small is beautiful: blue sparrow coffee

I'm super excited to introduce you to Jeffrey Knott, the owner of Blue Sparrow Coffee in Denver, CO. Jeffrey contacted me last year to shoot some images for his website. When I set foot inside BSC, I fell in love with the space. This cozy coffee shop has a beautiful decor, anchored by a deep cyan blue banquette and studded with brass accents throughout. They also serve first-rate coffee (we're talking homemade nitro cold brew on tap!) and have some of the friendliest baristas around. (Having lived in Seattle for over a decade, where baristas sometimes take themselves a little too seriously, I always give massive bonus points for friendly baristas.) 

When Jeffrey told me about his unconventional path to owning his own coffee shop, I knew I wanted to share his story with you. If you've been dreaming of opening your own small business, read on for Jeffrey's excellent advice. And if you live in Denver or are planning a trip there, don't miss this gem of a coffee shop.

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An interview with Jeffrey Knott, owner of Blue Sparrow Coffee.

Mad lib time! You could describe my business as my experience traveling the world meets how I like my coffee. 

What is your background? 
After a stint in the military, a degree in finance, and a cubicle in NYC I decided it was time for a change. I “gave it all up” and became a barista. As much as I love coffee, and loved being a barista, I needed more. After managing my first coffee shop, I had an opportunity to help open, and manage a new café in town. That experience was unbelievably challenging--I did a pretty good job faking it until I made it. I've helped open the doors to the seventh café in half as many years. I own, open, and operate coffee shops. And it’s my dream job. 

How/when did you get the idea for your current venture?
Coffee is universal. It’s something that is shared all across our little blue dot. When I travel I've always sought out cafe’s, experiencing coffee in new ways, a reflection into local culture. BSC is a direct reflection on what I've experienced—what I want to experience. We feature coffee roasters from around the world, sharing these cultural reflections with our community while keeping it simple, friendly, and tasty.

On a scale of one to shitting-your-pants, how nervous were you about starting your business? 
.5? I’ve had the opportunity to open several coffee shops for others before my own—some much larger than BSC. In comparison this was a walk in the park. 

What's the greatest challenge with your business?
Letting go. Stepping back, and letting the team takeover. I want to create a very specific experience for our guests, and it’s most challenging making sure each and every team member knows what that experience is, then shares it with hundreds of customers day in and day out. 

What do you love most about your business? What brings you the most joy?
Owning a coffee shop is so often over romanticized. Everyone want’s to own and coffee shop because they envision sitting around drinking coffee all day. It’s a lot of work—not all of it’s fun. I love the challenge of building a team that can deliver amazing products and amazing experiences to our guests. I love working my ass off behind the scenes, so it seems effortless from the outside looking in. 

What's on your bedside table (be honest)?
Apple Watch charger
Kiss my Face chapstick
Air plant
Soy candle No. 05 : Spruce by P.F. Candle co. (A little out of season, I’m thinking nightshade next)

Secret hobby and/or obsession?
Golf. I started playing to spend time with my granddad. He’s in his 80’s and still plays every single day #goals. I had no idea how much I would enjoy it. Part of me wishes I put as much time, effort, and money 🙄 into something more useful for humanity, but it’s my escape. I don’t know what I would do without it. 

Favorite city? 
Lisbon

If you could get in a time machine, zoom back into the past and give yourself one piece of advice before starting your business, what would it be? 
Start social media sooner. This time around I decided to keep quite on the new café until we were open. It took much longer for people to find out about us than expected. Create your social media accounts early, reach out to the press, be active, build the hype and hope you can measure up to it! 

What other local business/project do you think is Small and Beautiful? 
Small coffee shops gotta stick together, I’d check out Little Owl and Lula Rose. Food: To the Wind Bistro. Bar: Bread Bar

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small is beautiful: union coffee

Welcome to the Small is Beautiful Project! 

There are so many creative people doing cool things here in Seattle, I wanted to document some of their projects and share them with all of you. I’ve had this idea kicking around in my brain for a while. But because I’m an introverted hermit, I’ve been dragging my feet on reaching out to people to ask if I could come shoot their portrait and photograph their spaces. 

But I finally got my ass in gear and asked Zack Reinig, the owner of one of my favorite coffee shops, if he'd be part of the SIB Project. Happily, he said yes.

