Aaron, Chris, and Wade sit down with Anthony Coffaro of The Potted Bean: a very new coffee popup here in Rochester. Anthony's journey in Specialty Coffee began five years ago when a friend replaced his morning drive-thru coffee with a local Rochester option. Since then, Anthony's growing passion and natural curiosity have led him to a love of coffee service through the Potted Bean.

Shoutouts

Potted Bean (@the_pottedbean) - Pearson's (@ilovepearsonsroc) - Charlie Riedel's (@charliereidelsrestaurant) - Valor Coffee (@valor.coffee) - AM:FM (@amfm_coffee) - Artisan Works (@artisanworksny) - Sips Coffee & Cafe (@sipsrochester) - Irondequoit Market (@irondequoit_market) - Fauve Coffee (@fauve_coffee)

Mentioned in this episode:

It’s A Lot

Check out It’s A Lot on Lunchador! https://feeds.captivate.fm/itsalot/

Joe Bean Roasters

Joe Bean Coffee - Coffee that lifts everyone. https://shop.joebeanroasters.com

Connections with Evan Dawson

Connections with Evan Dawson - Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Connections

Welcome to Dialed in.

I'm Wade Reed.

I'm Aaron Pascucci.

And we are joined by our producer, Chris Lindstrom.

Hello.

Hello.

It's a beautiful, beautiful day in Rochester.

Is it?

I think so.

Sure.

It was pretty cold.

It was cold.

It was sunny today.

I just say we got sun.

Yeah.

Which is a thing that apparently places can have even in the winter time.

I.

Like, I haven't seen the science on this, but if you ran the stats in Rochester, you're wrong.

You're not sure.

Yeah, yeah.

You could at least inject enough doubt.

And we are joined by a special guest tonight, Anthony Cafaro of the Potted Bean.

How are you?

We are obviously debating weather statistics in Rochester.

So we're doing great.

Yeah.

It doesn't seem like it's end in sight either.

Yeah, exactly.

Exa.

I mean, yeah.

I don't know.

It's only the beginning of February, right?

We have till June.

Did the groundhog see his shadow there?

I didn't miss that.

I think he sees this.

I saw it too.

Sure.

I mean, I don't know.

It's like.

I don't know.

Is it like six more weeks of democracy?

I mean, that's the level of science.

That's the level before it ends that people can believe in nowadays.

Is a groundhog.

Dude.

He's been like, accurate

talking accuracies in the eye of the beholder.

Aaron, Tony, come at me here.

What's your take on Punxsutawney Phil?

I don't know.

First of all, how do we know that he saw it or not?

Oh, fair enough.

He's a bigger fan of Long Island Chuck.

Yeah, we're gonna let that one hang.

Actual, actual ground.

Are there

competing.

Oh, yeah, Groundhogs.

Yeah, it's Long Island Chuck.

Is that's not a fake one?

That's like a legit one.

How many municipalities have their own.

And Long Ch is actually more accurate?

Wait, I thought there was only one.

No.

So many groundhogs have been conscripted into this fight against big meteorology.

Against.

Against big Winter meteor.

I'm done with Big Winter statistical beat here.

Can we figure out, like, if there's an accuracy thing among groundhog.

The best.

Yeah.

Which one's the best?

And then, like, whether a majority of them.

So anyway, now that we've lost literally every listener who came here for anything coffee related.

Aaron, besides groundhogs, how's your week?

My week was great, actually.

I love to hear it.

So I think things at work are going awesome.

And so that's A big deal for me.

That's great.

So I'm excited about that.

Got a new crop of kids in for the third quarter, and that also means that I'm halfway through the year, so I get to send them home soon, you know, in 20 weeks.

But, yeah, so I'm doing great.

They're glad to hear it.

Staying warm.

Glad to hear it.

Wade, I'm.

I'm here.

I'm on my feet.

Your eyes don't look as on my feet.

As dreadful as they do sometimes.

I mean, this rousing conversation about statistics and groundhogs.

No, we're having.

We're going through a lot of changes at Aporia and AM fm and.

And we're retooling a lot of roles.

And I get a little more of an opportunity to.

To try.

Try to advocate for what I want to be doing.

That's the best it can be.

And what I'm finding is a lot of the structural and organizational things that I feel like are impeding me are impeding other people, too.

And so I'm excited to be like, okay, let's solve some problems.

Let's have a really, really a good company poised for the future.

And here we go.

So, Anthony, how's your week?

It's been fantastic.

Yes.

Cold, but, you know, good.

Awesome.

And Anthony, who are you?

Why are you here?

No, I'm sure our listeners are wondering all about, like, your story, who you are and how you got into this crazy coffee thing.

Yeah, yeah, of course.

So my name is Anthony Cafaro.

I've always loved the Rochester coffee scene.

If you would have asked me maybe five years ago, six years ago, if you asked me my favorite coffee, I would have said Tim Hortons.

So obviously come a long way.

Only five years.

Hey.

Yeah.

