The renovated bar at Café Virtuoso in San Diego. All photos courtesy of Café Virtuoso.
To be a virtuoso is to demonstrate excellence in an art, and in specialty coffee there is certainly both art and craft. But at the root of the word is also “virtue,” which denotes the kind of high morality that a recently revived institution in San Diego Coffee shop virtuoso included the newly expanded area in the plan.
The roastery and shop, which recently reopened after renovation and modernisation, are also paving the way for a up-to-date non-profit organisation that will offer speciality coffee training and job skills to vulnerable and socially excluded people in the city.
The coffee company, certified organic since its founding in 2008, recently switched from a 13-kilogram Diedrich to a 35-kilogram Loring Kestral, which now supplies its only branded coffee shop, as well as more than 150 wholesale customers. After a two-week closure last month and another 1.5-week closure earlier this month, the coffee shop reopened on Wednesday last week with a bar three times longer than before, a filter coffee station with Curtis Seraphim brewers and a Mahlkonig Guatemala grinder, and a up-to-date tap system for icy brew and kombucha.
“The last two years have been a whirlwind,” Savannah Britton, Café Virtuoso’s quality assurance manager and daughter of owner Laurie Britton, told Daily Coffee News. Britton said her mother bought out her partner to become the sole owner of the now woman-owned business while also looking to significantly expand production and modernize the cafe.
Given their commitment to supporting certified organic farming, the efficiency of the Loring roaster was part of its appeal, in addition to its responsiveness and the quality of roast it enables. “To go into a larger space, augment capacity so much and reduce our gas bill by almost 85 percent is amazing,” Britton said.
In the future, Café Virtuoso won’t just be making great coffee, but perhaps more coffee virtuosos. Britton, a SCAA/Barista Guild of America Level 2 certified barista, is currently the board chair and director of education for a newly formed nonprofit, the San Diego Coffee Training Institute, which will initially focus on training at-risk, “transitional” youth—those ages 16 to 24 who are transitioning out of the foster care system—for SCAA Level 1 and 2 barista certification.
The Future of San Diego Coffee Training Institute
The institute will also offer training in areas such as workplace etiquette and crisis resolution, skills that will assist recipients not only find jobs but also keep them. In the future, the training could expand to assist other at-risk populations, including veterans and survivors of domestic violence.
“San Diego has a really unchecked homeless population,” Britton said. “There are a lot of programs that will feed them and give them shelter and things like that, but there aren’t many that will actually equip them with skills that they can take with them.”
SDCTI received its 501c3 certification last month and is currently writing grant applications and raising funds to support the construction of an additional facility, physically connected to Café Virtuoso, although the two organizations will remain legally separate entities. The institute will sublease the cafe space, which Britton hopes to stock with “the best of the best” equipment, including Mahlkonig grinders, La Marzocco coffee makers, Curtis sizzling water dispensers and even a Nuova Simonelli Black Eagle dual-group espresso machine for its utilize in training for USBC competitions.
“We’re building a building within a building,” Britton said of the project, which will transform the space into a facility that meets SCAA campus requirements. The buildout will also consider the possibility of including Roasters Guild certification classes in the future, given the presence of Café Virtuoso roastery in the same building.
The rebuilt Café Virtuoso reopened to the public last week, just before Thanksgiving. Britton said she is sanguine that funds will be raised and construction completed quickly enough for students to be learning at SDCTI in about six months.
In the meantime, Britton is preparing to head to Austin in February to compete in her first barista competition. While her goals of helping others are modest when it comes to competing, unlike her goals of helping others.
“My only goal is not to subdued and not get disqualified,” she said. “I’m just trying to get through this. I just want to go, compete and go home, I have no expectations.”
Cafe Virtuoso is located at 1616 National Ave. in San Diego, California.
Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the deputy editor of Daily Coffee News at Roast Magazine. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