So I give you my inaugural Small is Beautiful story, featuring Union Coffee. The clean lines and organic touches in this light-filled space make it one my favorite work/chill spots in the city. Also, they feature beautiful roasts by Olympia Coffee and pull a mean shot. My Seattle people definitely need to discover this gem of a coffee shop if you don’t know it already!

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An interview with Zack Reinig, owner of Union Coffee, coffee shop and experimental space

Mad lib time! People could describe your business as Great Coffee meets Architectural and Sonic Self Indulgence.

What is your background?  
I’m from Eastern Washington originally. I am a musician and came to Seattle in ’94, and very soon thereafter started working as a studio technician and assistant recording engineer at various recording studios in the area. I moved from that to being a freelance recording engineer/producer and moved to New York for a few years. I was producing a band back in Seattle at Jupiter studio in Wallingford during that time and met my future wife, Molly.  She brought a pot roast and cookies to the recording session that day. It was both a completely crazy thing to do, and very, very charming. 

I moved back to Seattle, continued my life in production, playing in bands, and dating Molly for a number of years. I did a few tours of the US, and then at some point, did a tour doing live sound for a friends’ band. I caught on pretty quickly as a live sound engineer, and ended up traveling the world for years with three girls from Olympia/Portland collectively named Sleater-Kinney, and subsequently a New Mexican band called The Shins. Touring was a great education in various cultures' design spaces/rooms/buildings. I often wonder why design firms don’t hire people who have toured a lot. You see so much insane architecture and design when traveling 200,000 miles, year after year while working in the arts.

Anyway, after 15 years in music, and five or six breakups with Molly, I realized it was time to quit music and transition to a more reasonable lifestyle for both of us, if Molly would have me. We got married at Treehouse Point in Fall City in 2011, we had a little girl (Named February Moon Reinig), and I studied law to get some of my logical mind back, having lost it from so many years on the road. We now live in a little house five minutes from the coffee shop.   

Since 2009, I have been making Molly coffee every morning since we moved further than three blocks from our favorite capitol hill coffee shop. In my eyes, “Union” is much more about Molly and my relationship, and our mutual daily discovery of coffee than my street address. Over the years, I learned coffee via a Bialetti, various pourover devices, a vintage La Pavoni manual press, and finally a full on professional espresso machine - futzing with various grinders along the way.

How/when did you get the idea for your current venture? 
A few years ago, I was kicking around various small commercial development ideas that resembled places I had been to in Holland and Japan, where a coffee shop was the center piece to the build-out of a space. I went down the road on a few projects only to be turned away during the final bit of negotiation. I decided that it would make more sense to simplify and focus on what I loved most about the project - coffee, music, and architecture in one small space where I can hang out all day and chat with friends. I knew the coffee and customer experience would have to be outstanding and I wanted to value my baristas as quality craftspeople, because a great barista is definitely the most important piece to pulling a great shot. So I hired, and continue to hire extremely carefully and offer full health benefits, the ability to tour and pursue art, and hopefully one day even paid family leave to baristas working over 28 hours per week, even though I know that would be expensive for a new small business. I designed the space to be very different from anything in Seattle, and did not compromise much at all from my original thought on the build - which took a ton of confidence in my vision.          

On a scale of one to shitting-your-pants, how nervous were you about starting your business? 
Very nervous, and that continues to this day. Only in the very beginning of design of the space did I think “Oh, this shit is eeeasy”. You quickly learn that there are so many x-factors in small business from construction overages to financing/debt, to opening and operations, to juggling life priorities, that you always feel that you are one really bad move from catastrophe. Business is a stressful thing, and I respect anyone who chooses to hang a shingle.  

What's the greatest challenge with your business?  
Patience! I want a great art show to happen in the space tomorrow! I want to have an awesome live music show the next day! I want to have a community speaking event the day after that! There are so many cool things to do - it just takes time to put them together in a way that gives the artists/performers/academics/etc. their just due... all the while running this infant of a business well enough to get the capital to fund more great fun things to do. Did I already say that running a business is hard? Or is it ambition that is hard? Hmmm….   