Five years from Tim Hortons.

No, no, that's a short.

No, that.

I'm saying that's a short time span to go from Tim Hortons to owning your own pop up.

Yeah, for sure.

So continue.

Sorry.

Yeah, no, that's okay.

I guess I've always wanted my own business.

I've done screen printing and decals and graphic design.

I do graphic design by my day job, actually.

Okay.

I'm just gonna leave.

You guys are good, right?

Because you guys have a lot.

I need a Photoshop tutorial, a stat on color knockouts.

I got you.

I got you.

I love this.

This is perfect.

Yeah.

Anyways, so I've always wanted my own business, and I tried the screen printing T shirt decal business, and it's very cutthroat.

Yeah.

And a lot of time spent in my basement printing shirts and running a platter and stuff.

And turns out I like community and people and a whole lot more.

So that kind of turned into the whole coffee thing.

And I mean, it's a long way from what it is now, from that point, but.

Yeah.

So what was your first.

When you started at the Tim Hortons level, which, you know, many of us did, what was your first experience into, you know, specialty coffee that, you know, lit you up a little bit.

So I worked at Charlie Riedles and Webster for about 10 years and.

And one of my really good friends there, I walked in one day with a Tim Hortons and he's like, oh, that looks horrible.

Shout out to the best.

That's a true.

Right there, though.

That looks like a glass of Malort.

And I was like, what do you mean?

It's fantastic.

And he goes, let me bring you somewhere to get you some good coffee.

You ended up going to the old Glen Edith, actually.

Okay.

At the time, I think it's Pearson's now, right?

Y. Yep.

I was like, wow, this is.

This is great.

You know, I just had a latte there.

Nothing.

Nothing special.

No straight espresso or anything like that.

And I slowly kind of acclimated to.

To liking good coffee.

And it was a little bit of a road.

Like at first, you going from just black drive through coffee to specialty coffee.

It's a world of different, but for sure, it's.

Every one of us has some sort of like, gradual ramp up.

And then, you know, welcome to the ranks of the people who have taken it to an extreme.

Yeah.

No right area.

And I'm realizing that, like, when my friend group and the people I know, I feel like I'm very knowledgeable and really like coffee.

But compared to people that have been in it for 15, 20, 30 years, I'm like, there's so much to learn.

And I'm.

I'm pretty excited about that.

You know, I'm relatively just making stuff up.

Yeah, well, aren't all adults about everything?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's all.

It's all made up.

But that's amazing.

So, like, I'm watching your first unboxing video.

Yep.

Yes.

This is something we're gonna have to talk about.

Like, you are.

Your Instagram is kind of your main interface and like, for your business, right?

Yeah, yeah, for now.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And you're going through.

Is this like your.

Just all your espresso equipment?

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

And even so, my Instagram stuff, I think like last June or something is when I had my first event and when I first kind of started things.

But I had the idea of wanting to do coffee for probably two years.

Like, probably when I started doing the T shirt stuff, I was like, this is not really what I want to keep doing.

So I thought about a coffee shop for the longest time.

That'd be the coolest thing ever.

Like, I love going to people.

I going to coffee shops.

I love the community of it.

I love meeting people out and talking to people and just, like, saying, hey to the local barista that I see

every day, you know, and hoping he remembers your name.

Yeah.

Right now.

No, just hey, what's up?

Or whatever.

Yeah.

Hi.

How's it going?

It's fine.

Yeah, exactly.

But, yeah, so from the first unboxing before that, I basically, like, decided I would want to try to, like, transition from the T shirt stuff to a coffee shop.

Yeah.

And started doing, like, whole spreadsheets and what everybody does when they want to start a business and realizing, damn, that's way more money than I thought.

Shop.

Way more in depth.

What I would thought, yes.

I'm like, oh, a cup of coffee, easy.

I can do that.

Then you start digging into the rabbit hole, and it's you, obviously, as you guys know, never ending.

Oh, I don't know.

Because I wanted to open a coffee shop, and my wife said, no, you don't want to open a coffee shop.

She goes, you want to drink coffee?

So somebody in your house knows.

But, yeah, I mean, the overhead is wild, and I think a lot of people get into it totally underestimating the amount of, like, capital you and how to, like, keep it going.

So, like, what's the.

So I know it's a bun brewer that you're unboxing.

Yep.

So that's your first piece of equipment.

So, like, got a bun brewer, you got spreadsheets, and you go, I'm not doing a coffee shop.

So, yeah, like, what's the next step?

Did you immediately, like, research carts or mobile setups or so I would pitch that idea to you?

No, I just came across.

I came across this company in Georgia, and it's actually where I get my beans from now called Valor Coffee.

You might have heard about them, but they have a whole online community and podcast about, okay, coffee and starting coffee businesses and whatever.

And I went to that with the idea of a coffee shop and realized, oh, people do carts.

That seems way easier, way smaller, way easier to take a bite of, you know?

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, yeah, mine's all paid off and easy to go, you know?

Yep.

