Tag: food

Peregrine Espresso – As good as it gets in DC

Peregrine Espresso

1718 14th St NW
Washington DC 20009

and

660 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington DC 20003

www.peregrineespresso.com/

Read about my planned cappuccino tour around the DC area.

Read about my first visit to the 14th street Peregrine just after its opening.

Peregrine along 14th st. NW (from a previous post)

I discovered Peregrine Espresso shortly after moving to DC, and I have been going there pretty frequently since.  As I wondered around the DC espresso scene, I soon realized that they likely have the best cappuccino in the district, but I haven’t had a chance to do a review.  But last week, I took my camera with me to 14th street location to drink a cappuccino and get some work done.  It was as good as always.

Peregrine has two locations; one in the lovely Eastern Market neighborhood of SE DC, and one on 14th St NW in the Midcity neighborhood.  It was started by an ex-barista of Murky Coffee, which was at the Eastern Market location before its owner Nick Cho was banished from DC. The Eastern Market shop is Peregrine’s original location, and is a little larger than the 14th street location (though they are both small), but both have the same sunny interior.

This time I checked out the 14th  St. location, because it is on the green line of the Metro (and I wanted to head to College Park afterward), but I usually prefer the Eastern Market location because its neighborhood is one of the nicest in DC.  The large market there is open every day and carries many meats, fishes, and vegetables; there is also farmers market and flea market on Saturdays and Sundays.  It is all worth checking out.  That said, 14th street is a pretty interesting area as well, close to the U st corridor, featuring several music venues, bars, restaurants, galleries, and furniture stores (actually, a ton of furniture for some reason).

Ok, now to the consumables.  Peregrine has really good muffins and other baked goods, but the real show is the espresso.  They serve Counter Culture Coffee, which is phenomenal stuff.  I almost always order the cappuccino, though their espresso and

Sometimes the latte art is even better.

pour-over coffee are also great.  I’ll give my tasting notes from this week’s visit, but it was entirely consistent with my other visits there.  The latte art was exceptional, and the microfoam was perfect.  The underlying espresso was a bit nutty and sweet, with the microfoam and milk mixing in to yield some nice milk chocolate notes.  Exceptional all around.  Ok, the numbers (all out of 5):

Smoothness: 4.8

Presentation: 5

Strength: 5

Complexity: 4.2

Foam: 5

Mean: 4.8

SD: .35

If you are in DC, you should head to one of Peregrine’s locations; it will be worth the trip.  I’m going to predict that this will be the best cappuccino that I find in DC, though there are several others that might come close.  In the next few weeks, I’m going to try to hit some of the places that I think are top contenders to match Peregrine’s cappuccino.  So we shall see.

Chinatown Coffee – at least it is hip

Chinatown Coffee

475 H st. NW
Washington, DC 20001
www.chinatowncoffee.com

Read about my planned cappuccino tour around the DC area.

When Chinatown coffee opened in 2010, there was a great deal of excitement surrounding it.  Nick Cho, of Murky Coffee fame (who I have mentioned in previous posts), was even general manager at Chinatown for a while (before DC went after Cho for back taxes, and they ended their “relationship”).  In fact, Chinatown was the first coffee shop I went to in the district; it was supposed to be among the best.  The shop is located in the very lively Chinatown district of DC, close to a number of large offices, shopping areas, excellent places to eat (along with a good number of really crappy Chinese restaurants), and museums.   On paper, the place has a lot going for it.  However,  I have always found it to be a bit of a letdown; I have been here many times while living in DC and it has almost always been consistently worse than other top coffee shops.  But we will come to that a bit later.

Chinatown coffee is a rather small exposed brick shop; it is what you would expect from the pinnacle of hip urbanity.  They serve bottled beer and

from Bill Walsh at Honestcooking.com

baked goods along with their coffee, but no other food.  I have to say that the muffins are delicious.  Recently they have also hosted a variety of food trucks (all the rage in DC) on Thursday nights, very cool!  It is always seems crowded (regardless of the time of day), so expect this if you visit; as with many DC coffee shops, getting a seat can be a chore.

