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Barista Rosemary Peralta demonstrates how each cup of coffee served at Sweet Praise is drip poured on the spot. PHOTO: Mike Fitelson
Updated
Growing up in the Dominican Republic, some of Dulce Martinez’ favorite memories are of picking beans from her grandfather’s coffee fields in Santiago and drying them on the floor. When coffee needed to be made, her grandmother would grind the beans by hand with a mortar and pestle then place the grounds in what was essentially a sock tied in a knot and dropped in hot water.
Martinez falls into blissful reverie when remembering the fragrant aroma that would fill the room when the coffee was ready.
Now Martinez and her business partner Carmen Cabrera have brought that “Ahhhhh” coffee experience to Inwood, having last month opened the American bistro Sweet Praise on Broadway near W. 212th Street in a former bodega.
When it came time to choose a coffee to serve, the management team selected a purveyor that has been a hit for its go-it-slow process and deep flavor in a world of quick, disposable brews.
Every cup of coffee served at Sweet Praise is ground on the spot, then drip-poured while the customer waits.
Sweet Praise is among the first dozen or so businesses in New York City selling Blue Bottle Coffee Company, a microroaster that only works with organic, shade-grown beans.
The story of the Blue Bottle Coffee Company starts in 1683 when the Turkish invasion of Vienna is repelled and the fleeing troops leave behind several bags of coffee beans. The beans were used in the creation of Central Europe’s first coffee house, called the Blue Bottle. Then 319 years later in 2002, as the company’s Web site breathlessly reports, a frustrated freelance musician in Oakland, CA decides to begin selling coffee that will never be more than 48 hours removed of the roaster.
Dulce Martinez, co-owner of Sweet Praise on Broadway near W. 212th Street, with her daughter Estephany Bautista. PHOTO: Mike Fitelson
Brewing coffee is such serious business for Blue Bottle that Rosemary Peralta, a barista at Sweet Praise, went through about nine hours of training to learn the Blue Bottle method of making espresso.
To make a cup of coffee, a paper filter is inserted into one of the four ceramic filters in a rack on the countertop. The beans are ground – about 30 grams to make a 10-ounce cup – and added to the filter. Finally water is poured over the grounds, the pot sometimes making as many as three passes to fill a cup. The entire process takes just under three minutes.
Peralta said that some customers have been skeptical about the made-to-order routine, others have had flashbacks to how their grandmothers did it, but that at the end of the day, “Taste is what does the talking for it.”
The resulting brew is extremely deep, rich, and, well, fresh.
“There is a science of coffee to reach the peak of flavor,” she said, “showing how huge [Blue Bottle] is in California.”
And just in case anyone worried that this new coffee was too cool for Inwood, Peralta notes that the five or so types of bean they brew all blend great with milk, making a delicious café con leche.
Just like your grandmother did, if she happened to live near a coffee plantation.
Sweet Praise is at 4996 Broadway near W. 212th Street, 212-567-5009. Regular coffee is $2; iced coffee is $2.75; cappuccinos and lattes are $3.50. Brunch is served from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Coffee, to stay or to go, is served from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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