But yeah, so from there I got that idea and I took the spreadsheet that I had for the coffee shop and deleted the whole thing, everything out of there and put it in for a cart instead.

So instead of the three head,

like

a three group espresso machine machine, I

was like, okay, they got to have smaller ones.

So I looked up those and ended up with Luca A53.

And.

Okay,

how do you like that?

So I don't have it perfectly dialed in yet, which is why I'm just doing cold brewer and gypsy coffee right now.

Because I'm not gonna.

I'm not gonna bring something to my card that I'm not super comfortable with.

Okay.

So we're getting there hopefully this summer.

So this past year, I think since last summer I've been real slow.

Like only have had about a dozen events.

I'm not really trying to push anything.

Trying to learn.

Okay.

Relatively new to coffee.

And I love the cold brew that I make.

I love the drip coffee make.

I love the beans for that.

So once I'm really comfortable and really love the espresso that's coming out of machine, then I'll introduce that.

That's a great approach.

I noticed that when I was looking at your menu, it said cold brew latte.

I was like, that's interesting.

I haven't seen that before.

And I was curious if or not it was literally like you're just doing a cold brew concentrate or it was something else.

No.

Yeah, it's a cold brew concentrate.

Yep.

That's cool.

Tell us about your syrups.

I know they said they're all homemade on your Instagram page.

So tell us what you're doing for that things.

Yeah, so my.

I guess you could say my background because I worked at Charlie's for 10 years.

I was really.

I love that job and close with everybody there and they introduced me to coffee and I loved cooking and I cook at home all the time.

So I really love the culinary like aspect of coffee and I guess just food in general.

So I wanted to make my own syrups.

Cuz I think that a lot of people just get the same syrups everywhere.

And I feel like when I go to a coffee shop, maybe not, but I can tell which ones they're using and if I like them or not.

And I don't know if I wanted that for myself.

Like I wanted to do something that like, I really loved.

So I spent a little bit time making my own syrups, you know, because you can kind of control everything that goes into it, obviously.

Sure.

So, yeah, I just like the way they taste better.

Yeah, Talk.

Talk about one of them that you worked through and developed and you know, how you got to.

How you got to the end product.

Like, what was the.

What's the one that you think of as, like, either your signature or the one you're most proud of, the development that you did on.

Yeah.

So mine would probably be the hazelnut.

I love hazelnut syrups and it's literally like actual hazelnuts that I roast and toast.

And so that was interesting because when.

For at least for me, when I have a hazelnut syrup at a regular at a normal coffee shop or whatever, and it's just a brand name simple syrup, I feel like you don't get the.

I guess the only word for it without sounding weird is the depth of it.

Like, it doesn't have that much flavor to you.

Like, it's hazelnut extract.

You get hazelnut, you get sugar, and that's about it, you know.

So with mine, I add.

I mean, not to give away all my secrets, but just the toasted hazelnuts.

And I just love the way it comes out, you know, I mean, I

think we've all made at least a simple syrup.

So I'm sure you've.

You've taken it farther than the five or ten times I've done it.

But, like.

Yeah, so you're imparting a lot more nut.

Nuttiness.

Oh, yeah.

You know, than we would get.

I was just thinking, I don't know, that I've had a real hazelnut simple syrup that hasn't been anything like massively produced.

Well, and that's.

You're going to get a lot more depth.

And then it also lets you balance the other things, too, is when you taste it, you're like, oh, this needs salt.

Or I want to add vanilla to.

Exactly.

To add some of those complexities.

But getting that real depth and that toasty base, it gives you that ability to flex to make something pop.

While, you know, if you're dependent purely on, you know, purely on commercial stuff, you know, it's hard to do that.

Like, you know, or the batch of hazelnuts you get isn't quite as right punchy.

Oh, I can add an extra 10% of hazelnuts to this or I can toast it a hair more.

Or maybe I can just let it cook for a little bit longer.

Well, and that's the thing.

It was at first a little hard.

Like I made my first few batches I'm like, this really isn't that flavorful.

Like, it takes a little bit to get the flavor out of it.

Like, when you just get a syrup straight out of the bottle from somewhere, it tastes like what it's supposed to taste like.

And when you try to do that, it's.

It takes a little bit of work to get those flavors out.

Right.

Do you smash them?

Do you?

I do, yeah.

Yeah.

Just surface area equals more extraction.

As you will also learn about espresso.

Right.

Coffee.

You get your surface area up, and then your extraction goes up, which is how you get to a decent TDS on your espressos.

And that's like, you're learning all that on the fly.

So, yeah, it's.

It's a huge learning curve.

But I love that you're doing the syrup stuff.

That's.

It makes a big difference.

Yeah, for sure.

And saying that you're new to it.

Um, what.

When was the first pop up?

Uh, I think it was last June.

Last June or July.

So not even a year yet.

Yeah.

No, no.

All right.

All right.

So.

And.

And like, just going through your Instagram, there's a small child on this Instagram.

Yeah.

Are those, like, coincident?

