Acceptable or Unacceptable: Coffeeshops that refuse to serve Espresso-over-ice

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (425 of them)

just stop drinking iced lattes everyone for the love of god

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link

we need a barista in here, stat

I often like to hit speaker on my phone, speed-dial my secretary, say this and then hang up.

click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link

iced lattes are just chocolate milks w/ coffee flavor, what is wrong with that? should ppl stop drinking chocolate milk too??

Mordy, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:06 (twelve years ago) link

You haven't lived until you've watched an uncomfortable espresso-over-ice interaction, and then at the table the friend tells you "did you see what happened there? can you believe that?" and then 10 minutes later you're talking to your barista buds and they tell you "did you see what happened there? can you believe that?"

i feel so conflicted, because i did see what happened there but i'm in a difficult spot.

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link

The idea that you are too high and mighty to serve something that a customer asks for and is willing to pay for seems to me just too wrong-headed for words. You can tell them your opinion of their choice, but why force it on them? You aren't in business just to gratify your sense of your own good taste, are you?

Aimless, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link

lol a lot of big city coffee places appear exactly to be doing that....

dis civilization and its contents (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link

well, there is the chef analogy to consider.

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:09 (twelve years ago) link

anyway, my REAL position on this is that the establishment has the right to maintain whatever control they want over the drink until it crosses the counter to the customers hands. there are bars that don't serve shots. there are breweries that won't let you fill clear glass growlers. this is basically the same thing. yeah, it's kind of lame and uptight but whatever just don't go to places like that if it is so bothersome.

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:09 (twelve years ago) link

(a chef is obviously concerned about providing a quality dining experience for customers - you don't get to tell the chef to alter the dish according to their whims)

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link

so pouring espresso over ice 'shocks' it and is disgusting, savage, but pouring it over ice cream is fine and even has its own name? sounds highly plausible.

Jesu swept (ledge), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link

http://theotherblackstuff.ie/thoughts/shocking-espresso/

Jesu swept (ledge), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:11 (twelve years ago) link

(a chef is obviously concerned about providing a quality dining experience for customers - you don't get to tell the chef to alter the dish according to their whims)

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, June 26, 2012 3:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

People make substitution requests all the time at restaurants!

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:13 (twelve years ago) link

also, if you want espresso on ice you should probably find a cheaper place to buy it than the kind of place that doesn't serve espresso over ice.

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:13 (twelve years ago) link

I HATE restaurants where they don't provide salt and pepper because the "chef has seasoned the dish to their liking". Get your head out of your ass. Ugh.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link

If a place refuses, why not just ask for a double espresso and a cup of ice. That way you can spare the barista the indignity of having to prepare an improper drink himself.

click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link

Sorry - I just really hate this sort of thing. It's snobby. That said, I've never witnessed this cheapskate espresso over ice in order to score a low-coast latte. Does it happen often?

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link

xpost

keep in mind that i'm not necessarily a proponent of the Chef Analogy (i'm merely a conflicted, torn rebel with nothing to lose). but i think the analogy is to a very nice, nice restaurant where no, you cannot make substitution requests.

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link

Incidentally, I was kind of thinking about the chipotlization of food today, how every place now is "Pick your meat, pick your veg, pick your toppings, pick like 5 different sauces and dressings" and how it's actually kind of gross sometimes but you always wind up putting too much stuff together because it's there and they offer it to you. I wonder what chefs think about that.

click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link

If a place refuses, why not just ask for a double espresso and a cup of ice. That way you can spare the barista the indignity of having to prepare an improper drink himself.

this is apparently what caused the huge incident that my friend created. he asked for espresso in one cup, and a cup of ice in the other, and they refused. bedlam ensued.

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link

If a place refuses, why not just ask for a double espresso and a cup of ice. That way you can spare the barista the indignity of having to prepare an improper drink himself.

― click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, June 26, 2012 3:14 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

probably the correct way to handle this and not a request that should be refused.

