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Pennsylvania

Inside Boku, Philadelphia’s Art Gallery & Coffee Bar Inside An Apartment

By 1-900-ICE-CREAM, Boku, Cafes, Fairmount, Gaggia, Mahlkonig EK43, North America, Onyx Coffee Lab, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ryan Fitzgerald, slayer, Staff Picks, USA, Yours Truly Coffee

boku philadelphia pennsylvania

On a misty Saturday morning, you walk up to a rowhouse in Philly’s sleepy residential neighborhood of Fairmount. The buzzers are labeled with scraps of paper, the handwritten names of tenants. You buzz the first floor. The label is printed in thick, purple script: Boku.

Boku has been many things: a culinary experiment, a platform for local line cooks, and an intimate supper club serving never-repeated, reservation-only meals. Most recently though, Boku took on an ABC concept: “Art, Breakfast, Coffee.” Guests admire a gallery of work by local artists, then enjoy a simple, perfected breakfast sandwich and unique coffee service.

boku philadelphia pennsylvania

Ryan Fitzgerald, owner and founder, may be the only consistent piece of the ever-evolving business. Fitzgerald—who doesn’t have any formal kitchen training—started it as a way to explore the culinary arts. “I was making all this food and didn’t really have anybody to eat it, so I threw these dinner parties for my friends.”

Cooking for friends slowly became cooking for strangers. Then Fitzgerald began to host guest chefs, using his vacation days to hold the supper club in his apartment. When he ran out of vacation days in 2016, he quit his day job to run Boku full-time.

Fitzgerald jokes about the decision to turn Boku into an art gallery. “In the beginning, I was selling food out of an apartment and charging people for it. That’s illegal.” Now, visitors pay for admission to the gallery and food is complimentary.

boku philadelphia pennsylvania

Barista Frank Monzo and Boku founder Ryan Fitzgerald

This kind of agile maneuvering explains why Boku’s original logo was an octopus. “Octopi can get in and out of anything. They can adapt themselves to any situation.”

Fabrizio Verga of Yours Truly Coffee in NYC first introduced Fitzgerald to the wider world of coffee. “He’s like a brother to me and 100% responsible for my interest in coffee.” Fitzgerald started out with a hacked Gaggia from the 80s, replumbing the water tank himself and hooking the machine to a PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller to get consistent water temperatures. This kind of mad scientist behavior isn’t new for him. “I wish my parents were here to talk about it. I destroyed a lot of electronics.”

When he started to get more serious about the coffee component of Boku, he turned a coat closet into a (home) coffee bar to inspire jealousy. Floral wallpaper and a pink neon sign that reads “SLAY ALL DAY” are the backdrop to the crown jewels: a single-group Slayer and a Mahlkönig EK43.

He also brought on local barista Frank Monzo, who loves the setup. “It’s a playground.”

boku philadelphia pennsylvania

The equipment is key to their precise, unique coffee service. “[The Slayer] allows me to make what I’m serving more expressive,” says Monzo. “It allows me to tailor the machine to the coffee as opposed to vice versa.” Likewise, they use Mahlkönig’s EK instead of the PEAK because they’re tailoring every shot, every cup of coffee, rather than trying to perform at volume. They’ve chosen to carry Onyx Coffee Lab for their service.

And perhaps more importantly, it’s a very intimate service. “First and foremost, it’s my apartment,” says Fitzgerald. Three-quarters of people don’t know that, but when they get here I tell them, and that’s very disarming.”

They don’t have to worry about being crowd-pleasers, and their guests are much more willing to go along with their experiments than they might be in their usual coffee shop. “My favorite part of it is how different it is from working in a cafe setting,” says Monzo. Eating breakfast this close to their barista seems to break down some of the scripts they have about caffeine acquisition.

“There’s been so much more engagement in this setting about specialty from people who aren’t specialty-aligned,” says Monzo. “Every week we have a person say, ‘I didn’t know coffee could taste this way.’”

The format gives them the space to be patient and welcoming, and this allows them to provide a high-level coffee service while avoiding making people feel overwhelmed or unwelcome.

boku philadelphia pennsylvania

A few months ago, Fitzgerald started experimenting with wildly eclectic ice cream for his dinner service, including “God Mode” pints inspired by a locally-roasted coffee. Fitzgerald cold steeps whole coffee beans in the ice cream base, then adds ingredients to recreate the individual coffee’s flavor notes.  “Let the Q graders go wild. They want to call it mid-season Meyer lemon? Let me go find some mid-season Meyer lemons.”

Now Boku is evolving once again. The ice cream was such a success that Fitzgerald has spun it into its own business: 1-900-ICE-CREAM. With orders selling out as fast as he can make them, he has stopped dinner and breakfast service. It’s the end of one chapter of Fitzgerald’s culinary journey and the beginning of a new one.

Derek Beyer is a freelance journalist based in Philadelphia. This is Derek Beyer’s first feature for Sprudge.

Photos courtesy of Ryan Fitzgerald.

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Source: Coffee News

Coffee Design: Little Amps In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

By Aaron Carlson, Brandt Imhoff, coffee design, Design, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Little Amps Coffee, Little Amps Coffee Roasters, Pennsylvania, Peter Leonard, Staff Picks

 

Harrisburg’s Little Amps Coffee Roasters revamped their packaging this year in a big way. The company ditched its signature black ink on kraft look for something a little brighter. Bold colors, illustration, and a touch of gold give Little Amps coffee bags a lot of life. To find out more, we connect with Partner and Wholesale Manager Peter Leonard.

When did the design debut?

June 2019

What’s different about the package?

So much!! We’ve had the same logo in black ink on brown kraft bags since day 1, with minor upgrades over the years to the packaging and application. We’re now feeling more contemporary, with a biodegradable bag, updated logo, and lots of color!

The previous look.

Who designed it?

The design started in the brains of myself and business partner Aaron Carlson and was brought to life by Lancaster, PA graphic designer and illustrator Brandt Imhoff.

How long did this redesign take to develop?

We’ve been talking about this for a few years but started to seriously work with Brandt about a year and a half ago.

Why are aesthetics important for coffee packaging?

Why do I now willingly drink Miller Lite? It looks so good!! In 2019 most of our purchases are aesthetically driven, for better or worse!! It is our hope that our bags look as good as the contents taste. A big motivator for us was wanting to stand out on the shelves of grocery stores, coffee shops, and even people’s homes. We wanted “eye-catching design.” We also really wanted to convey the energy and attitudes of our company. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We like to have fun!

Where is it available?

You can find these bags in our three stores in Harrisburg, on our website, and with wholesale partners near and far!

Where is the bag manufactured?

The bag is from Tricorbraun, formerly Pacific Bag!

What type of package is it?

The bags are Biotre 1.0

Is the package recyclable/compostable?

The bag is 60% compostable. We reuse bags in-house and are also setting up recycling with Terracycle.

Thanks!

Company: Little Amps Coffee Roasters
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Country: United States
Designer: Little Amps & Brandt Imhoff
Design Debut: June 2019

Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News