Last weekend, we returned from a ten-day trip to the East Coast - three days in Manhattan and a week in DC. L went for work and J and I tagged along. In NYC, I got to a few of the coffee shops linked from Ritual's web site: Gimme!, Joe, and Abraco. Actually, we stopped by the last one only after dinner in the East Village, when it was closed. In DC, I went back to Murky in Arlington, and to Peregrine in DC (located where Murky used to be). (Someone I spoke to at Murky said they'd likely be re-opening in the district, although it would not be called Murky.)
The espressos I got were excellent and of varied styles, from the dark, rich and spicy at Gimme, to the medium-dark, rich and smooth at Joe, to the dark, complex and wine-like at Murky. The best, though, was a single-origin (El Salvador, I think) espresso at Peregrine: multi-layered complexity, on the lighter side, spicy with underlying smoothness. (All of Peregrine's shots are hand-pulled, but unfortunately I did not get back to try their regular espresso.) Still, I doubt even that one has dislodged my favorites: the single-origin espressos at Blue Bottle Cafe, which are syrupy smooth, sweet and complex.
What surprised me was how few options there were for brewed coffee. Gimme had thermoses of previously brewed coffee. Joe had one bean option for previously brewed coffee or french press coffee. Murky had two. Peregrine offered individually poured drip. Abraco looked to be little more than an espresso counter. I guess it's not bad, but nothing like Ritual, where the regular coffee is freshly made french press and you can order a Clover of pretty much any of their beans. Or Blue Bottle, where you can get a siphon coffee or cold filter coffee. (Blue Bottle's individual hand-poured drip coffee is usually a disappointment for me, although I certainly find it difficult to do that uniformly excellently.)
I was also surprised that Murky and Peregrine served Counter Culture Coffee, roasted in North Carolina and shipped up in a few days, instead of roasting there own. It's not that there's anything at all wrong with CCC, but I'd think they'd want to control their own roasts. The roasts of Ritual and Blue Bottle are not tremendously different in darkness, but the overall emphases and styles of their coffees are quite different.
So, although I love the coffee tourism, I'm glad to be home, with my beans from Ritual and Blue Bottle waiting for me in the freezer, joined now by some from Murky.