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link

a low-coast latte.

haha how about an 'alabama latte'

pvmic bellvm (goole), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link

tell the barista your five-year-old has a concussion

click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link

ZS - I know. I don't like that sort of thing, I guess. My dad is a chef and used to host dinner parties a lot. One of his friends smothers every single thing he eats in ketchup. Yes, everything. My dad thinks it's disgusting in insane but if Bob was at a dinner party my dad wouldn't say a word, he'd just put some ketchup into a sauce boat and put it next to Bob's table setting and let him drown his filet mignon in the crap. It wasn't in insult to the cooking, it was just some guy's weird food thing.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link

if you want an espresso over ice buy an espresso machine and make it yourself

max, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link

I can understand chefs wanting to maintain some kind of overall quality control, which I guess can be put at risk if you let people who don't know what they're doing ask for stuff they think they would prefer. It's also part of the branding of the place I guess -- snobbism = artistry.

click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link

if you want an espresso over ice buy an espresso machine and make it yourself

you do realize a barista-quality espresso machine costs thousands of dollars and is complicated to operate

click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link

dammit, i meant to add that initial post was intended to be read in the manner of a "Read all about it!" newspaper kid from 1916.

anyway, my actual take on this is that coffee shops should serve it if customers ask for it, but in small, espresso-appropriate glasses, to foil the people looking to make an ice latte on the cheap.

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link

i really have no problem with restaurants or coffee shops refusing to do or make stuff they think is gross and weird! they are not really obligated to cater to whatever requests except to the extent that it will put them out of business. there is no moral imperative here. i guess its dickish if they wont give you salt and pepper but if their food sucks and they refuse to give you salt they will probably go out of business so who cares

max, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link

and if customer takes the small, espresso-appropriate glass and dumps it into a larger cup and then adds free cream to it from the counter,

FISTICUFFS

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:23 (twelve years ago) link

is this related at all to serious hot dog places that won't serve sausages with ketchup?

Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:24 (twelve years ago) link

98% of US coffee drinkers wouldn't be able to tell a shocked espresso from shinola (myself included) so who gives a shit what savage abominations the coffee buying populations want to visit on their beverages?

That said, go on and refuse service, snooty coffee shops. Eventually this particular brand of artsinal snottery will go out of style and you'll start losing profits to the 7-11 down the block and rethink your stance. Or not.

carl agatha, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:25 (twelve years ago) link

you do realize a barista-quality espresso machine costs thousands of dollars and is complicated to operate

― click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2), Tuesday, June 26, 2012 3:20 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think if all you want is espresso over ice a consumer-quality machine is just fine!

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:26 (twelve years ago) link

Intelligentsia here in Chicago cause OUTRAGE a couple of years ago when they stopped selling 20 ounce coffees/lattes bc coffee is not meant to be consumed in large quantities or some such utter bullshit.

carl agatha, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:28 (twelve years ago) link

they can serve whatever size they want

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:29 (twelve years ago) link

agh latté

Still wrong

Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:31 (twelve years ago) link

no they can't this is America we have the right to oversize bladders

Mr. Que, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:31 (twelve years ago) link

i don't think 7-11 would make me an espresso slurpee, but maybe i should test this...

Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:32 (twelve years ago) link

i demand that my 7-11 espresso slurpee be served with no ice

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:34 (twelve years ago) link

Seriously, as I mentioned upthread, a coffee granita is awesome.

Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:37 (twelve years ago) link

definite right to refuse btw. 'the customer is always right' has destroyed the US and we need to take it back imo.

this is otm, people who expect coffee shops to cater to their every whim might as well be eating at BURGER KING ESPRESSO

Faith in Humanity: Restored (dayo), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:40 (twelve years ago) link

hear hear

max, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:40 (twelve years ago) link

Glad you're not small business owners.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:43 (twelve years ago) link

My "utter bullshit" comment was referring to the notion that one cannot enjoy coffee if the coffee is served in a vessel larger than some arbitrary size that the people at Intelligentsia decided is the right size for coffee. Enjoyment is way to subjective to make that kind of pronouncement.

As with espresso over ice, I don't care what they will and won't serve. They can refuse to serve coffee unless you bring your own bowl carved from the skull of your enemy for all I care.

carl agatha, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:43 (twelve years ago) link

Or good thing rather, not glad. lol.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:43 (twelve years ago) link

(fyi trademarking concept of coffee shop that only serves coffee in bowls carved from the skulls of your enemies)

carl agatha, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link

I think you could go somewhere with that tbh.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link

z s he best solution would be for your frend to pack his cheeks with ice prior to entering the coffee shop, ordering an espresso, downing it really quickly through his ice packed mouth, then jumping on the counter and mooning the baristas with his exposed buttocks painted with "DON'T TREAD ON ME" in mustard packets

Faith in Humanity: Restored (dayo), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link

I'm going to need some smaller enemies

Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:45 (twelve years ago) link

lol

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link

Siege warfare against a daycare.

carl agatha, Tuesday, 26 June 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.