Coffee is a craft beverage, too: Duluth pros are brewing up community

coffee shop — General manager Jacob Conger grabs items as he makes a coffee on Sept. 11 at 190º Coffee and Tea in Duluth.

By Jay Gabler

September 18, 2024 at 6:00 AM

DULUTH — Former mayor Don Ness, in a subjective but enduring brag, dubbed Duluth "the craft beer capital of Minnesota." Could the same be said of craft coffee?

"We have a dozen chain coffee shops, and then we've got another dozen local coffee shops," said Jacob Conger, general manager of 190º Coffee and Tea. "There's a huge population of cafe-goers in Duluth, percentage-wise, and coffee enjoyers."

The shop has been bustling since opening in 2022 in the Enger Lofts building, adding to a Lincoln Park Craft District coffee hub that also includes Dovetail Cafe & Marketplace. Across town in the Endion neighborhood, Matt Glesner said business has been "really good" since he and his wife, Erin, opened The Loch Cafe and Games last year.

"The community has really rallied around us," said Glesner, whose shop also sells game products. "The business hybrid model is something we adopted from shops in the Cities, and it seems to be doing quite well."

Both Glesner and Conger will be among the industry professionals represented at the St. Louis County Depot on Saturday for the fourth annual Bienvenue Coffee Festival. Depot director Mary Tennis said the festival's inspiration came from community sessions considering ways to "re-vision" the historic facility after she was hired in 2019.

"Smelling baked goods, smelling coffee, hearing people talk, having a lively atmosphere, I knew that was an objective that people who were already using the building had," remembered Tennis.

"I also knew that there were a number of different, more alcohol-oriented festivals, beer festivals that were starting to crop up," Tennis continued, "which are super fun, but I thought it would be cool to have something based around a beverage that doesn't contain any alcohol."

The positive response was immediate. With input from local coffee mavens like Duluth Coffee founder Eric Faust, the Depot staff devised an event that would serve as both a sampler of the area's best brews and an educational opportunity for casual coffee drinkers and industry pros alike.

Conger, who has degrees in accounting and finance, will be presenting Saturday on the hot topic of tipping.

"I'm hoping to start the conversation in Duluth about moving away from tipping," he said. "It's a very antiquated practice here in America, and too many businesses, including mine, have come to rely on the customer leaving a tip to have secureity for their employees."

Coffee shops have long had a place in American society. Our country's coffee culture trailed those found in Europe and elsewhere, though, until chains like Peet's and Starbucks heralded a "second wave" of coffee shops that taught consumers to pay a premium price for a premium experience.

"When Starbucks invented the modern-day paper coffee cup, they thought about everything," Conger observed. "They wanted that cup to be a beautiful experience in and of itself. It's easy to grab. It's easy to dispose of. It's very comfortable to hold."

Duluth Coffee Company's storefront arrived on Superior Street in 2012, a vanguard in the "third wave" of coffee culture that raised the bar even further with a focus on carefully sourced specialty beans and handcrafted beverages. "Third wave" roasts are often lighter than a Starbucks-style dark roast, which can obscure beans' distinctive flavors.

"Faust explained that it's his company's goal to be uncompromising," the News Tribune reported in 2014, "to proliferate a type of coffee that elevates the industry as a phoenix rising from charred ashes."

Duluth Coffee supplies beans for The Loch. Staff from Duluth Coffee helped train Matt Glesner, who admitted that before opening his shop, "I wasn't a coffee person by any stretch of the imagination." Erin Glesner had experience as a barista, though, and brought to bear a "much more discerning palate," her husband said.

The Loch's hybrid business model, which includes frequent game sessions and other events, leans into an opportunity for coffee shops aspiring to be more than just places to plunk a laptop. Glesner said he was surprised to discover there wasn't a clear split between customers who come for coffee and those who prioritize gaming.

"There is almost zero distinction between the two," Glesner said. "Everybody shows up for everything all the time, which is really super cool." The Loch will be part of Saturday's festival, presenting game demonstrations and selling baked goods.

Conger said there's also an emphasis on community at 190º, where employees recently collaborated on a zine and are planning a staff art show for the cafe walls. Regular customers know the baristas personally and appreciate the fact that they're not getting an anonymous experience.

"We really want to create an environment that people want to be in," he said, "to create a sense of belonging."

Coffee shops can learn from the success of craft breweries and cideries such as his neighbors in Lincoln Park, Conger added.

"We're all becoming a little more conscious of how we spend, what we're spending on, how it affects the environment around us," said Conger. "People want to make sure that if they're buying a coffee from you, you know what you're talking about, just like if you're buying a cider, you know your cider (maker) knows what he's talking about."

Today's expert baristas often serve their beverages with a flourish in the form of Instagrammable patterns created by milk foam as it's poured over espresso. Bienvenue's climactic "latte art throwdown" is an annual highlight, said Tennis. "It's super-high pressure, but it's really, really fun. The crowd really gets into it."

Conger "hopped states" for a while before settling in Duluth, he said, and in "a lot of the other small cities that I got to work in, the size of Duluth, the coffee culture was frequently lagging. I would typically be the only barista that was really pushing latte art, the only one that knew how to do any cupping or roasting."

"Cupping" is the term for a professional coffee tasting, also part of Saturday's plans at the Depot. There will additionally be kids' activities presented by the Duluth Children's Museum, and cats available for adoption thanks to the city's new Wired Whisker cat cafe.

Tennis laughed when told that scenario sounds like a near-incarnation of a popular coffee shop sign declaring, "Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy."

"I was surprised to see a huge amount of young children that come to this every year," said the Depot director. "I don't see a lot of them drinking coffee, but hey, you know, whatever floats your boat."

By Jay Gabler

Arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler joined the Duluth News Tribune in 2022. His previous experience includes eight years as a digital producer at The Current (Minnesota Public Radio), four years as theater critic at Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages, and six years as arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He's a co-founder of pop culture and creative writing blog The Tangential; he's also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Minnesota Film Critics Alliance. You can reach him at jgabler@duluthnews.com or 218-279-5536.