What do you love most about your business? What brings you the most joy? 
There are these moments that occur where my dream vision for the shop materializes out of thin air. Molly and my girl are hanging out on the couch, some old friend or tour buddy of mine has come in to chat, people are really loving the coffee, there’s a great record on the hifi, and customers are enjoying the design and architecture of the space. It's like - just for a minute or two, everything comes together in perfect rhythm. Those moments are so great.  

What's on your bedside table (be honest)? 
I don’t have a bedside table, but in its place is a cord that I try not to trip over while letting the dog out to pee every night at 2 or 3 am.  

Secret hobby and/or obsession? 
Coffee plantations in sunny locales.   

Favorite city? 
That’s impossible. Osaka for the energy and oddities, Brussels for the music venues, Prague and Barcelona for the Architecture, Nashville for the Ryman Auditorium, Montreal for its European feeling with close proximity to Seattle, Anywhere New Zealand for the weird plant life. Favorite US town - Asheville North Carolina. It has a lot of east coast history and feels very liberal and experimental, with a ton of life wrapped up in such an idyllic looking small town. I love it.    

If you could get in a time machine, zoom back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before starting your business, what would it be? 
That ceiling is going to be expensive!!  

What other local business/project do you think is Small and Beautiful? 
Well, Molly Moon’s [Zack’s wife’s business] is too big to be small at this point, so I have two for you: 1) Prussian Blue in Mount Baker. Dawn is an impossible hurricane of exquisite style and sincerity that you need to know. And by you, I mean everyone. 2) Hello Robin. Catch her at work and sit at Robin’s butcher block island, built to resemble her kitchen at home, and treat yourself to the Robin Wehl experience. To me, Hello Robin will never have true competition because you can't clone Robin.

iced horchata lattes

When I was in Paris in May, I decided to explore the city’s burgeoning coffee scene and see what all the fuss is about. I wasn’t expecting to be impressed. (I do live in Seattle, after all.)

Of course, I was proven wrong. (I’m noticing a trend here.)

The highlights of this trip were Fragments, Boot Café, Loustic, Blackburn and L'Arbre à Café. And people, the coffee was amazing. Beautifully roasted. Expertly brewed. There were rich bass notes of caramel, tobacco and plum. Delicate tea-like brews tasting of almond or vanilla or flowers. Bright, fruity coffees zingy with the scent of lemon, peach and mango.

I arrived home jazzed to try new local coffee shops and roasters. Of course, my go-to is the superlative Milstead & Co. in Fremont. I can’t express how much I love those guys. Not only are the baristas some of the nicest, most high-fiving, remember-your-name, ask-about-your-day folks in town. They make a perfect cup of coffee. It was at Milstead that I discovered coffee can taste better without cream. Or sugar. (I come from a long line of add-some-coffee-to-your-cream coffee drinkers, so that’s saying something.)

Anyhoo… I’ve been all over town this summer, drinking coffee at Elm Coffee Roasters and Stumptown and All City Coffee and Analog. And brewing up pitcher after pitcher of cold brew for hot summer days. 

Let’s just say it’s been a very caffeinated summer.

This week, I wanted to try something a little different. Thus were born these iced horchata lattes. For those of you who’ve never tasted horchata, it’s a Mexican drink made from rice (and sometimes almond) milk, cinnamon and sugar. It’s creamy and sweet and delicious on a blazing hot day. It also happens to be a perfect match for iced coffee. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.

So grab your blender and keep your afternoons deliciously caffeinated all summer long!

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Iced Horchata Lattes

• 3/4 cup long-grain white rice
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
• Pinch sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)
• 4 shots espresso

*Notes: If you want to keep this recipe vegan, just omit the cream.

- For a sugar-free version, heat 1/4 cup xylitol or 3 tablespoons mild honey with 1/4 cup of the horchata base until melted. Cool slightly before stirring into the rest of the base.

- The horchata will keep, covered and refrigerated for 4-5 days.

Place the rice, almonds and cinnamon sticks in the bowl of a blender and pulverize. Add 2 cups of water and blend to combine. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours (and up to 12). 

Strain the mixture through a nut milk bag (I have this one and love it!) or a double layer of cheesecloth placed over a sieve into a medium bowl. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Add the sugar, salt, vanilla extract and cream (if using) to the almond-rice milk and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.

To serve: fill an 8-oz glass with ice. Pour a shot of espresso over the ice then top with the horchata. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 lattes.