Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Roanoke cafe has the mojo
Lindsey Nair
Front Burner blog
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Today I bring you random notes on possibly my favorite food-related subject in the whole world.
It's usually the reason I'm late to anything -- just a quick run by the coffee shop; won't take more than a second -- and why the minivan cup holders are routinely strewn with mugs and paper cups.
Friends joke that an IV drip would be more practical, and my Ohioan mom -- whose coffee is so weak I swear you can see Indiana through it -- is incensed that the first thing we do every morning when visiting is to ditch the kids and head to the nearest coffee shop.
Sociologists, community activists and developers call them "placemakers," informal gathering spots that are important to community life, from the neighborhood pub to a park, library, community garden or cafe.
Sybil Barrett knew that her strong-but-mellow organically grown, fair-trade coffees would lure the coffee snobs to her Brambleton Avenue Mojo Cafe, one of a growing number of coffee shops to hit Roanoke in recent years. But she and co-owner Nikki Litwiller also knew the vibe of the place was equally key, which explains why they spent days wallpapering the walls with torn paper bags -- looks a lot cooler than it sounds -- and packing the place with local art, board games and a menu that ranges from breakfast burritos and black-bean burgers to kid-food PB&J (all of it made fresh in their cramped kitchen or bought from local bakers and caterers).
"Coffee is a social activity," says Barrett, 31. "You can meet someone for a drink without being stuck in a bar."
Mojo, one of the rare women-owned restaurants in town, is also known for its smoothies and frozen coffees, including one enhanced with blended chocolate-covered espresso beans and a customer favorite called Griff's Buttery Ripple, a milky caramel-butterscotch coffee Barrett named after her then-infant son, Griffin ("I was nursing at the time.").
I highly recommend it; just watch where you sit. "There are some guys who come in every afternoon who get cranky if someone's sitting in their booth," Barrett says, smiling huge.
Coda begins
Streetside notes from the top of my Grace's Pizza takeout box:
"Whewwwww." That was the sigh of longtime coffee guru Bob Buckley on Thursday on the way home from the opening day of his new coffee shop/wine bar/crepe restaurant in the old CVS building on Grandin Road (catty-cornered to Grace's and the Grandin Theatre).
"This is cavernous," says Buckley, known for his three Java the Hutt drive-through coffee shops, the first of which opened in the Towers Mall parking lot in 1994 in what Buckley describes as an "old Photo-Mat held together with duct tape and spit."
A professional drummer in Los Angeles in a prior life, Buckley is calling the place Coda. And speaking of placemakers, he says he'll have live music, a WiFi connection and also a small zone where weary moms can turn the kiddos loose.
The place should be both a beacon and a boon to the best-kept secret in town, which is the amazing service offered by West Pharmacy in the way-back of the building. When our son Will had a tonsillectomy last year, pharmacist Tim Schirm not only offered to have his prescription delivered to the house. He also noted Will's favorite kind of ice cream -- so he could throw in a free pint of Breyer's chocolate, a $2 investment that will pay off in spades as far as our family's future meds are concerned.
Fair trade?
I made the silly mistake of asking Victoria Brown if the coffee she imports to sell in area stores is fair-trade -- meaning that the growers who cultivate it are fairly compensated via brokers.
Brown's Cafe Kelepa takes the fair-trade concept and does it one better: She imports the coffee from her native Honduran village of Quelepa (she changed the spelling to make it more pronounceable for Anglos). The roasted Arabica beans come directly from the hands of her brother, Ramon Ramirez, and the 15 families he employs on the family's mountaintop land.
The farm was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and was in danger of closing altogether before Victoria and her husband, Donald, hauled the first 129 pounds of roasted beans with them back to their Roanoke County home, packing and selling it to area stores -- and then sending the proceeds back home.
"The income has kept the farm alive. It's helped Ramon to send some of the teenagers to technical school and get a doctor up there a couple times a year to check on everyone," said Donald Brown, a General Electric engineer.
Cafe Kelepa is sold -- prices range from $9.50 to $12 a pound -- at stores including Jamison's Market, some area Krogers, Tinnell's Finer Foods and Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op; see the Web site at cafekelepa.com for a complete list and updates on the business, which now offers on-site brewing for meetings and conferences, gift baskets and limited online sales.
Angeles in a prior life, Buckley is calling the place Coda. And speaking of placemakers, he says he'll have live music, a WiFi connection and also a small zone where weary moms can turn the kiddos loose.
The place should be both a beacon and a boon to the best-kept secret in town, which is the amazing service offered by West Pharmacy in the way-back of the building. When our son Will had a tonsillectomy last year, pharmacist Tim Schirm didn't just offer to have his prescription delivered to the house. He also noted Will's favorite kind of ice cream -- so he could throw in a free pint of Breyer's chocolate, a $2 investment that will pay off in spades as far as our family's future meds are concerned.
Fair trade?
I made the silly mistake of asking Victoria Brown if the coffee she imports to sell in area stores is fair-trade -- meaning that the growers who cultivate it are fairly compensated via brokers.
Brown's Cafe Kelepa takes the fair-trade concept and does it one better: She imports the coffee from her native Honduran village of Quelepa (she changed the spelling to make it more pronounceable for Anglos). The roasted Arabica beans come directly from the hands of her brother, Ramon Ramirez, and the 15 families he employs on the family's mountaintop land.
The farm was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and was in danger of closing altogether before Victoria and her husband, Donald, hauled the first 129 pounds of roasted beans with them back to their Roanoke County home, packing and selling it to area stores -- and then sending the proceeds back home.
"The income has kept the farm alive. It's helped Ramon to send some of the teenagers to technical school and get a doctor up there a couple times a year to check on everyone," said Donald Brown, a General Electric engineer.
Cafe Kelepa is sold -- prices range from $9.50 to $12 a pound -- at stores including Jamison's Market, some area Krogers, Tinnell's Finer Foods and Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op; see the Web site at cafekelepa.com for a complete list and updates on the business, which now offers on-site brewing for meetings and conferences, gift baskets and limited online sales.
