I have been out of town the last few days. Depending on my destination, I usually have a list of my favorite coffee places or seek advice from other coffee enthusiasts about where to find exceptional coffee or espresso. I knew this time, from previous trips, that finding excellent coffee was not a possibility. I can’t drink the bad stuff and can’t go without coffee,  so I always travel with my coffee paraphernalia - grinder, whole beans, brushes, scoop, bottled water and a French Press. I always manage to forget my toothbrush though - no kidding!

As it turned out this hotel was all about awesomely comfortable, luxurious rooms with no way to heat up water. Friday morning I headed out into the main area of the hotel looking for hot water. I find Leo, rad hotel attendant, he is feeling my lack of caffeine pain and is totally intrigued by my request for sufficiently hot water while walking around with a French Press of freshly ground Costa Rica La Minita. Leo takes me into a small utility room and there is was - a Bunn water tower with hot water (200F)! Leo watched every move and when the coffee was ready I shared my French Press with him.

Leo suddenly left the room and said “don’t leave I will be right back”. I ended up making about 5 or 6 French Presses that morning for the hotel staff and one of the owners. They thought it was the best cup of coffee they EVER tasted. Once again, coffee provided me with an awesome experience - sitting around the table with people from many parts of the world and country, tasting coffee and talking coffee and sharing small slices of life. I returned to the utility room the next morning to find my coffee stuff totally cleaned and ready to make more coffee. The manager of the hotel restaurant also provided me with an Italian ceramic cup to drink my coffee for the remainder of my stay! So, travel with your coffee stuff, have good coffee and cool experiences.

Yep, we are still watching the Presidential debate tonight at Tazza D’Oro - 9 pm. I hear it’s still a go, but at the very least we could work up some good discussion. A good friend of Tazza D’Oro, Eric, who owns Pittsburgh Custom Home Theater, offered to bring and install one of his big, flat panel TVs.  How very rad is that? This is what I call helping the cause. (BTW, Greg is the guy with all the awesome gadgets, gear and screens - love him!)

Show up, bring your own mind, listen carefully, look around the room, look at your community, look at the issues and not the distractions and then ….

I suspect I will be in the kitchen practicing deep breathing or racing by bike up and down Highland Ave! As always, we will be serving our amazing coffee but NO Kool Aid. Jim, you bringin any Grappa?

If you have been following our blog, back in February I wrote the post “Having a connection to the things we eat and drink“. As I re-read the post I don’t think I could say it any better, except seven months later, I can honestly say that at least 80% of what you now buy at Tazza D’Oro is either local or, as in the case of our coffee, there is a direct relationship/knowledge of where the beans come from. It would be an amazing goal to reach 100%, but unfortunately that is probably not possible (I think!). BTW, I think we are also one of the largest CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) sites in the city for Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance - so I know there are a lot of locavores passing through Tazza D’Oro.

September 21st through the 27th Southwestern Pennsylvania will celebrate Local Food Week. On September 23rd from 10 am to 12 noon, please stop in Tazza D’Oro to meet Nicholas Yon from Turner Dairy and Mary Stoner, a local dairy farmer. You will have the chance to see pictures of the farm and talk with Nicholas and Mary about their commitment to provide us with exceptional milk and dairy products. For me it’s always a great experience to meet and connect with the folks who produce what I consume and to understand that I make a powerful statement everyday by where and how I spend my dollar!

Beyond food and coffee we are also very committed to purchasing local services from other small, independent businesses like Bob the plumber, Ilya our web guru, Erin, Eric and Mica the painters, Roger, our fixer guy, bikes from the local shops, and countless other folks who help keep Tazza D’Oro and me running.

List of our partners and products:

Coffee - Batdorf and Bronson

Milk and Dairy - Turner Dairy

Veggies, Produce, Fruit, Beef, Eggs, Honey - Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance

Poultry: JL Kennedy Farms

Biscotti - La Peri Dolci

Bread and Pastry - Enrico’s Bakery

Bagels - Stagnos Bakery

Bakery Supply - Stover and Co

PASA (PA Assoc for Sustainable Agriculture) - Business Member

Beginning Saturday, September 13th Learn more »

Alright, you guys have broken me down with countless emails, phone calls, stopping me on the street, on my bike, in my car and on and on. Learn more »

WYEP has once again invited Tazza D’Oro back to their annual Rock the Block Party - Saturday, Sept 6th from 8 pm to 12 am.  Yea, we accepted and are totally excited. Our Rock the Block debut last year was awesome - we ran into lots of our customers and had a chance to introduce many new people to our coffee and homemade Italian sweets.  Like last year, we will also have the rare chance to hang with several of our favorite business owners and friends from - Point Brugge, Gypsy Cafe, Dozen Bake Shop, Harris Grill, Penn Brewery and  big Burrito.

Come and hear of some of the best music of the season, taste the food from outstanding, local Pittsburgh restaurants, have some brew and stop to see us for some really rad coffee and treats!

We also hear that Amelia’s Rock debut from last year shows up on the WYEP web site and WYEP’s MySpace page. Yep, it was only a matter of time -drinking coffee then rockin the block! I’m smiling.

Organic Ethiopian coffees are rare in the specialty coffee industry. Learn more »

After two days of intense training Learn more »

How lucky are we? Two weeks ago I was at Batdorf and Bronson in Olympia, WA. witnessing the first roasting of our micro-lot of the Panama Esmeralda and tonight Oliver, from Batdorf and Bronson, is in Pittsburgh to conduct our next level of training for the baristas at Tazza D’Oro. All of the trainings we have received from Oliver and the other folks at B&B have been amazing but I am really excited about this one. Over the next couple of days Oliver and I will work with each barista behind the bar as they prepare all the coffee drinks during business hours - this is the tweaking and polishing of all that we do. We have a couple of new employees who will receive their barista certification and then we move on for the big fun.

The Tazza D’Oro baristas will spend most of the day on Wednesday learning about the chemistry and physics behind making exceptional espresso. The goal is to provide all the current info available, build on previous trainings and introduce new skills necessary for our staff to better incorporate their knowledge and technique into the craft of making great coffee. No robots here folks!!!

Tuesday, 8/19, hours: 7 am to 7 pm and Wednesday, 8/20, 7 am to 2 pm and back to normal hours on Thursday.

Oliver, all I’m saying is no espresso hangovers this time. The last time Oliver was here in Oct 2007 we certified all of the Tazza D’Oro baristas. The certification took about 10 hours and Oliver and I tasted well over 100 espresso drinks. I’m not kidding about the espresso hangover either.

On Monday, August 11th at 10:30 am, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Councilman Patrick Dowd along with an impressive group of other policy makers and implementers will be holding a press conference at Tazza D’Oro to announce the City’s plan for a progressive Learn more »