How Should You Tip Your Barista?
At Phoenix, we are thankful for the generosity of our customers who tip our baristas. We know that it's hard to know when to tip, how much to tip, and what is expected or even polite when it comes to tipping baristas. At a table service restaurant, the 18% guideline is firmly established. There really is no percentage guideline for counter service at a coffee shop, although on average, the gross tips from each day do add up to about 9% of the sales. Some people never tip, and some people tip $1.00 for their $2.00 coffee. We'd like to think that these big tippers are earning not only our appreciation, but also some good karma.
It's no surprise that our thoughts on tipping are quite different from Starbucks' position on the matter. In a 2006 NY Daily News article, Starbucks management was quoted as saying that Starbucks baristas don't need tips. “We don’t expect our customers to pay anything extra to receive our legendary service,” Starbucks marketing manager Dan Lewis explained. The tip boxes at Starbucks registers are there “to avoid loose tips on tables and counters throughout the store,” he said.
At Phoenix Coffee, our baristas do need tips, and we encourage customers to tip generously and often. We hope that our customers enjoy our authentic style of personal service, where baristas are given the freedom to simply be a person being of service to another person. We value this kind of personalized service, which is why you’ll never hear about a “standard greeting” or other service formulas at Phoenix. Instead, it’s our goal to create a warm, friendly ambiance at each of our cafes, where our baristas will greet you in their own individual way, and hopefully you’ll feel that they deserve to be rewarded for their efforts.
Thanks for your patronage and the generous tips!
East 9th Coffee Cupping
On Thursday June 24th, Nathan Lilly, lead barista, Samantha Bako, Elizabeth Jadud and Wes Johansen cupped two Ethiopian coffees in order to compare the difference between the two cups. Before they added the water, they noticed that the grounds from one cup had fragrant blueberry overtones, and the other smelled earthy and grainy. These differences carried into the brewed cups as well. The difference was that one Ethiopian cup (the fragrant one with the blueberry overtones) was our freshly roasted coffee, and the other cup was a stale sample of very old Ethiopian beans that Nathan had mysteriously procured. Nathan had set the table with the two cupping cups, a cupping spoon for each participant, a water glass, an opaque ceramic spit cup (GREAT IDEA, Nathan!) and a hot water spoon rinse glass at each place also. Great set up and very interesting comparison of two coffees.
Compostable Cups Are Here!
The new Phoenix Coffee compostable cups are just starting to arrive at our cafes. These cups are the culmination of almost a year's worth of thought and effort. They were painstakingly designed by our in-house designer, Sean Higgins. As the new cups begin to arrive at each cafe, we will now offer you a choice when you purchase a beverage to go: either bring your own mug or buy one of our new compostable cups for $0.10 each. This nominal ten cent "green fee" is our way of encouraging everyone to adopt sustainable habits, such as bringing your own mug and minimizing the use of disposables whenever possible. In Ireland, the country reduced the use of disposable shopping bags by 96% by introducing a similar "green fee". We hope to reduce our use of disposables by more than 100,000 cups this year, and to compost just as many, thereby reducing our ecological footprint. Thanks for helping with our efforts! You can read our press release here.
About the East Ninth Cafe
We opened this café on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) 2008, and have had a line at the counter every day since. Our East 9th café is frequented by bike messengers, downtown office workers, and lots of other hardworking folks who enjoy the colorful ambiance that we’ve created in the first floor of the Key Bank Center parking garage. We’re easy to find with our prominent sign facing East 9th, and our spacious, grassy patio right outside our side door.
This cafe specializes in espresso based drinks, so be sure to try one of our gorgeous rosetta lattes, or try a straight up shot pulled by one of our professional baristas. A cozy escape from the bustle of 9th Street, our café is decorated with vintage furniture and oriental rugs. Don’t miss our back hall gallery featuring fresh local art.
