Putting the Bean Back in Beantown
Photos by Adam DeTour
You would be forgiven if you thought that the moniker “Beantown” referred to our local affinity for all things Dunkin’. But Boston is actually better known for its beans baked in molasses, a dish so regional that around the turn of the 20th century the city brain trust printed postcards that read, “You don’t know beans until you come to Boston.”
And while Boston baked beans still line supermarket shelves, this century it is the coffee bean that has captured our hearts and set our minds abuzz. So much so that several local coffee shops have begun to roast their own beans on site, an artisanal approach that takes skill and patience, ultimately producing a superior brew. At Pavement, Karma and Broadsheet, coffee sourced from around the world is served at peak freshness. We spoke with owners and roasters at these locations to find out just how they are changing local palates, and putting the bean back in Beantown.
PAVEMENT COFFEE
What began as a small independent coffee shop on the Berklee campus back in 2010 has now become a local chain synonymous with quality coffee, featuring eight locations throughout Boston and Cambridge. But Pavement Coffeehouse only began roasting their own beans in 2018 at their roastery and headquarters in Brighton. Which isn’t to say that roasting wasn’t part of the master plan. Wolf Marnell, Pavement’s director of coffee, who has been working with owner Larry Marguiles since his first coffee venture in 2008, attributes this thoughtful transition to in-house roasting as indicative of the team’s desire to enter this new phase of the business skillfully.
“Everyone at Pavement loved the idea of roasting our own coffee, and we always knew we would eventually,” says Marnell. “There was a lot to learn about roasting and sourcing, and we only wanted to do it if we were confident we could do a great job with it.”
Roasting coffee comes with many advantages, allowing Pavement to source the specific coffee they want to serve rather than having that decision made for them by an outside roaster. In addition, it gives Pavement the opportunity to roast coffee the way they want to present it. But as Marnell describes, roasting is also about the narrative Pavement is able to share with the people who buy coffee there: “We’ve always tried to share our passion for coffee with our customers, and that story became a lot easier to tell once they could see that we were roasting and sourcing the coffee.”
To this end Pavement wants this process to be visible, and to ignite the curiosity of its customers. The Brighton HQ features a café with a large glass garage door that provides a view into the roastery. It is also where Pavement bakes all of the bagels that they serve at their locations.
Marnell is proud that Pavement has had such a pivotal role in Boston’s evolving coffee culture. “There is more great coffee in Boston now than there ever has been,” says Marnell.
Ultimately, Marnell believes that one’s relationship with coffee should not be complicated. A finely roasted cup is one of life’s simple pleasures, and Pavement delights in being able to provide that consistently and comfortably. “We put a ton of effort into our coffee and bagels and the environment in our shops, ideally so that our customers don’t have to think too hard about that stuff,” he says. “Our goal is simply a really enjoyable experience for our customers. If a few folks leave Pavement with a little bit more interest in coffee culture, then that’s the icing on the cake!”
KARMA COFFEE
It would be easy to accidentally drive past Karma Coffee in Sudbury, located in the back of a plaza off of Boston Post Road. But if you did, you’d be missing out on an incredibly delicious coffee experience. Karma may be somewhat hidden for those that don’t know about it, but spend any time there and you’ll realize just how many people do. On a recent weekday morning Karma was positively bustling, and the vibe is as warm and comforting as the beverages. The neighborly “Hellos” and “How are yous” and the congenial hum of conversation was interrupted only by the sound of beans whirring in the grinder and the steaming of milk. On offer were single-origin coffees sourced from Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Mexico, each with its own tasting notes.
Owner David Conboy’s love of coffee began with espresso while traveling in Europe after college. His work then took him to California in the mid 1990s, as full-bodied and rich coffee was beginning to entice taste buds there. But finding a consistent cup of quality coffee proved difficult. “So I quit my job to return to school, and drove cross country with a suitcase and an espresso machine checking out as many coffee shops as I could. I was hooked,” he recalls.
