Coffee, extraordinaire
THE CRESCENT MOON AND STARS sculpted in the milky foam that tops lattes is the first sign, if the nose isn’t clogged, that Café Doma isn’t a run-of-the-mill coffee shop.
For those paying attention as they walk through the door – that is, not chatting with friends, counting change or worrying that everyone is looking at their puffy morning eyes – a rich, nutty aroma embraces them in warmth like a St. Bernard welcome after a day of skiing.
“I have a freakish love of coffee,” admits Terry Patano, chuckling. He roasts the beans that led to the opening of Café Doma in downtown Coeur d’Alene four months ago. “We’re trying to raise the level of coffee, doing a better job, taking more pride in our work, having more passion.”
Doma’s baristas will exhibit that passion today at 7 p.m. with performances that people outside the coffee industry don’t associate with a cup o’ Joe. Zac Aschenbrener will sculpt flowers, hearts, moons and stars in latte foam. Krista Densmore will show the style she exhibited last month at Portland’s barista competition.
Barista Jon Lewis will tell a story with moments of poetry as he grinds beans to the right coarseness and makes a straight espresso, cappuccino, then his own creation, the Fountain of Life. His drink includes crushed and roasted barley, honey, dark chocolate, espresso and carbon dioxide from a seltzer bottle. He serves it in cups created by his wife, potter Kendall Lewis.
“When you do what you love, there’s no separation between work and play,” Jon says. “I love serving people coffee.”
Jon is the reason Doma opened as a café downtown. Coffee has fascinated Terry and his wife, Rebecca Hurlan-Patano, for at least 20 years. They opened cafés, learned to serve coffee, then roast it. The more they learned, the more they wanted to learn.
They were so captivated with the idea of developing topnotch blends that they opened their own coffee roasting company in a shop near their Post Falls home four years ago. They named it Doma after their boys, Dominic and Marco.
The Patanos taught buyers how to grind the beans, use commercial espresso machines and turn out espresso that would satisfy a coffee connoisseur. Their beans attracted some well-heeled customers beyond American borders.
Terry met Jon at a trade show barista competition and knew Jon was the artist he wanted brewing his beans.
“He is truly one of the best in the world,” Terry says. “It’s almost a spiritual thing with him. He brings his performance to a different level with his mannerisms, the way he talks.”
Coffee entered Jon’s life two years ago as a way to pay his bills while he was a student in Vancouver, B.C. His job with a third generation coffee roaster, though, introduced him to a new world. He was taught as an old world apprentice. Coffee was an art, not a trade, and baristas were as specialized as chefs. Jon’s fervor for his work grew as coffee saturated his soul and his instinct took over. He was a natural, but it took a competition in Seattle to prove it to the industry.
Judges looked for flawless mechanics and cleanliness, consistency and balance in espresso, persistence of foam in cappuccinos, creativity, sparkling presentations and more. Baristas had 15 minutes to set up their stations and 15 minutes to wow spectators while they brewed and mixed. Jon placed third in Seattle, then second in Boston.
Honors didn’t go to his head. His desire to learn more about coffee was insatiable, and he loved sharing what he knew.
Terry was planning to open a coffee bistro when he met Jon. Jon envisioned running a café.
“I told him if he wanted to do a café, I’d do it with him but not with anyone else,” Terry says. “He and his wife are very special.”
Mike Dodge is one of the Patanos’ partners in the business. He stops in daily for his espresso.
“I’ve been to Italy and France and tasted coffee out of this world and when I taste this (Doma’s) coffee, I feel like I’m back in Europe,” he says. “Jon will develop a great following. He really knows how to pour a shot.”
Tonight’s exhibit is a precursor to an eventual barista competition in Coeur d’Alene. The Patanos and Jon want to create a master class of baristas throughout the area that people trust like their favorite bartenders. They want to develop coffee connoisseurs who delight in new and complicated blends like wine lovers melt over a perfect merlot.
If anyone can do it, they can.