An evening of food and photography with a Coffee Geek
4 Comments
Tiny Bites Consulting
August 24, 2008
Lately, I’ve been following the Twitter musings of Mark Prince, founder of CoffeeGeek.com. It’s the site that my food blogging mentor points me to in my quest to educate myself about the world of coffee.
I had the opportunity to hang with Mark at JJ Bean a few days ago, along with 2008 Western Regional Barista Competition winner Sammy Piccolo of Caffe Artigiano. As I had missed out on the regionals a couple weeks back, Sammy and Mark gave me a run-down of the event, complete with iPhone photo sharing and a showing of Sammy’s “barista hands”. It was a pleasure to talk coffee with these two and to observe their easy camaraderie as they gave me a glimpse inside the industry.
Notable take-away: are you curious about the volatile history of coffee? Check out the 2002 documentary Black Coffee, as I will soon do. [Sammy was featured in the 2006 documentary Black Gold, which I will also check out in the near future.]
As our coffee meetup drew to a close and Sammy took his leave, Mark and I moved over to a nearby El Salvadorean restaurant for an early dinner. Topics shifted to food, restaurants, wine, and photography as we delighted in tacos with homemade chorizo and a selection of pupusas.
At $2.75 per pupusa and warm service from the husband-and-wife proprietors, I am definitely paying a repeat visit to Rinconcito.
Many thanks to Sammy & Mark for an educational coffee break and again to Mark for introducing me to another great food stop along the Drive.
Rinconcito Salvadoreno Restaurant
2062 Commercial Drive | Vancouver
(604) 879-2600
Categories: Commercial Drive, Food, Restaurants
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Hey Karen,
So glad you got to meet up with Mark and Sammy and have them share a bit of the inside coffee knowledge. It’s great to know that a little virtual assistance goes a long way with some local help
[...] El Rinconcito Salvadoreño isn’t right now my fave for Mexican food, but Karen Hamilton recently went there, so read her review and come [...]
Hey Karen its Nigel from http://www.gefree.ca. You were lucky enough to meet with the two most knowledgable people in the local coffee scene, and a couple of the most knowledgable coffee guys in the world. I used to work at Cafe Artigiano, so I have experienced Sammy’s greatness first hand. Keep up the great work.
Matt: It’s my hope that I’ll actually be able to talk coffee with you and understand what you’re saying =)
Nigel: What a small world! Can’t wait to visit Sammy at the Caffe Artigiano location in Burnaby. Is that where you worked?