FAT C I T Y
COFFEE ON THE FLY
Jon Freeman is improvising his dream business, one walk-in at a time.
J
BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER & FULL BAR
39th St. & SW Trafficway Kansas City, MO 816-531-SOSA (7672) /Sosas39thStreetDiner
More
Coffee
THAN JUST
DELICIOUS
BREAKFAST & LUNCH
SANDWICHES SOUPS & SALADS 1821 WYANDOTTE (CROSSROADS)
920 MAIN
(DOWNTOWN)
2<F@N OJ N>M<H=G@´
Breakfast
Catering
& Lunch
Gift Baskets
Breakfast: Mon-Fri 7-11am, Sat 7-12pm, Sun 8-1:30pm Lunch: Mon-Sat 11-3pm, Sun 11-1:30pm
409 W. Gregory, KCMO (816) 444-193 + www.theclassiccookie.com
PIZZA. IT’S WHAT’S
FOR DINNER.
1209 W. 47th Street Kansas City, MO 64112 816.401.4483 facebook.com/JohnnyJosPizza
DINNER ONLY:
5PM-9:30PM MON-SAT •CLOSED SUN 20
THE PITCH
F E B R U A R Y 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 1 3
on Freeman is having a premonition. On a frigid Tuesday in February, the owner of two-month-old Flywheel Coffee, the tiny shop at 548 Central in Kansas City, Kansas, surveys the traffic speeding by. “Every time I sit down with someone,” he says as he slides a chair back from one of Flywheel’s four tables, “it gets busy.” Before Freeman, 41, can sit, the door swings open, sending him behind the counter again. The customer is a regular. “There are not too many places that I can go to get a coffee, where I can walk t h roug h t he g rou nds E MOR that were used to make the coffee,” the man j o ke s . H e ’s t e a s i n g T A E IN ONL .COM Freeman, who has been PITCH using espresso grounds to fertilize the grass seed planted in a small, spotty patch next to the shop’s parking lot. Freeman pushes up the sleeves of his brown hoodie, revealing another pair of sleeves in ink — a reminder of his days playing bass in bands like the Shaker Hoods — and works his equipment. He retorts: “There’s going to be lush green grass where I can put my picnic tables this summer.” Freeman has big plans for this brick postage stamp, which sits a few tire rolls from the Central Avenue Bridge. He says Flywheel Coffee is going to be a music venue (a few dozen people came to see a couple of singersongwriters play a pair of Saturday nights in February) as well as an art gallery (Freeman has sold two of his own abstract paintings off the wall). But fi rst, Flywheel (Freeman’s nickname, a word etched into his left forearm) has to pull another espresso shot. He is still the shop’s lone barista. “Whoever designed this had no idea how to design a drain for an espresso machine,” he says in mock frustration. These two men have had this conversation before. They talk like tinkerers in a garage. “Could you put a screen on it?” his customer asks. Freeman pauses, and you can feel a trade coming on. (He has already bartered with a contractor to get a new floor in exchange for cappuccinos.) “Might not be a bad idea at all, actually,” he says. The coffee menu, like Freeman, is straightforward. Working in a tidy area the size of a Mini Cooper, he makes every drink to order, including the occasional frozen mocha or milkshake. (Two blenders stand at the ready.) He doesn’t keep cold coffee in the refrigerator, though, and not 10 minutes after he admits this fact, a University of Kansas fan (with his Jayhawks cap slightly askew, his matching jersey slightly oversized, his body apparently unfazed by the cold outside) walks through the door and asks for an iced coffee. Freeman improvises, pouring drip cof-
JON AT H A N BENDER
BUILD YOUR OWN COFFEE LAB Ben Helt of Benetti’s says it’s not hard.
FAT CITY
pitch.com
BY
B Freeman is the Flywheel in Flywheel. fee over ice and adding a shot of vanilla. He hands over the cup and asks the kid to tell him what he thinks. But the fan just wants to get on the road (he says he and some friends are headed out of town), and he leaves without opening the lid. “I ask my customers to tell me if something is working for them,” Freeman says. “They have to be my QA [quality assurance] when it comes to cold coffee.” He says this neighborhood is ready for a coffee shop that can serve as a gathering place for artists. Investors have purchased the former Sophie’s Deli across the street (a former stop on onetime bread-truck driver Freeman’s delivery route), and the bike shop Revolve, a few doors down, is slated to open this month. “There’s no foot traffic, but people from the neighborhood walk down,” Freeman says. “I thought about taking an espresso and cappuccino banner and going all Little Caesars out there. I haven’t done it yet, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.” His sign-holding days are pushed off a bit longer by a white-haired couple in need of caffeine. “We just drove by and saw you were open and thought we’d give you a try,” the woman says. She and the man take seats, as does Freeman for only the second time in the few hours since he has opened. “People don’t expect to see this here,” Freeman says. “But I know that there’s no coffeehouses here, and I can see people enjoying my vision.” Flywheel Coffeehouse is open 7 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Monday–Friday and 8 a.m.–2 p.m. Saturday.
en Helt knows that there’s a perfect cup of coffee out there. That’s why the 38-yearold co-owner of Benetti’s Coffee went to Panama in January (where he visited coffee farms and helped a friend’s bed and breakfast with its barista program). And it’s why he has spent six months perfecting styles — drip coffee, pour-over coffee, and cowboy coffee (a pot of grounds and water over an outdoor open flame) — for his Raytown roasting business. “The idea was to strip away every toy,” Helt says of the campfire experiment, conducted during last year’s Caffeine Crawl. “We wanted to really focus on all of the variables that we manipulate to make coffee.” Fat City asked him how coffee perfectionists might begin their own quest at home. Grind. Get a good grinder. Helt likes the Bodum Bistro, a conical burr grinder that can be had for less than $150. For the money, it’s really good. Weigh. Find a scale that measures in grams and to the hundredth of an ounce. You can get one at Harbor Freight (harborfreight .com) for $20. “You just want a digital scale with a quick response,” Helt says. Brew. At this point, you don’t even have to leave your basic auto-drip machine. You just have to get away from having a glass pot on a burner. “If you are looking for brightness or flavor clarity, go with a Chemex, a [Hario] V60 or an [Abid] Clever dripper. If you really like the body or deep complexity of coffee, you may want to move toward a French press.” Helt adds: “The interesting thing about coffee is that even when it’s perfectly sourced, perfectly roasted and excellently prepared, it still may not be your favorite cup. You just keep going until you find what you like.” Gusto Coffee Bistro in Lee’s Summit uses Benetti’s beans for espresso. Benetti’s coffee is also sold at One More Cup and can be ordered at benettiscoffee.com. — J.B.
E-mail jonathan.bender@pitch.com pitch.com
MONTH