Like, like, did they come at the same time they coincided or like.

So I had the idea before, obviously she was around.

She's 13 months now.

Her name's Daisy.

Daisy.

Everyone say hi.

She's sleeping right now.

But so I had the idea before that, and then we gave birth and I had maternity leave or whatever, and I'm like, now's a good time to try to start putting this thing together, you know, so that's kind of hand in hand.

And everyone's like, are you're crazy with a newborn?

Trying to start a new business to

do with a newborn?

It's a lot.

I mean, it's still a lot right now, you know, but if you don't do it now, when are you ever gonna do it?

So, I mean.

And I want one day when she gets older to be like, he followed what he wanted to do or whatever it is, you know, like, there's never gonna be a perfect time for anything.

There's never a perfect time for having a kid or starting a business or doing anything.

So, I mean, that's kind of just that mindset.

I was like, screw it.

Let's just try it and see what happens.

And like I said, I don't know everything about it, but that's kind of why you start and figure it out.

Like, for sure.

Yeah.

I feel like the first, like, while I was thinking about it, like, you just.

Analysis paralysis, you know, like, you just think about it all the time and eventually a lot of people just don't do anything about it because you just keep thinking about it.

So you just start and figure it out and here we are now, you know.

Wow.

Yeah, definitely.

So Valor coffee.

So you said it was like a community aspect that brought you to them.

Yeah.

And then like, what.

As far as the coffee itself, what are you.

What do you like about them and what do you think, you know, is the advantage of going with them and what do you want to do with their coffee that, you know, either you don't see in the market here or is just like, true to, you know, what you're trying to do?

Yeah.

No.

So I guess the original reason why I started going with them is because they have a lot of education behind it.

And I listened a lot of their media and they have a podcast about it.

And like, a lot of education is really what drew me to them first is like the first people I saw out there that are really open about, like, what they're doing and why they're doing it.

And I just saw that as a really cool thing.

And when you came a wholesale partner with them, they, excuse me.

They.

You do a FaceTime and they talk to you about stuff and they, as you grow, they kind of continue and talk to you about stuff.

So honestly, it was more about that than it was about.

It was about the actual beings themselves.

This was about the relationship.

Exactly.

Yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

And looking at the website, they do, you know, for all appearances, look like, I would say a high quality, modern specialty roastery looks like, you know, a lot of.

Lot of well sourced products, some high processed coffees, but they also edge into some darker roasting as well, which a lot of specialty places do.

Have you found your sweet spot and what you enjoy?

Yeah, I like their line.

Yeah, I like the.

The medium blend.

I think it's free throw.

The one I use most often.

That's one I enjoy.

Yeah.

Because that, you know, that seems to be that sweet spot for a lot of people is that specialty medium.

Because, like, medium in the grand scheme of coffee is like specialty dark.

Right.

Yeah.

But like that medium, which I know, you know, Wade likes a little more developed roast than I do, typically.

Yeah.

Yes.

Not a huge amount, but some.

Right.

Yeah.

And it.

I mean, these term.

The terms are so imprecise.

Right.

So I'm just.

Yeah.

Thinking through how I can.

I. Yeah, I do try.

I do feel like, right now I'm doing a lot of stuff that's like, way less developed than I'm even really comfortable with.

I just know that it presents, you know, like a certain.

A certain way and then.

Yeah, but I guess typically you're.

That's probably true.

Yeah.

And it's.

It's a.

It's also a great intro.

And then when you start diving into the, you know, single.

You know, single origin, very light roast, it gets more diverse in flavor profiles.

Have you found stuff you didn't like that was not necessarily like a specific one from them, but like.

Oh, I'm not sure about this profile.

Yeah, no, definitely, for sure.

For the cold brew.

I love the cold brew that I serve out of my cart.

There's a couple.

I don't even remember the exact names, but there was a couple that I used that I was like, I don't know if I really love the way that is cold.

You know, like, maybe hot, it would be different or something, but I didn't love it.

What sorts of things, like, did you not, like, was it like too biting?

Was it too thin?

Like, what are.

Where.

Where were you at with that?

Like, what sorts of things you like and not like, flavor wise?

Yeah, I think it was like, it was bitey, acidic.

It was almost like the blend I use now for my cold brew is a little bit sweeter.

And I don't.

Which is weird because I don't technically like sweet things, but as far as, like with the coffee, I think I liked it because it was sweeter.

Like the stuff I tried that I didn't like was.

Had a little bit of bite to it and it felt.

I don't know even the right word for it, but it felt like empty.

Like you got that first initial hit.

Yeah.

And then it wasn't really anything after that.

Okay.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

I mean, I think in wine we call that a donut.

Right.

Where like kind of something's just hollow.

It kind of feels like there's like a ring and then something missing.

Yeah.

It's a great description of a lot of things where you don't either have that you don't have the rest of the experience.

It doesn't develop.

Right.

Yeah, that's a good word.

There's no layers.

Yeah.

No complexity.

