peace coffee

This is part 3 in a series about running a craft services table for a film shoot here in Minneapolis for the Independent movie, Stay Then Go. Read part 1 here. 

This is part 2 in a series about running a craft services table for a film shoot here in Minneapolis for the Independent movie Stay Then Go. Read part 1 here. 

It's been a long time since I've done anything more than plan a dinner party for four. Hell, it's been a long time since I've even done that. Maybe 20 years. Most of my  cooking now revolves around the challenges of cooking for just one, such as how to make the most of vegetables before they go bad in the bin.

If we've eaten together in the past few years, I might have told you that eating more local, organic, and sustainable food has considerably enhanced my experience and relationship with food. This is absolutely true.

I might also have told you that eating local, organic, and sustainable food doesn't mean depriving myself of anything, that I never feel like I was missing out. This is mostly true. I used to love sushi, for example, but nowadays I tend to avoid it. But of all the foods I've given up in my quest to eat better, the loss of flavored non-dairy creamer has hit me the hardest.

There's a new coffee bar in Uptown. This is news, you ask? Yes, it is. In November, Greg Hoyt opened Dogwood Coffee in Calhoun Square, across from Kitchen Window in the space formerly occupied by Starbucks. The differences between the previous chain tenant and this new local installation are dramatic. The space is light and airy, with reclaimed wood fixtures locally sourced and built. The menu is small, and there are only a few baked goods. Yet with a selection and execution this good, I didn't miss a thing. In fact, I found myself already planning my next trip back.

Earlier this week, when I slipped through the front doors of the new Peace Coffee shop in Longfellow, I had to stop for a moment to take it all in. Despite the fact that I had come on what was only the third day of their “soft” opening, the place had that wonderful feeling of having been there for a long time. My gaze flitted from the beautiful intricate tile floor at the entrance, to the marquis lights on the rough hewn menu board, to the tree mural complete with a sweet little hidden bird nest, to the giant, and I mean GIANT, disco ball and all I could think was Man, this place is cool! Cheery sounds of whirring and clinking drifted from the big u-shaped coffee bar and sun streamed through vast windows, casting swaths of light over people chatting or sitting with their laptops, sipping coffee and looking contented as cats.

It’s an hour before sunrise as I make my way through the darkness to my deer stand. Cresting a hill, I startle a furry animal who swiftly charges right at me, starling me in return, bumping into my boots before disappearing into the field. A fox? A muskrat? A woodchuck? I’ll never know, but it’s a clear wake-up call, a reminder that I’ve entered an environment in which all living creatures have a place on the food chain – including me.

I settle into my stand about 30 minutes before the official opening of the 2010 Minnesota firearms deer hunting season, an event that my husband and I have enjoyed together for over 20 years. This year, my husband had to work so I decided to go alone, having the entire 172-acre farm to myself.

When I heard that Minneapolis-based Peace Coffee would be opening their own coffee shop this fall, my first reaction was not overly enthusiastic. Apart from a select few, coffee shops are not known to be hugely profitable, and I feared this new venture would pull resources from one of my favorite local companies and drag it down. Peace Coffee has been growing its fair trade, organic, bike-delivered, coffee bean business for years. Why risk all that the company has worked for rather than simply add new accounts and products to their already successful model? When I got the chance to speak with Lee Wallace, Peace Coffee's CEO ("Queen Bean" on her business cards), it all made sense.

"The new coffee shop allows us to prepare our coffee the way we envision it when it comes out of the roaster," Lee tells me, "most roasters know roasting but not about being a barista, and most baristas don't know much about roasting."

Maybe, like me, you live in Minneapolis, or someplace else in the United States where coffee, cocoa beans, quinoa, and rice don’t grow. Maybe, like me, those are some of your absolute favorite things, and you’re not willing to give them up. Maybe, like me, your spouse has even suggested that giving them up would be detrimental to your marriage. What are you going to do?

Photo of Pete Bonahoom (right) and Lee Zukor (left) by Arif MamdaniThanks to our friends, families, and community for coming out to play at Galactic Pizza in Minneapolis on Thursday night. We ate well, shared stories, and (some of us) went home with tasty prizes from Equal Exchange, Peace Coffee, and SGT.

Alex Roberts Photo by Kate NG SommersChef Alex Roberts is a low-key kind of guy. He doesn’t yell or throw temper tantrums, a la Gordon Ramsay. He doesn't have the legendary ego of a rock star chef ("I don't feel that I'm the best at anything," he recently told the Star Tribune's Rick Nelson).