As I mentioned in an earlier post, last week I attended the MIT Industrial Liaison Program's Europe Conference in Vienna. One of the people I met does R&D for Illy Coffee in Trieste and so we talked a little bit about coffee research. He knew about my favorite San Francisco (sorry, Berkeley) coffee Peets, but (incredibly!) had not heard the story of Buffalo NY's Deco coffee.
Deco was a famous chain of diner restaurants that claimed to have Buffalo's best cup of coffee. They developed a special blend in New York City that tasted great, but when they brewed it in Buffalo it tasted awful. They quickly figured-out that it was because the water was different, so they brought Buffalo water to New York and repeated the process. I never drank Deco coffee, but when my parents owned an art gallery next door to a Deco on Elmwood Avenue, they did, and I remember the nice glass jar cups - much better than Styrofoam.
There's a nice history of Deco Coffee including the take out cups on the Buffalo History Works website. That's where I first read the story and where the illustration comes from.
1 comment:
Andy,I remember the Deco restaurants,Even been in a few as a kid.that was a long time ago.I have been looking for the glass mugs for years,.if you know where or how to get one,let me know. I now live in N.C. Don't get home much,when I do I always hit some antique stores,but I haven't had any success. I just found your site.Hope there are others out there with our interests. Thanks for reading,Nancy
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