The cappuccino looked very nice, with perfect microfoam.  This sort of foam-perfection is the norm here.  However, I was not impressed by the underlying espresso, which is odd given that Chinatown uses one of the best coffees in the country (Intelligentsia, out of Chicago).  I’m not positive about why this is, but I

A really nice looking cap

saw that they were selling some coffee beans that were well over a week old; it is possible that they were using beans that were a little past their prime.  Regardless of why the espresso was lackluster, it lacked any real complexity and had an off-putting bitterness.  This is certainly unfortunate given how seriously they seem to take the preparation of their coffee drinks.  Here are the ratings, all out of a possible 5 points:

Smoothness: 3.3

Presentation: 5

Strength: 4.7

Complexity: 4.0

Foam: 5

Mean: 4.4

SD: .74

Chinatown is certainly the best coffee shop in its part of DC, however there are better offerings  in nearby Capitol Hill and Dupont Circle.  If you are in the area it is certainly a place to check out, but if you are willing to travel a bit there are better offerings elsewhere.

Big Chair Coffee n’ Grill cappuccino review – a good machine is not enough

Big Chair Coffee n’ Grill

2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20020
www.bigchaircoffeeshop.com

Read about my planned cappuccino tour around the DC area.

Most American cities are racially and economically segregated, and in that regard Washington DC is a typical American city. However, it is rarer for a single unmistakable boundary to separate the wealthy from the poor; DC’s Anacostia River is such a boundary. To the northwest of this river can be found everything that DC has to offer: the mall and the federal government facilities that surround it, the wealthy neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park, the diversity and hipness of Shaw and Columbia Heights, the diverse middle class neighborhoods east of Rock Creek Park, and much more. There is crime and strife everywhere in DC, but overall unemployment is low and there is a general feeling that things are improving (whatever that means). However, the area southeast of the Anacostia is not experiencing the urban resurgence that has changed much of DC over the past 15 years; unemployment in most of this area is near 30% and profound poverty is widespread.

Likely as a result of this, these areas of DC lack basic neighborhood amenities, like decent grocery stores and sit-down restaurants, that most people take for granted. It is perplexing to see many neighborhoods northwest of the river (in fact neighborhoods that have far higher crime rates) prosper while nearly identical ones southeast rarely receive any new investment; there seems to be an irrational stigma attached to areas across the river. When I visited, I went with a friend who’s family had lived in DC for several generations; he was the first in his family to step foot anywhere in DC south of the Anacostia river.  I suppose, that is how bizarre segregation can be.

I crossed the river for a cappuccino. To be more precise, I went to the first and only place southeast of the river to serve espresso, Big Chair Coffee n’ Grill. Big Chair, in the Anacostia neighborhood, is named after a big chair across the

The big chair

street from it that was erected ages ago by a local furniture company (back when the area was more prosperous). Now, the chair is a local landmark, and I have to say it is certainly a big chair.

 

You should understand that I had some reason to hope for a good experience at Big Chair, and it is related to Murky Coffee (the now defunct coffee house that was run by Nick Cho), which I talked a little bit about in my review of North Side Social. When Murky closed its doors in DC, its property was auctioned off; this property included an espresso machine. The owners of Big Chair bought this machine before opening up shop in Anacostia, and it now makes all of their espresso. Even though they have an excellent espresso machine, Big Chair certainly isn’t focused on espresso. They have a full grill menu and a liquor license, so as I only had a cappuccino I can’t judge these offerings.

Big Chair is located inside a converted row-house; the main coffee bar and kitchen is on the first floor with more seating on the second floor. I went on a weekday early afternoon and

Outside image from dc.urbanturf.com and Gretchen Cook

there were a few people on the first floor, mostly reading or waiting for their food. I ordered a small cappuccino and went upstairs to do some reading. Unfortunately, my drink came in a paper cup; perhaps they thought I was taking it to go, but I didn’t give any indication of this, so they should have assumed that I was staying.