In 1999 Conboy bought a small production roaster and started wholesaling his beans. The retail store opened a little over 10 years ago, and the response has been terrific. “People tell me they feel like we are a little taste of the city out here in the ’burbs,” says Conboy. “Our customers see our attention to detail and how hard we all work to custom-craft their coffee.”
The effort that goes into a cup of coffee is something the consumer doesn’t always get to witness. “The complexity of the process is incredible,” he explains. “As a craft roaster, you work with farmers around the world at origin to constantly source great coffee, while trying to improve quality and achieve some level of sustainability. Then we work with brokers and importers and shipping companies to get that coffee. And then the roasting: profiling individual coffees, constantly adjusting those profiles over time, cleaning and maintaining machinery. Even how we store and package our coffee is given careful consideration. And that’s all before we begin the conversation about brewing.” At Karma, the back of the store is a hub of activity, with a least some of this process on display. Yet despite all of this effort, Conboy wants Karma’s visitors to leave with only one thing: “a sense of delicious satisfaction, over and over.”
BROADSHEET COFFEE ROASTERS
Aaron MacDougall, the owner of Broadsheet Coffee in Cambridge, used to be a tea drinker. Then his son was born, and like many a bleary-eyed new parent, he needed something a little bit stronger. But it wasn’t until he moved with his family to Hawaii that he had his “Aha!” moment. He had a cup of coffee that was sourced from Rusty’s Farm in Ka’u, and an obsession was born. “There is a saying that you can’t choose your passion, it finds you, and for me that was very much the case,” says MacDougall.
When MacDougall and his family moved back to the Boston area, where he is from, he dove down the rabbit hole of coffee culture, taking classes, competing in roasting competitions and becoming a certified Q-Grader—the coffee world equivalent of a Master Sommelier. At that point, MacDougall realized a coffee business was the next logical step in his journey. He opened Broadsheet in 2017 in a luminous and inviting space that also features a menu of food items made entirely from scratch.
MacDougall is well aware of the layers of complexity roasting adds to the café business. From equipment maintenance to agricultural awareness to the sheer physicality of working with heavy beans that require carefully managed heat, roasting is not without its labor intensiveness. But for the obsessed, the benefits far outweigh the demands. “Roasting allows you to substantially bend the flavors, sweetness and acidity levels within any given coffee,” says MacDougall. “Given the immense variety of growing origins, coffee varieties and processing methods, roasters literally have a rainbow of coffee flavors out there to choose from. Roasters thus have the ability to curate and leave a stylistic imprint on their coffees that goes well beyond ‘dark’ and ‘light.’”
The community around Broadsheet has taken notice. “We are blessed with an amazing customer base: very diverse, very open to new culinary experiences and very supportive of small local businesses trying to do something different,” says MacDougall. The most important thing to MacDougall is that his customers feel welcomed and valued, and if they are also able to experience the variety in what is served, and know that it is conscientiously sourced and thoughtfully shepherded all the way from its origin to their cups, he considers that a bonus. “We serve different coffees every day, and I’d love it if one of them leads someone to their own ‘Aha!’ moment.”
For coffee drinkers in Beantown, the options are plentiful. Many people still prefer choices as simple as “light” and “dark,” just as many beer drinkers once did too. But those willing to seek out a cup made by knowledgeable roasters will be rewarded with a beverage of far more complexity than many of us realized. Pavement, Karma and Broadsheet don’t just ply consumers with their daily caffeine fix; they source, roast and brew cups that can be traced directly to the farm where the bean was grown and determine the flavor profile of that bean by the expert way in which they handle it. As Wolf Marnell said, roasting allows one to take control of their coffee story. In Boston, this story is in the midst of an exciting chapter, and luckily for us, a flavorful one as well.
stiryoursoul.com (Karma Coffee)
This story appeared in the Spring 2020 issue.