Caffé Vita

Masters of blending and roasting

Seattle is a city of many moods and although we have plenty of home-grown coffee companies here, each fits Seattle in its own way. Caffé Vita reflects our casual, laid back mode when we just want a great cup of coffee without the bells and whistles. What else sets Caffé Vita apart in our crowded coffee scene?

Photo: Roaster Mason Sager working the  1930s vintage Probat

For one, founder Mike McConnell. He seems to be the poster boy of finding what you want to do, doing it well and not worrying too much about others’ expectations. Mike held a number of jobs in various industries and didn’t really like any of them. When he entered the coffee business at the age of 27, he found he had a real interest and passion. As he sold Michaelo espresso machines, he wondered where he could find a great, not-so-dark-roasted coffee to go with the machine. Ultimately he realized this was a niche market he could fill.

Traveling extensively to coffee-producing countries, he formed relationships with green bean buyers and educated himself in the cupping process (taking a green bean sample, roasting it to half the normal roast profile and tasting for defects). The process allows you to really taste the bean—the quality and subtlety.

Caffé Vita sets itself apart with its roasting and blending. Even when different roasters use the same beans, the end product will taste different. Caffé Vita is predominately a coffee blender. As Bob Prince, Vita sales person, explains, "There’s an art to blending—what beans work together and how they roast together. Sometimes beans are blended after they’re roasted separately. We’ve worked hard over the past 12 years to keep the blend consistent. Beans are like wine in that they are affected by terroir. Beans alter with soil and temperature changes, so we have to make subtle adjustments in our blending from year to year to keep the taste consistent."

Caffé Vita uses high quality beans and doesn’t take away their flavor by over-roasting, producing the lightest espresso roast on the market. "We offer a north Italian espresso," explains Bob. "Our beans come from about 12 coffee-producing countries. What drives us is what’s in the cup. We sample-roast beans and if the outcome is great, we buy the beans. It may be 3 or 4 bags of coffee and when it’s gone, it’s gone."

A few of their blends, like Queen City Blend and Bistro Blend, are blends that customers expect to taste the same year after year. "We do watch trends," says Bob. "Some are just flash and we’re not interested. But we’re not afraid of something new that looks worthwhile like single origin coffees." Mike still does the green bean buying and was in Columbia and Guatemala last fall/winter.

Coffee is roasted in a 1930s vintage Probat, 45 kilo roaster at the Capitol Hill roasterie (behind the café in the building they own). Right now, they roast 3500 pounds of coffee a day. Having created great-tasting coffee, they don’t want to dilute the quality. They offer limited flavorings, organic chocolate for their mochas, hormone-free milk and high-quality soy products. 16 ounces is the largest drink you can get and their shots are tighter, condensing the flavor. LaMarzoco espresso machines are used in all the cafés (a double boiler machine that pulls great espresso and makes wonderful lattes).

As the company has grown, so has Mike’s dedication to quality, both on the product side as well as in his concern for employees. "People stay with Mike," says Bob. "He knows they need to be themselves in the workplace and have opinions. They have to be paid and get health coverage. We have over 50 employees now. We have some baristas who’ve been with us for 7 or 8 years."

Caffé Vita has always had close relations with the restaurant community and have great fans (Salumi, Lark, Café Juanita, Macrina Bakery, Le Pichet, Tilth, Tavolata, Steelhead Diner). "You’ll notice that three of the five James Beard-nominated restaurants in our region this year use our coffee," explains Bob. "I think the reason is that they have the same vision of quality. The coffee can’t be less than the best of the food they offer."

Bob is uniquely qualified to foster those relationships having started his culinary career over 20 years ago as sous chef at Campagne when it was still on Capitol Hill. He was a partner at the Market Café where he met Graham Kerr and ended up working with him on 220 TV episodes. He hired the opening crew at Cyclops, worked at the Ruins and had a four-year stint as executive chef for Chicken Soup Brigade. He was the executive banquet chef at the W Hotel.

His desire to support nonprofits meshes with Mike’s vision of community involvement. "Mike has a big heart," says Bob. "He treats people well and fairly. He works with YouthCare, an organization that helps at-risk and homeless kids. He was instrumental in producing a CD that was sold at coffee shops to raise money for them."

They’re very visible at chef-driven charitable events like FareStart’s Guest Chef on the Waterfront. The coffee for FareStart’s barista training program is donated by Caffé Vita and graduating classes are given a tour of the roasterie. Excess coffee at the cafes or from grocery stores (their coffee has a two-week shelf life) goes to Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline. Time and coffee are donated for Thursday Guest Chef nights at FareStart as well. They’re also involved in Slow Food events.

Passionate about all things Italian, Mike is also the man behind Via Tribunali, the Neapolitan pizza spot on Capitol Hill that opened in 2005. As with coffee, there’s a real craft to authentic Neapolitan pizza. Italian wood-burning oven makers were flown to Seattle to build the oven in place. They returned again to build ovens for Queen Anne (opening this summer) and Georgetown (no opening guesses yet) locations. Along with the builders, Italian clay and tiles were also brought in. Clearly, authenticity is key for Mike.

More Vita café locations may be in the future, although nothing is in motion at this moment. With Mike’s concern over maintaining quality and creating a company culture that translates to content customers, Caffé Vita should be making us all happy (and somewhat wired) for years to come.

Connie Adams/June 2007

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