Yeah, that's kind of.

It's a great way of.

Especially when you're on this journey, Right.

Of learning and getting more familiar is tasting.

Is tasting more and then tasting more and then tasting more and really learning what you like and then why don't you like it?

And being able to describe that, especially as, you know, pop up, is really important be able to describe.

I like this because of this, not just because I like this.

I think it sometimes helps.

Yeah.

And I think the point of, like, it's more important for a pop up and maybe you can speak to this is like, if you're in a shop every day, you might get like three or four bites at the apple with someone, but you might only have like one opportunity to really impress someone.

Yeah, for sure.

And I've definitely thought about that before.

And along the lines of the syrup again, I've had a lot of people that came like this past the last event I did, which was a little while ago.

It was an artisan work and I did a raspberry, homemade raspberry syrup.

And I thought it was so good.

And my girlfriend really didn't like raspberry or anybody I know doesn't really like raspberry.

So I was like, this has got to be good.

Nobody around me really tried it or really gave me the proof of it, but I brought it there and.

And I had so many compliments on it.

Yes.

It was a good feeling, you know?

Love that.

Yeah.

Love that, that.

I mean, do you.

Do you get like a lot of repeat through the pop up or you feel like.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I don't know what's normal, but I've seen definitely a few faces for sure.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Curious.

You seem to do a lot at ArtisanWorks.

How does that work?

I've.

I'm silly in the fact that I don't know.

Are they just open daily?

I've been to events there and things, but I thought they were like, largely like an event.

Renting space.

Yeah.

So honestly, the only time I've been there is.

The first time I've been there was when I did the popup and I got invited from event curator, actually, so I didn't really work with them at all.

So just for events.

Yep.

Oh, that's great.

I mean, so was that someone who knew you or someone who found you?

The event found me.

Reached out.

Love it.

Yes.

That's great.

All right, I think.

Are we ready for our first break or.

Sorry, no, let's take a break.

Yeah, let's go to our first break and.

Yeah, we'll be right back.

There it is.

All right.

And we're back.

And just.

Just as a quick recap, we just checked the website.

Artisan Works is open to the public, where you can Go visit Friday through Sunday 12 to 5.

So if you want to check out that space, it is one of the coolest spaces in Rochester.

It's so eclectic.

It's so the singular vision of a person with a whole team behind him as well.

Like this was this person's vision about what a cool space is and that it is one of the more singular spaces in Rochester.

Really worth checking out if you haven't been.

That's fantastic.

Shout out to Artisan Works and the whole team over there.

And I would go so far as to say it's a must check out.

I. I think so.

Like, it's a must.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's one of the most unique places in Rochester.

I would say absolutely fantastic.

And as the only one here who hasn't been, you have to go.

I've never been.

All right, Friday.

I'm busy Friday, but yeah, that's why I was wondering if they were open for first Friday, because that's what I'm doing.

But.

All right, Anthony, what do you see for the future of how it bean?

So this summer I'm going to really start trying to push a little bit more and do hopefully get my espresso dialed up and do I want to do a weekly market whether I applied to a couple different ones.

So we'll see where I get in at.

I'd like to do a weekly.

Which ones did you apply to?

Iranicoi.

Okay.

And Brighton.

All right.

Okay.

Oh, Brighton.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, around a coit is a.

That's probably a.

That's a good angle.

Yeah.

Because I don't remember if they have a dedicated coffee already.

They don't because I know Brighton has

two or three almost all the time.

Oh, do they?

Yeah.

So I know sips and around a quite.

If you guys have ever been there, they do a pop up in at the runaway one.

But it don't.

Don't quote me, but I don't think they're there all the time.

It's just kind of hit or miss with them.

Okay, well, I think that that's a good angle too.

And that's.

That's a good.

It's a good market.

Yeah.

It's not.

It's not crazy dense like, you know, Brighton gets hectic.

Yeah.

Um, obviously public market is a whole different beast.

Yeah.

I didn't even want to try to dip my toes in there quite yet.

Uh, but no, Rhondicoid's a great entry.

It's a great entry market to get into for sure.

Yeah.

Sweet.

Yeah, I think just Maybe one a week, like, or maybe two weeks, seeing where I get in.

It would be really nice just to kind of be super consistent with it because, like I said, I've only had 12 events, so something every week would be really nice to, like, be able to order beans consistently and be able to order all this stuff consistently and, like, just do it, like, repetitively would be really, really, I think, great.

Learning advantage.

So you keep talking about dialing in your espresso.

First of all, what grinder did you end up with?

It's a Eureka 65, I think it's called.

Okay.

And how are you liking that?

It's really.

I like that a lot.

Yeah, it's.

It seems to hold up.

I mean, obviously, I don't really know a whole ton about them, but I. I love it right now.

I mean, for.

For home use, they have.

They have a line.

Their minion or.

Minion.

Yeah, I have one of those as well.

Do you like it?

I do, yeah.

