Though he’s been crafting coffee and espresso for more than 30 years, Andrew Barnett is today considered a visionary for specialty coffee excellence as it proceeds into the 21st century. He is highly regarded in the mission to push the boundaries of sustainability efforts and coffee quality by not only his longtime peers in the industry, but by relative newcomers—top baristas still getting their feet wet in specialty coffee. When barista Kyle Larson of Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Ore., for example, received accolades for his signature drink at the 2004 Northwest Regional Barista Competition from Barnett, who served as one of Larson’s sensory judges, Larson says it was “the highest praise I could have hoped for. Andrew’s opinion meant and still means the world to me.”

Barnett got his start in specialty coffee the old fashioned way, as a barista. He was paid $4.25-an-hour plus tips, sticking with it because he quickly realized that crafting espresso and coffee was a skill not at all like flipping burgers. Quality coffee preparation, Barnett learned, as he taught himself tamping and grind adjustment in that first barista job, had the potential to bring about change on the level of the now-famous culinary movement he witnessed from the beginning in the San Francisco Bay Area as a chef.

Respected throughout the industry for not only the standards he enforces at his boutique roasting company in Northern California, Ecco Caffé, but for the merits of his “super taster” palate as applied to barista competitions, Barnett is one of the few folks who are welcomed by every faction of the industry—owners, buyers, roasters, and baristas alike. In fact, some of his biggest fans are “competitors,” other roasting company owners so hell-bent on achieving quality that they look to the opinions of the best of the best for advice.

At the end of the day—be it at a barista competition as he reviews score sheets with competitors, at a Cup of Excellence jury as he shares opinions on a new crop, or at home where he cares not only for his own staff at Ecco like a loving father figure, but for his colleagues throughout the Bay Area specialty coffee community— Barnett is a gentleman. He imparts his views, but he never bashes you over the head with them. Like some of the great thinkers before him, in this industry and well beyond, Barnett believes the best answers are determined by the voices of many.

Barista Magazine: Please tell us about your background as it relates to your profession in specialty coffee.

Andrew Barnett: My first experience (was) as a dinner chef. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Chicago in 1974 when I was 17. I apprenticed as a dinner chef. I trained with Lothar Vogel, who had been the head chef at the City of Paris restaurant. In it’s heyday, it was considered one of the top French Restaurants in San Francisco. I finished out my apprenticeship as a sous-chef at the Casa Madrona Hotel in Sausalito (in Northern California). I entered the City College of San Francisco in 1976 with the notion of making a career move into restaurant management and working in one of San Francisco’s top kitchens. At that time, City College was known for placing their students in the best restaurants. After enrolling, I went to their cafeteria and experienced a dismally mediocre meal of frozen, overcooked, salty salmon with frozen vegetables. I immediately proclaimed myself an art major.

I needed to get a job and applied at my local coffeehouse, the Higher Grounds Café, in San Francisco’s Glen Park, where I was hired to make soups, sandwiches, salads, and espresso drinks. I immediately fell in love with preparing drinks on their piston-levered Gaggia machine. It was there that I developed my love affair with espresso. I realized whether you’re in a kitchen or on bar, it’s cuisine. Working as a barista demands the highest level of focus and skill, akin to working in any of the finest kitchens.

B-Mag: How long were you a barista at Higher Grounds? Tell us more about the experience.

AB: I worked there for almost four years and during that time I was managing, cooking and working the bar. Unfortunately there was very little information about how to properly prepare drinks. Through trial and error, I realized that changing the grind and altering the tamp would drastically change the flavor of the drinks.

In 1981, the Higher Grounds closed, and I moved up to Sonoma County (in Northern California). I was out of the specialty coffee world for about 12 years. At some point I realized I missed serving people and that there was need for great espresso in Sonoma County. I was thinking about opening a coffee cart, so I went Coffee Fest in Seattle in 1993. While there I discovered David Schomer and Espresso Vivace. The espresso there was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was sweet, rich and elegantly prepared. I attended his lecture at Coffee Fest, and his preparation methodologies resonated with my culinary training.

In 1994, I opened my first café, The Western Café, and we were focused on espresso and food. I trained with David Schomer and we featured his coffee. We tried to stay true to his exacting preparation techniques. We developed a following for the coffee and wound up winning an award for “Best New Sonoma County Restaurant” from a local publication, which was funny because we weren’t a restaurant but a café. The Western was a critical success but a commercial failure.

Out of the ashes of Western, with my former partner, I opened Centro Espresso inside of Sawyer’s News in downtown Santa Rosa, California. This time the original vision of an espresso cart carried through to fruition and it was profitable from the get-go. Centro implemented a number of Schomer’s newer discoveries. A three-group La Marzocco Linea with heat stabilization, vented DRM conical burr grinders, and Fluke digital temperature readings at the brew head. Serving espresso to the local community was exciting. Working long shifts—10-to-12-hour days—was tiring but great fun.

B-Mag: How was a barista regarded back then? Did people even know what a barista was?

AB: In 1977, we were just people that worked with espresso machines. We were lacking the skills and knowledge of our Italian counterparts. And our customers were mostly from the neighborhood and would come to the café to hang out.

I knew that there were baristas, I didn’t know that they were called that, in San Francisco’s legendary North Beach cafés. The places we would go for really great espressos were Caffe Trieste, Caffe Italia, Malvinas, and Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store. You could tell some of the “bartenders” could craft really delicious drinks so you would try and show up when they were on the bar. They were our heroes.

Want to know what Barnett has to say about the future of the WBC among other things? Then order this back issue today from Barista Magazine!