When I got the drink, the froth was quite poor, with a texture similar to

This was taken after the foam settled.

dish-soap (with very little microfoam) and below that mostly warm milk; the espresso was not much better. The taste was quite flat, with the common dull bitterness that occurs from poor extraction or old beans. If the espresso hadn’t been drowned in too much milk it likely would have been slightly offensive, but as it was it was just a bit boring. So, although their machine is legit, their cappuccino left quite a bit to be desired.   My ratings follow (all out of 5):

Smoothness: 3

Presentation: 2

Strength: 2.5

Complexity: 2

Foam: 3

Mean Score: 2.5

SD = .5

I was a bit disappointed with Big Chair’s cappuccino.  As I’ve heard good things about the other aspects of Big Chair, I suspect it is similar to a lot of neighborhood coffee shops that offer good drip coffee and food offerings but where the espresso is mediocre. There are many coffee shops in DC like this, and it makes finding good espresso a bit of a challenge. However, most people don’t really care how the espresso is, so these sorts of places are often still great assets to their communities.  So, to conclude, Anacostia certainly isn’t scary (as many local fear-mongers will lead you to believe), but it still doesn’t have good espresso. Maybe I’ll be back in a few months to see if things have improved; I’ll update if so.

Modern Times cappuccino review – unironically used typewriters

Modern Times Coffeehouse

In the basement of Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
http://www.moderntimescoffeehouse.com/

Read about my planned cappuccino tour around the DC area.

Politics and Prose is a rather famous part of the DC bookstore scene.  It is best known for its numerous book talks, that often feature prominent authors of all sorts.  It also helps that it is located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods

A Google streetview image because I was feeling lazy

in DC;  a place full of rich people who like to attend book talks and actually buy new books from brick and mortar stores (pure craziness).  If this place didn’t sound cool enough, it also was rumored to have an  excellent coffee house in the basement.  Books and good coffee in a nice neighborhood – I had to see this.

Politics and Prose is located in a nondescript strip of stores along Connecticut Avenue NW.  The bookstore is quite nice (especially the discounted book section next to the cafe) and it would be a good place to browse.  It is also one of the more dignified  bookstores I’ve been to; it is the sort of place where you will see an older gentleman unabashedly set up a typewriter and begin his work as he sips coffee (I actually saw this).  The cafe is downstairs and was extremely busy on the Saturday afternoon I was there.  This is pretty normal for popular DC cafes; but if you go on a weekend don’t expect a seat.

The cappuccino at Modern Times

Modern Times has a menu that includes a wide variety of sandwiches and salads but, because it was so busy, I just ordered a cappuccino and  quickly took the seat of someone who was leaving.  Their cappuccino was a bit of an enigma.   The microfoam was excellent and the presentation was also quite nice.  The espresso element was too bitter, especially initially.  However, this bitterness gave way after a while (likely due to my own accommodation) to a dark chocolate flavor.  This kept my interest, even though it wasn’t the most pleasing taste.  My ratings (all of out 5) are as follows:

Smoothness: 3

Presentation: 4.6

Strength: 4.8

Complexity: 4.3

Foam: 4.8

Mean Score: 4.3

SD = .75

I will likely be back to Politics and Prose and will certainly get a cappuccino at Modern Times while I’m there.  However, next time I’ll try to come during a weekday when the cafe isn’t as busy; I suspect I’ll get a better cappuccino then.  I don’t think Modern Times is worth a trip by itself, but it is a good place to get espresso if you find yourself in the area.  Politics and Prose, on the other hand, is worth the trip.

 

 

Northside Social cappuccino review – a Murky connection

Northside Social – Coffee and Wine

3211 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, Virginia 22201
http://northsidesocialarlington.com/

Read about my planned cappuccino tour around the DC area.

Northside Social has ample seating inside and out.

I think it would be fitting if I start my tour of DC cappuccinos with the place where DC’s most famous espresso bar finally gave up the ghost.  Before Northside Social came into existence, its store front was occupied by a different coffee shop named Murky Coffee.  Murky was owned by Nick Cho, who is famous for both bringing world class coffee to DC (the land of Starbucks and Caribou) as well as telling a customer who had requested an espresso over ice (coffee sin!) that he would “punch him in his dick” if he ever came into his store again. Unfortunately, Murky closed just before I arrived here in DC; apparently, although Nick Cho is serious about his coffee, he isn’t serious about paying bills, wages, and taxes.  I’ll have more on this in upcoming posts.  Several cafes in DC have a connection with Murky.

With that in mind, Northside Social is a very different place from what Murky was.  I was lucky to visit Northside with a friend who lived in Arlington when Murky was around, so he had some perspective on how much it has changed.  Murky was very utilitarian, with crappy chairs and extension cords everywhere.  It also pretty much only served coffee and typical indie coffee shop fare (muffins, scones, etc.).