Because I used to sell them all the time, and I'm actually don't have anything at home, and I was looking at getting one, and I was like, maybe I just want to get a Eureka.

I don't know.

No, that thing, it's a beast.

I do it to grind all my.

My drip coffee, and it gr.

It's good.

All right, well, little plug, little plug there.

And then, you know, I was curious, you.

You know, what are you looking for?

Like, what is it, you know, that you're dialing in?

So we know that term, but what is it meaning to you?

And what are you looking to get?

You know, where are you looking for your espresso to be, characteristically from where it's not right now.

Yeah.

Right.

So I guess the only thing I have to base off of is stuff.

I've had other shops and like I said, I think I want it to be a little bit on the sweeter end, but I still really, really like the bitterness of coffee.

So if I can, like, kind of be right in the middle of that, that would be.

That would be fantastic.

Okay.

Seems to remind me, Wade, you always talked about Angela having a. Angela shot with her pulls of espresso.

A little bit.

Yeah, I. I don't think she was at all.

Yeah, I think she was.

I remember when she was on, she said she didn't like sourness and that, yeah, her shots were a little bit longer and to.

To draw, bring the acidity down.

But I don't think she would have said the bitterness was like a.

Was a.

Was a Draw for her.

So that's.

Yeah, that's another interesting, like, kind of way to approach it.

Like you're going after that as well as the sweetness.

Yeah, I think it finished.

Sweet.

If that's the thing.

I would really like that.

Cool, cool.

Are you just still testing different beans?

Yeah.

Okay.

Is that, is that most of what it is?

Are you.

Yeah.

Skill wise you want to.

Yeah, I mean, obviously skill wise you can always get better at it, but I think a good mix of both the beans, finding a bean that I really like, and the skill wise I think I could use for sure.

Okay, cool.

And then so let's say, let's say obviously the summer is going to go exactly the way you want it to.

Yeah.

You're going to get like weekly reps in.

You're gonna, you know, get weekly orders in, all that good stuff.

Then what are you ultimately looking at?

Like a fleet of pop ups, send like 10, 10 carts and stands all over, all over the state of New York?

Or are you like, I would love to settle into a brick and mortar, maybe get that old spreadsheet back out and see if that works out.

Or is this actually just gonna be the, the fun gig and you're gonna keep doing graphics and sign work?

So it's gonna be a hard sell to pull me away from graphics and sound work because that job is.

I love, I love doing that stuff.

Like, yeah, the art of using my hands to create something I don't think I'll ever get rid of.

But I could definitely see myself maybe transition to a brick and mortar someday.

But as far as like the, the near future, I don't think I'd want a whole fleet of cards because I really, really enjoy being there and being, talking to people and being with the community.

So I don't really want a, A business business.

I just, I like, I like the community aspect of it.

So I don't know if I'd really want one of my carts out and about without me there.

Just because I really enjoy it and I want to be there.

So you don't want to be, you know, the next Starbucks coffee.

You just want to be?

Definitely not.

Yep.

So when you say, when you say community, is it generally just like people having like a positive disposition when they, when you give them a good cup of coffee or is it like coffee is just an excuse?

That's it.

That's it.

I love hearing people's stories.

Like, I could sit and listen to people talk all day.

Like, I want to hear your stories.

I bartended Actually down at Marges for five or six years also.

Yeah.

My favorite part of the job.

People get a little bit to drink, come up and start telling me their whole life story.

I'm there, I'm there hanging on every word.

So that's what I'm in it for.

That would be a great summer job if I could bartend at Marges.

It was great.

I would love it.

I was freshly 21.

It was nice.

It'd be a great podcast.

Oh, God.

Like stories from Marges.

Oh, I can't imagine.

Right there.

I got some crazy ones.

I was going to say like the, the especially the regulars have to be just the biggest characters in the world.

They're awesome.

They're awesome.

Like, you get in with the regulars, die hard fans of you personally for life.

They're fantastic.

Oh, for sure.

And it's also what it.

Cause it's such a, such a specific place that like, it's like when people say, oh well, geez, where would you go on a nice day?

Like, you can have like a beachside sunset and you know, have a drink on the beach of basically an ocean in our backyard in Rochester.

It's legitimately like seven minutes from my.

Yeah, like from my, from my house.

It took me a good two summers of working there.

Be like, wait, I'm actually still in Rochester.

Right, right.

And it's so close.

Yeah.

But yeah, that, that kind of.

And I appreciate that you saying that.

Right.

Like, because you're, you're developing your deep love for coffee through the, through the process and it's something we talk about a lot is, you know, is a place coffee first.

Right.

And it's.

That's not the case with everybody.

Right.

There's.

You don't.

You might not be a deep coffee nerd right away and maybe you'll get there.

Maybe your vision of this changes over time.

But knowing that about yourself and knowing what you're doing and why is the.

The core of having the opportunity for success?

Because you know, if you don't, then you're going to be questioning yourself.

Yeah.

What are we really offering?

