Gourmet coffee is trickling down
WAUKEGAN, Ill. — For Leo Hogan, there’s only one place to go for a steaming cup of freshly roasted and brewed gourmet coffee: his local used CD shop.
“I love coffee. The better the coffee, the better I like it,” Hogan said as he waited for his order from Fire Fresh Coffee Co., tucked in the corner of a store filled with CDs, DVDs and video games. Hogan stops by the Music Recyclery about once a week for coffee made from beans roasted fresh right in the store.
More and more businesses looking for some added value for their customers are turning to java, and not just your standard cup, either. Latte lovers can get their fix in laundromats, movie theaters, baseball stadiums and fitness centers. And businesses that have long served coffee — such as gas stations — are finding they no longer can get away with any old drip as consumers accustomed to Starbucks demand the same quality anywhere they buy coffee.
“If your taste has been educated to really want an espresso or a mocha, a regular cup of joe from the institutional pot that has been sitting there all day just isn’t good enough anymore,” said Beau Weston, a sociology professor who teaches a class on cafe life at Centre College in Danville, Ky.
Weston credits Starbucks for getting Americans used to a higher-quality coffee brew. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, a trade group, gourmet coffee is now more than a $9 billion industry in the United States, up from $7.5 billion in 1999.
No wonder, then, that fancy coffee is showing up in unexpected places.
Take the Wild Bean Cafe, a new addition to BP gas stations across the country. There, customers can get pastries baked on site and gourmet coffee from urns refilled with fresh brews throughout the day.
“When was the last time you were in a gas station and were able to enjoy a Kenya AA?” said BP spokesman Scott Dean. “We’re finding that customers really do want a good quality cup of coffee.”
Rick Abramson, president of Sportservice Inc., a leading provider of concessions at sports stadiums and arenas, remembers the way coffee was served at ballparks in his youth: a cup of hot water and a packet of instant granules. No more.
Now about 90 percent of the sporting facilities Sportservice serves have some sort of high-end coffee offering, from Starbucks or local gourmet brews at concession stands to espresso drinks in the stadium clubs. Younger fans like his children, ages 16 and 20, demand fancy hot drinks in the fall and frozen ones in the summer.
“My kids are used to that, so when they went to the ballpark, they would think I wasn’t doing my job if there wasn’t a place where they could get a mocha or a frappe,” Abramson said.
A good cup of coffee can bring customers into a business — and keep them around at least for as long as it takes to drink it, said Richard Wyckoff, who oversees refreshment services for Aramark Corp., a top food service provider.