Northside Social is a different story.  The new owners have made the interior very attractive, with lots of comfortable seating.  The space is also very large for a DC area cafe (it occupies a large converted house), with lots of smaller rooms where one can find a bit more quiet.  Most importantly, Northside Social specializes in a wide variety of wine and food along with the coffee.  I had a cranberry turkey sandwich along with my cappuccino; it was made with fresh bread made in-house and was delicious.  My friend had a scone (also made in-house) which he thought was also delicious.

I ordered the “classic cappuccino” (they listed this as an option on the menu – this will get you a proper 6oz drink).  They serve Counter Culture Coffee (a roaster out of North Carolina), which is the most common brand of beans in high-end coffee shops in the DC area.  Most coffee geeks agree that they rank among the best coffee roasters in the country.  So, Northside Social is certainly starting with excellent coffee.

The cappuccino was a mixed bag.  The presentation and microfoam were excellent (because I was a little delayed in taking the picture, some bubbles started to form around the periphery – the original presentation was better than

A lovely cappuccino

the picture would suggest).  However, the underlying espresso was a bit bitter, and lacked complexity.  Given that I know they were using high quality coffee, I think they probably over-extracted the espresso. It was quite unfortunate given everything else this place has going for it.  My ratings are as follows (all are out of 5)

Smoothness: 3.5

Presentation: 5

Strength: 5

Complexity: 3.5

Foam: 4.8

Mean Score: 4.36

SD = .87

Northside Social has a pretty good cappuccino.  I will almost certainly be back in the future, hoping that they don’t mess up the espresso next time.  They seemed capable of producing great espresso here (if perhaps inconsistently), and the other amenities of the place make it a pretty wonderful cafe.

Next week I travel up to Friendship Heights to see how they make cappuccinos in the basement of the venerable bookstore, Politics and Prose.

A tour of DC cappuccinos

A couple of years ago I started a project to try a cappuccino at every legitimate coffee house in Madison, WI.  I ended (only missing a few places) that project a few days before moving to the Washington, DC area; now I would like to try a similar thing here in DC.  I learned a lot from my first project in Madison and I hope to share some of my experiences with DC coffee houses.  I’ve already explored a great deal of DC’s coffee scene but up until now I have not done so in a systematic way; this is what I will do on this blog in the coming months.

I like cappuccinos; that is primarily the reason why I will review those rather than other espresso drinks (or even drip coffee).  However, there are other reasons why cappuccinos are a good test of the quality of a cafe.  Most espresso drinks consist primarily of prepared espresso and milk in various forms and quantities.  The best way to test a cafe’s espresso is to drink it straight; however, this will give you no indication of how well that cafe prepares milk.  Alternatively, trying a latte will give you a good indication of how well the cafe steams milk, but the high milk to espresso ratio makes it very difficult to make an assessment of the underlying espresso.  A cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 foam; this composition allows the nuanced features of the espresso to come through, while retaining the silkiness and sweetness of the milk (that most people prefer).

One problem with enjoying cappuccinos is that excellent ones are a relative rarity.  Everything must come together: the cafe must use fresh, high quality beans, the barista must use the proper amount and perfect fineness of grind and must tamp the espresso with a certain amount of pressure (and only use one application of pressure), the machine must be at a certain precise temperature to produce a good extraction, the barista must use the proper amount of milk and be able to use the steam wand to produce a good amount of microfoam.  A problem (or many of them) can arise at any point in this process, producing a cappuccino ranging from good to terrible.  Large chains, such as Starbucks, have been able to produce espresso drinks of decent quality consistently by using “full-auto” espresso machines; these machines grind and tamp coffee by themselves, producing espresso at the push of a button.  This means that the barista need only froth milk effectively, largely avoiding the possibility of truly terrible espresso drinks.  However, this automation never seems to produce truly exceptional espresso.  Fortunately, most cafes still use “semi-auto” espresso machines, which require a barista of great skill…and keeps things interesting.

The bottom line: there are a lot of terrible cappuccinos out there and hopefully I can help you avoid them.  There are also certainly some amazing ones, that I hope to find (and keep all to myself!).  Just as I did in Madison, I will be using several criteria in my assessments of cappuccinos.  Most importantly, understand that my score is of the drink itself and not other qualities of the cafe (price, food, ambiance, other happiness producing properties…); I will comment on other features of a cafe but these will not be included in my scores.  The criteria are as follows, only slightly modified (and hopefully improved…) from the reviews I did in Madison (all rated on a 5 point scale):

Smoothness: Bitter cups will get a low score.