Well, and it's like, it's, it's a little bit of a false dichotomy too, because it's like you being the type of person who wants to connect with people, like, then giving them an amazing cup of coffee is like just bonus.

Just add on.

Just like it's like the next.

Another level of connection too.

So I would say my favorite shops around Rochester are ones that I've met people at or the baristas are super nice and friendly and there's been some.

An amazing, like, physical, actual coffee drinks places, but it wasn't the best interaction or whatever.

I'm like, I'll probably go someplace else next time.

But, like AM fm.

See, we're opposites.

Some of my favorite, favorite people I've met.

AM fm.

All right, can we cool it on that?

I don't need those people getting bigger heads.

Okay.

Can I keep them?

They're humble.

No.

I mean, no, they're incredible.

I saw the coolest thing at LVOS today.

Like, there was this belligerent customer and this young barista was, like, not only super friendly, but held the line on, like, this is why we do things the way we do.

And just, like, slowly turned him around to, like, letting her remake his drink.

And I was like.

To do.

I was like, like, I literally, before I left, I had to be like, that was incredible.

And I had Elvio's on tour in Europe and I had to call him and, like, leave him.

Or actually, I left him a voice note.

I gave.

Send him a voice note.

I was like, your team's amazing that it really is something like a special skill to be able to do something like that.

Yeah.

Working in the service industry, multiple different places is very, very hard to do that.

Absolutely.

So you have to tell us, though, what was the customer upset about, though?

He thought he had.

Okay, so older gentlemen had thought he had ordered his drink iced.

Both the person at the counter and the barista, no one clocked iced.

He wanted them to just dump it on ice.

And the barista said, I'm going to remake this whole thing, you know, ground up for you, because, like, yeah, if I.

If I just dump it over ice, it's going to get watered down.

He's like, she's like, it'll take me two minutes.

He's like, I don't have two minutes.

And she was just like, I think, you know, it's what you paid for.

I think we're going to get, you know, we want you to get the flavor.

Like, she was super cool.

I, like, I'm just putting bags on the shelves and I'm annoyed as hell at this interaction.

And she just was amazing.

And so, like, I mean, I see where you're coming from.

I'm the opposite.

Like, if the coffee is good, I don't.

Like.

I don't care who am I.

Like, treat me however you want.

Give me good coffee.

That's real love.

No, I'm kidding.

No, but I like my.

Some of my favorite coffee was at 9th street in.

In Manhattan.

They were the rudest people.

Yeah.

Like, literally, they don't look at you.

They only talk to each other.

And I was like.

I was like, I don't care.

Like, this was too good, and I had to go back.

And, like, I know I'm weird that way, but, like, I think.

And I think most people are probably more on, like, your end, like, where it's like.

Yeah, I don't really.

You know, the best coffee isn't enough to make up for.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

If I really like coffee somewhere, I'll go back for it.

But we've talked about this, though.

Like, you've told Elvio this.

Why does coffee.

Why does he think Italy is the greatest coffee?

Because he's in Italy.

Yeah.

Right.

Portugal.

Portugal, yeah.

Portugal.

But there's, like, there's a context to it, right?

Yeah.

And so, like, that context makes whatever's in that cup just a little bit better, you know?

Well, I think, too, that, like, when you.

I mean, for me, as, like, that is, like, core to my travel experience is finding yo coffee the best of what's there.

I. I also.

I. I also relish the challenge of if a place isn't, like, they're not the most friendly is.

I will.

I will make it my mission to engage with them.

I am in a place.

I will talk to a guy.

I will talk to a guy, but I make it my mission to engage with them.

Because if.

If they're doing something that good, they have to care.

Right To a point.

You have to care.

And maybe not everybody there cares, but the fact that they're executing at that level, that means they're passionate about it.

Or they were at some point, or

they were at some point.

Some of us were passionate before, and I just don't have it anymore.

And if I can bring.

If I can bring a targeted discussion or targeted compliment to them, where they might hear all day, oh, God, that was a good drink.

Oh, man, that was.

That was really tasty.

And I can go in and give, like, real feedback.

Sometimes it sparks something where they're just hearing, oh, man, that great mocha.

Thanks so much.

Great, great drink.

So, Anthony, I love that most of us in this room, most of us, all of us here, have done coffee tourism before.

Have you sought out coffee in other places?

Have you been other places that have contributed to this burgeoning, you know, passion you've got now?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's really funny you say that.

I listen to one of your guys podcasts where you ask somebody where what the favorite cup of coffee they ever had was.

Yeah, that one's coming for you too.

Yeah, well, I'm gonna answer it now.

Yes.

So can I just say segue real quick?

The best cup of coffee ever had.

So in college I went obviously for graphic design.

I went to mcc.

I took a photography class just because it was something to fill one of my whatever.

And we went to Iceland with that class and top five coolest places ever been.

Top three maybe.

But besides the fact we stayed with a host family and we kind of travel around with them and they showed us people's, their cousin's backyard or whatever.

And we ended up going to one of their neighbors that owned a sheep farm.

