Time magazine is wondering if Stumptown is the new Starbucks this week in its piece, "Is Stumptown the New Starbucks or Better?". Glad they finally caught up, since we essentially started that conversation last summer when we published a piece by Ethan Epstein titled "Totally Stumped" about the Portland mini-chain's invasion into.
New York and how the coffee messiah, Duane Sorenson, was stumping for his coffee beans with unbridled zeal. Coffee blog TheShot pointed out the similarities before we could get to it and also rails on writer Josh Ozersky for couching the entire coffee development as coffee's "third wave."
Ozersky says these evangelists of third wave coffee "tend to be male, heavily bearded, zealous and meticulous in what they do." Sounds like the same thing with craft beer guys or just about every other person we see sitting on the L train. But at least he was creative in not using the dreaded h-word.
We've been staking out Stumptown for a while now, especially since it's conveniently located in the Ace Hotel a couple blocks from our offices in the Nomad area. While the costumes the baristas wear are quaint, it's a little annoying having to wait in line for that perfect cup while a lot of super-cool types are milling about in the lobby or
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Related to:nypressnew yorkethanepsteinstumptownace hotelsorensoncoffeenymagtime barking their way into The Breslin. Sorenson also seems to hang out there quite a bit, and we don't want him to pop us in the mouth for questioning his dominance when it comes to roast.
I'm not really the fighting type and definitely wouldn't get into a scrap over a cup of coffee (or even an entire bag of beans). I tried to rile things up by talking to the folks who opened Birch just a couple of blocks over by the Museum of Sex. But they were also having none of it, they seem to be cut from the same Portland cloth (which happens to come in various pleasing plaids).
We saw Josh Ozersky the other day near our office and thought maybe he was on his way to check out the Schnitzel & Things truck that was parked nearby. But now realize he must have just absconded from Stumptown and was therefore sheepish about answering our questions regarding what he was up to. Aha, meeting us face-to-face when working on a Stumptown story must have been a delicate situation indeed.
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