Presentation: Cappuccinos should be in a 5 -6 oz cup; milk art is always a plus.

Strength: A sufficiently robust drink will get a high score, a milky one will earn a low score.

Complexity: If the cup seems to have hints of several flavors, it will score highly.

Foam: A cappuccino should have a layer of finely frothed milk (microfoam).

The following map shows the cafes that I will visit; once I visit a cafe I will change its icon into a cup and a link to the review will be included in the title.  The latest reviews can always be found at this blog, under the “DC Cappuccino Reviews” category.   DC has far more cafes than Madison does, so I must be rather selective about the places I chose to visit (or I’ll never finish!).  Essentially, if I have found any indication on the internet (mainly yelp and google searches) or by word of mouth that a cafe has good cappuccinos, I have included it on my list.  I have also left off the large chains, as these are typically very similar to one another and thus not very interesting (see my review of the cappuccino at a Madison Starbucks). This is only a preliminary list and I will add cafes to it as I get new leads.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=201189551063676516414.000499bd5cd0e01391673&ll=38.904927,-77.040939&spn=0.213736,0.274658&z=11&output=embed&w=400&h=400]

Finally, I will also take some time in each post to talk about the neighborhoods in which the cafes are located.  So, if you are a tourist wanting to know more about DC and you have a hankering for espresso, my reviews should be a good starting point.

Ok, now that all of that is out of the way, first stop….North Side Social in Arlington!  I hope it’s good!

Cappuccino Review #1 – Starbucks

Starbucks on the capitol square

starbucks-outsidesmall
Across the street from the state capitol; many suits are found inside.
1 E Main St # 101
Madison, WI 53703
website
For an intro about how and why I am trying the cappuccinos of Madison, go here

It was a beautiful day in Madison today (topping out at 54deg F, which is amazing for Madison in February), so I met Taryn downtown after work and decided to start my series of cappuccino reviews with Starbucks.  You may love or hate the place, but you can’t deny that Starbucks has forever changed the the coffee shop businesses.  It is often times argued that they come into towns and attempt to drive out locally owned businesses.  However, in my experience (I am from suburban Wisconsin) Starbucks has only increased the quality of local shops that could get away with substandard espresso drinks before the competition.  Starbucks does set a certain (though perhaps low) bar of quality.

I went to the Starbucks on the capitol square because I had not actually ever been in there, though there are many of them around town.  For all my reviews, I’ll rate shops by 6 criteria; I explain them fully in a previous post.  I’ll list my final ratings at the end, but here is my non-numeric impression of the Starbucks cappuccino.

I ordered a ‘short’ cappuccino, the mystery size that does not appear on their menu.  In my experience a ‘tall’ (12 oz) cappuccino is little more than a latte; you get the same 1 shot of espresso but with way too much milk.  However, the ‘short’ is still 8 0z (which is about 3 oz too large), but I’ll take what I can get.  I was pleased when I got the drink though; previously at Starbucks I’ve only gotten cappuccinos to go.  The drink certainly looked like it might be a pleasant surprise.

It is a pretty (though large) cappuccino
It is a pretty (though large) cappuccino.

One good sign, as can be seen in the picture, is the ‘espressoized’ milk peeking through the foam; this usually means that you will at least be able to taste the coffee over the milk.  However, it is a tad too big (by about 2 or 3 oz) so I sort of expected a rather weak cappuccino.

And flimsiness is exactly what I got.  Although the foam was quite silking, sweet and good, the rest of the drink was weak and unremarkable.  The espresso that I did taste was just ok, a tad bitter and without much complexity beyond the stereotypical espresso flavor.  So overall, this was a serviceable cappuccino; I might get it again if I found myself in a Starbucks (though I’m not sure I would do so in Madison given my other options), but otherwise I wouldn’t come here again.  However, I have to say that their toffee almond bars are really good; I might be back just for that!  In other news, Taryn’s Chai latte was also “ok”, a bit weak and average.  Here are the numbers for the cappuccino; all scores are out of 5 possible points:

Smoothness: 2

Presentation: 4

Strength: 3

Complexity: 2

Foam: 4

Correctness: 3

Mean score: 3 /5

SD: 0.89