And we were kind of like walking around hiking all day, so we just kind of posted up in the sheep farm.

It's all like old, however old bricks and stones that made up the, the little paddock we were in.

And the host breaks out this thermos of coffee.

I don't know what it was, where he got it from, when he brewed it, but the best cup of coffee I had was when he poured that to me.

And it was just the stories he was telling us as he gave that to me.

The scene we were in, the feel, the temperature, everything.

I can like feel where I was in that moment.

And it was, it was the best cup of coffee I've ever had for sure.

And probably wasn't even that good.

It was probably similar to that Tim Hortons coffee that I liked before.

But just the experience of being there was bar none.

I love that.

That's awesome.

I love that.

And that again, like, it's about so much more than the coffee.

And then like, as you're developing your brand, you're like, it's about more than the coffee and that's like so true to your experience.

And I mean, yeah, I love it when people are authentic.

I love it when people can like, you know, use coffee to bring something about themselves out too.

That's.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Thank you for sharing that.

Thank you for beating us to the question.

I was hoping we had another one there.

Yeah, no, that's perfect.

Yeah.

So I mean, I think we're wrapping up.

How do we find you?

Yeah, so, yeah, where do we find the information about, about Pot of Bean?

And where can we find out when the next pop ups are coming in?

Yeah, so right now just Instagram would be the best thing.

Hopefully relatively soon in the summer, I'll have a website and you can find me there.

And.

But as far as, like, fastest way to find where I'm going to pop up, it's going to be Instagram.

Yeah.

So what is your.

What's your Instagram handle?

It's the underscore potted bean.

Nice.

So, yeah, easy to find already, you know, found that followed.

So, you know, take a look there.

Pay attention.

This is.

It's great to support new people trying to do something fun in Rochester.

Yeah.

And go have a fun conversation with Anthony.

I've enjoyed our conversation.

So, like, you know me as well and he didn't even make me coffee.

So, like, you're.

You're going to get it.

You're going to get a cup of

coffee to come to event.

You're going to be like, can I try your coffee?

I'm like, you only like coffee.

You don't want the conversation.

I didn't quite say that.

No.

He's just going to judge you harshly.

Yeah.

I'm actually just going to walk up.

No words.

You don't.

And you're just going to.

You're just supposed to know what to do.

I'll give it Adam.

I'll give you my best shot.

Just give him the.

The.

The sugariest, most overdone.

Oh, my God.

Obviously, that's what I love.

Obviously.

Wade, why don't you throw some plugs out for what you're looking at?

Oh, man.

What do we got going on?

The next Ugly Duck Industry night is an ASL workshop.

It's like their third or fourth ASL workshop.

That's another one.

We should work on ASL and service.

I feel like we need to.

I feel like the.

Now we've done so many of these, we need to have like a, A working group that.

Yeah, because there's.

They've done a whole bunch of events at Rochester Cocktail Revival about that as well.

Yeah.

It's such a useful skill and I feel like we brush up every now and then.

We need to actually work on it in a focus manner.

So if anyone out there has that experience and wants to lead something like that, maybe we can find a way to facilitate.

We've got to.

You know, we've got a lot of connections in coffee, so there's that.

And then I want to put a plug out for Fall of Coffee and just amazing coffee professional Billy Lyons is going to be debuting some art and bringing out some awesome bags of coffee.

A really, really specialized lot that we brought in for him that I'm excited about.

And that's February 21st and that's gonna be out at my warehouse, 175 Dewey, which they're renovating right now.

And it's gonna look really nice.

So.

Yeah.

And you can find me at Aporia Coffee.

Um, I'm just doing my thing, just trying to stay on my feet.

Love it.

Aaron.

I'm Aaron Pascucci.

And that's me.

And I'm Chris Lindstrom.

And you can find all of the shows on the Lunchadore podcast network@lunchadore.org hopefully everybody's going to be able to check out plants and beets from the illustrious Rob Bell.

Part of behind the Glass, Loving his lo fi beats and plant talk.

We have more coming from that soon.

And then hopefully people check out Bossy Roc, which is from Kelly Metris and Kelly Bush, two local business owners talking about the ups and downs of, you know, self employment.

And as women business owners, it's really honest, delightful chat.

So hopefully you all check that out.

Can I do one more?

Oh, please.

You saying Rob Bell reminded me he's.

He's taking advantage of some opportunities in AM fm.

I'm hoping like one of these plants and beats might come from AMF or something.

He works out.

I don't know.

I think it's Saturdays and Sundays.

Like be on the lookout for him to be doing some DJing at AM FM, which is like super exciting.

He has a great relationship with the crew there.

He's just like such a great guy.

So easy to talk to.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Love Rob.

And I want to.

I talked to Josiah about that today and wanted to make sure I plug back tonight.

Absolutely.

Well, I think we're gonna close out for today and we hope everybody does.

Stay dialed in.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchador podcast network.

It's enough positivity about Rob Bell.

I'm sick of it.

I think everybody else is too.

Boo.