table talk / By Bob Doran

Dream cafe

(April 12, 2007)  I don’t really consider myself a coffee connoisseur, but I’d have to say it was the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had. My old friend Arno Holschuh made it for me at a new place in town. If you’ve been reading the Journal for a while you’ll remember Arno. He and I were the paper’s editorial tag-team staff for a couple of years. He left about five years ago, did some hiking, went to Germany on a Fulbright scholarship, eventually landed back in California.

To make a long story shorter, he became a coffee guy, a master barista who works for a former Fieldbrook resident, James Freeman, at Blue Bottle Coffee, one of the premier roaster/brewers in the Bay Area. When you get a cup of joe at Chez Panisse, you’re drinking Blue Bottle.

Café Brio, opening Saturday, April 14 on the Arcata Plaza. Photo by Bob Doran.

GALLERY >

I have to correct myself: What I had was a “Gibraltar,” a double ristretto shot of espresso with steamed half and half and whole milk, and Arno is a gifted expert at pulling shots and steaming milk. Ristretto? That’s coffee geek talk for a short shot made with very finely ground coffee, tamped just right, timed perfectly to create a creamy brown liquid. The organic milk is blasted with steam into an equally creamy froth. Arno explained something about tiny bubbles and the grooves in the tongue and the way they affect taste, but I’ll admit he was over my head at that point.

What was this barista extraordinaire doing in Arcata? He was training baristas in the refined art of pulling shots for Café Brio, the place that’s been coming together behind the fence on the corner of 8th and G, former home of Arcata Muffler.

Now a bit more disclosure is in order. When I moved from McKinleyville to Arcata a few years back, Serge Scherbatskoy, owner of Brio Breadworks, became my next-door neighbor. We got to be friends fighting “The Battle for Bayview” (See Journal cover story April 15, 2004) and we stayed friends after he moved around the corner. I’ve been watching Café Brio come together for a few years now, discussing his hopes and dreams while noshing on good cheese, great bread and glasses of fine French wine. (Serge has an impressive wine cellar.)

I even introduced Serge to Arno. He tried Blue Bottle and decided, “Their coffee has a flavor profile that fits into the cuisine style we’re doing at the café.”

I’ve also been watching closely as the Brio Café moves toward opening day, scheduled for this Saturday, April 14, the same day the Farmers’ Market starts its new season on the Arcata Plaza.

Opening a café is a stressful proposition, and Serge has a zillion things left to do. Nevertheless, I convinced him to take a moment at one of the tables in the outdoor portion of the café to talk about how the place came into being.

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE >SHARE