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

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.

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?

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

well, there is the chef analogy to consider.

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.

(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)

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.

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

(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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

a low-coast latte.

haha how about an 'alabama latte'

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

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.

they can serve whatever size they want

agh latté

Still wrong

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

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

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

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

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

hear hear

Glad you're not small business owners.

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.

Or good thing rather, not glad. lol.

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

I think you could go somewhere with that tbh.

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

I'm going to need some smaller enemies

lol

Siege warfare against a daycare.

if I ran a coffee shop we would only serve hot water and the music would be a deafeningly loud recording of coffee beans being ground

noizepresso

if i ran a coffee shop it would be an open field where customers are invited to grow their own beans and raise their own dairy cattle. still $4.39 a cup tho.