ambassador to the masses, as to how coffee really should be enjoyed. They speak to their friends, coworkers and family to let them know, that coffee really does have a deep and pedigreed history, one that they want to share.
So, keep checking back in, as we talk about the best that Las Vegas has to offer in coffee and the culture we are building.
Avery GoodCup
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