This Sunday, get "closer to the roaster" at La Colombe

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This Sunday, get "closer to the roaster" at La Colombe

POSTED: Saturday, August 7, 2010, 12:05 AM

Filed Under: Coffee | Food Events

Courtesy of La Colombe

La Colombe co-founder Todd Carmichael and his crew dont make coffee. "We cook coffee," he clarifies. "Were cooks." This culinary roasting approach has made L.C. a fave of big guns like Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and you better recognize. If youve fallen out of touch with our acclaimed house blend, get reacquainted this Sunday at their Rittenhouse cafe (130 S. 19th St.). From 1 p.m., Carmichael (whos been penning a coffee column for Esquire.coms Eat like a Man blog, by the way) will be roasting, grinding and brewing out of his sweet new ride, a vermilion 1967 French panel van equipped with a circa-1930s Vittoria roaster he and business partner JP Iberti unearthed during an espresso machine expedition in Bologna. Carmichael "refurbished it down to the bearings," and the ride is now a totally mobile coffee shop, capable of going from green bean-to-brew in less than 15 minutes. "Its all about getting closer to the roaster" is the notion fueling Cranked, Carmichael and Ibertis caffeinated Philly-to-Chicago road trip. If all goes according to plan, the new ride will hit the road in mid-fall, after Carmichael, an avid (and record-setting) trekker, traverses Death Valley on foot. "Ive got a rickshaw with a bag of food, a tarp and 500 pounds of water," he says of his preparation for the challenge. "Im gonna heave that bitch all the way across." What about caffeine? I make the worlds best survival coffee," says Carmichael. "I burn butane-infused wax to heat a six-ounce Turkish coffee pot. Nizza, sugar, stirred with a knife, all on my haunches."

barry eichner

Posted 2010-08-07 08:51:41

This just made my day!  I'm going to re-post this!  I worship la Colombe coffee.

Posted by Adam Erace @ 12:05 AM Permalink | Post a comment

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Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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