Last night I attended my first Barista Throwdown. Before I go any further, if you’re not sure what that means, the good people at Boomtown Coffee have a great explanatory piece with all the deets.
My social media feeds occasionally have mentions of area Thursday Night Throwdowns, and since this edition would be held practically in our backyard at Lost Sock Roasters‘ pop-up at Brightwood Pizza & Bottle, I figured it was time to experience one for myself. And I’m so glad that I did.
I wondered what I would find when I walked in. One of the things I love about coffee shops and the specialty coffee community is that almost everyone is incredibly welcoming and happy to share their passion. I didn’t know if I would find some version of that friendly, open, positive mentality, or a highly competitive, nervous vibe, or a group of coffee pros closing themselves off from normies like me.
Well, here’s what was waiting for me:
Welcome to the Thunderdome happiest place on earth! I arrived a little while after the scheduled start time and definitely walked into a party. Everyone was having a terrific time, people were warm and welcoming (even to an old fart like me – it was a very young crowd). Zero feelings whatsoever of tension or competitive rivalry, just lots of smiles and laughter and joy.
I loved how everyone was so supportive of and encouraging to each other. It was also great to see the rich diaspora of DC’s coffee community on display, with many people of color in the room and a competition bracket tilted heavily toward young women. In some quarters coffee (like far too many things) is weighted heavily toward white men of a certain age, but you wouldn’t find that here. Well, I suppose other than me.
Being so close to Halloween, attendees had been encouraged to come in costume. A couple of the judges were up for it – kudos to Lost Sock co-founder Nico for judging the competition while wearing a judge’s costume – and the best costume contest went to a woman wearing an inspired take on a nun’s habit.
Sixteen contestants entered, and the rules were pretty simple. The espresso machine (a Slayer rig) had 2 steam wands, allowing simultaneous frothing. The baristas had their choice from the available cups and milk pitchers. They got to work on the milk as the host barista drew them each a single shot – a double spout portioning out equal shares of a double shot. The judges looked away until after the cups were put before them for a ‘blind’ inspection and quick vote by finger point. Rather than take them away for cleaning, after each match the cups were pushed to the center of the table to join the growing display of the evening’s milk art.
Most of the results were variations on rosettas and tulips, some opting for delicate detail and complexity, others for a bold, bright white finish. Different pouring techniques were on display, and it was interesting to see some contestants who advanced through the rounds try new designs as they went along, while others repeated what had worked for them from the start.
A couple contestants weren’t able to make any design at all, but they still put their drinks on the judging table and crowd was incredibly appreciative that they tried. One of the evening’s biggest rounds of applause came when the host barista announced that a coffee with no visible art was a valiant effort by her housemate, who had never touched an espresso machine before and was a good enough sport to give it a whirl.
A twist was thrown into the championship pairing, as the finalists’ “cups” were halves of a small pumpkin. Happy Halloween! Not just different, but adding a degree of difficulty because the meat of the pumpkin soaked up quite a bit of the espresso.
Images don’t lie, clearly the pumpkins flummoxed the finalists.
It could have gone either way, but Frankie Contreras was crowned champion by a 2-1 decision.
The top three finishers were kind enough to chat with me after the contest was over.
Tiana Torres of Lost Sock came in third place. Tiana has been with Lost Sock for a few years, first at their Takoma DC cafe, then their pop-up at the Phillips Collection museum, and now at the Brightwood Pizza pop-up. While the homecourt advantage couldn’t carry Tiana to the title, she did win the previous week’s throwdown at Tatte’s 14th Street outlet. Tiana has been working in coffee since she was 16, first at shops in California, and then at DC’s iconic The Coffee Bar before joining Lost Sock. She has participated often in throwdowns, and hopes to continue to higher level barista competitions. Overall, she definitely produced some of the evening’s most impressive work.
Andrea Orellana, a barista at Tatte on 14th Street, won second place. Heading into the evening, Andrea didn’t have much prior experience at throwdowns. She was sorry to miss last week’s competition at her home café, and hadn’t been to the Brightwood location before so she came with a small group of friends. They spent the evening smiling and laughing and having a terrific time. I saw several of Andrea’s efforts in earlier rounds, and one particular skill she displayed was to fill the cup with the crema just over the rim, to the very last point before it would spill, which I’ve always thought is an indicator of great talent.
Our evening’s champ was Frankie Contreras, one of the partners in Little Hat Coffee. Frankie has been in the coffee industry for the past 7-8 years, previously at some of the finest cafés in the District, including Yellow and Maketto, and at one of Bluestone Lane’s DC outlets.
Little Hat until recently operated as a pop-up in DC’s Bryant Street Market food hall, and has in recent days relocated to the coffee stand inside Streets Markets’ 14th Street location. I stopped in this morning to give them a try, and Frankie made me a terrific macchiato. Little Hat works closely with Maryland roasters A Toda Madre, collaborating on roasts mostly from Latin American growers. They use a beautiful little espresso machine from the Eagle 1 Prima model range by Victoria Arduino, a manufacturer more commonly seen in Europe and the British Isles than stateside. I’ll definitely be back.
What a terrific evening! It was a fitting yet bittersweet goodbye to the Brightwood pop-up, which will end service this Sunday. My wife and I will be very sad to see it go, but luckily we live about halfway between Brightwood Pizza and Lost Sock’s Takoma café, so we’ll still be able to enjoy their great coffee and catch up with their very friendly staff.