Blood, Sweat, & Tears
我因為小馬( 小馬則因為老鐵), 開始對Zoka著迷. 不能親臨, 只能意淫. 非得從報章的蛛絲馬跡拼湊出這個獨立咖啡館的英雄照.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/157921_zoka24.html?searchpagefrom=1&searchdiff=67
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Zoka Coffee Roaster competes on its own terms
By DAN RICHMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
There can't be a tougher city than Seattle to open a coffeehouse.
Starbucks and Seattle's Best Coffee were born here, and Tully's, Peet's and Torrefazione quickly followed. In fact, 200 competitors pull shots within five miles of the hard-to-find Zoka Coffee Roaster and Tea Co. in the Meridian neighborhood.
Yet, after a slow start, Zoka is flourishing in its sixth year of business, and it's scheduled to open a second store next week near the University of Washington.
Customers at this homey-feeling hang-out are so numerous it's sometimes hard to find an overstuffed chair to read in or table to use the free Wi-Fi connection. Open 18 hours a day, seven days a week, Zoka has been profitable for several years and generates about $65,000 in revenue every month.
How does Jeff Babcock, Zoka's 48-year-old co-founder and owner, account for its success? An emphasis on quality, freshness, reinvesting in the business, refusing outside capital and growing slowly.
"I'm not going to compete on Starbucks' terms," Babcock said yesterday in an interview. "We distinguish ourselves by doing everything the homemade, hard way."
For example, he said, "When we say small-batch roasting, we're not fibbing. The food really is fresh -- it's coming out of the oven. The tea really is tea -- it's coming in crates. And our baristas really are good -- they're winning national championships. So I look at it as a competition in each area."
On a drizzly, gray day, the warm scents of coffee and baked goods fill the 2,400-square-foot room. A staff of seven bakers turn out about 1,000 cakes, pies, scones and pizzas, as well as sandwiches and soup.
A $20,000 coffee roaster, on a raised platform surrounded by scores of 152-pound burlap bags of green coffee beans from Panama, Costa Rica and other equatorial climes, turns out one pound per minute.
The roaster keeps that pace 10 hours a day, six days a week, so as to satisfy retail customers, who buy coffee by the pound or the cup, and Zoka's 100 wholesale customers, which include restaurants and coffee shops that can require up to 10,000 pounds per month.
Zoka's 3-year-old wholesale business grew 40 percent last year and will do the same this year, Babcock said. Satisfying that demand could mean taking shortcuts, such as buying whatever coffee beans are available. But he'll have none of that.
Babcock has begun a yearlong series of visits to the plantations whose coffee he buys or is considering, checking whether it's grown in an ecologically sound manner and whether workers are well treated.
At considerable expense, he has hired a local professional photographer, Chase Jarvis, and a videographer to document these trips. Plans call for in-store photo and video displays showing customers the story behind their coffee, an expanded Web site that includes those images, and eventually, a coffee-table book.
"We went to some farms where Jeff was shaking his head," Jarvis said. "I was blown away, they were super-clean, but they used an herbicide Jeff doesn't like, or they didn't provide housing for their transitory workers."
He added, "I'm sure there's some salesmanship behind the effort -- it will get increased sales -- but it's definitely a gesture of good will to tell the coffee story. There's something benevolent about it."
Babcock said he tries to make sure working conditions are good at home, too. He plans to begin sharing profits with his employees by year-end and is moving to provide medical and dental benefits. Many of the store's staff, which number between 20 to 28 at any one time, have been on board for three or more years.
They're treated to barista competitions in Europe, trade shows in Boston and Miami, and sent to Norway for training.
Dismas Smith, 33, has been with Zoka for more than four years as a manager, trainer and roaster.
"We've grown very fast, so things can be very chaotic at times, but there's never a day when I wake up and feel like I don't want to go to work," he said.
Babcock was a University of Washington business major who quit the family business when he saw the potential of "this new little coffee company in Seattle with three stores."
He started his first coffeehouse 20 years ago, in Florida, then sold it and founded Zoka with a partner in 1997. A buyout three years ago left him the sole owner.
Babcock's growth objectives are modest. In five years, he said, he might have three or four stores. But such slow growth, with an emphasis on quality and ambience, seems to be what pleases the customers.
"It doesn't have that over-organized look and feel to it that many newer cafes have," said social worker Peter Rockas, 62, who makes five trips a week from Capitol Hill. "A lot of places in Seattle are going the more corporate way, and that's a shame."
