Curious about your coffee?
Where does it come from and who is behind it? Look no further and read about Metropolis Coffee Company.
It would be easy to say that Metropolis Coffee was born in 2003 and be done with it, but the truth is always more complicated. Here is the real Metropolis Story...
Jeff Dreyfuss (the father) was a somewhat disgruntled Indonesian Language Professor at the University of Washington-Seattle in the late 90s and early Naughts. Everyday after class, he would ride to his favorite roasteria/café in Seattle and have an espresso macchiato while ruminating his day. Over time, he got to know the master roaster and coffee buyer for the company, and was invited into the back rooms for coffee cupping.
Entranced by the differences between coffee varietals, and by the mechanics of roasting and processing coffee, Jeff became a coffee roasting and cupping junkie. Hooked, he couldn't go a day without learning, tasting, and discussing the infinitely complex yet completely understandable world of coffee.
Tony Dreyfuss (the son) completed a Philosophy degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1998. After trying many things that you are supposed to do with a Philosophy degree (cab driver, ice cream truck driver, pizza delivery driver, submarine sandwich delivery driver) he landed on a job at Peet's Coffee in Portland, Oregon as the lowest level floor sweeper and bean counter.
Heaven! Tony was in heaven learning about coffee, and soon worked his way up to trainer, shift-leader, before eventually joining the management team.
Jeff and Tony talked about coffee a lot. In fact, that's pretty much all they could talk about. Not that they are lousy conversationalists, it's just that they had been bitten by the coffee bug, and the bite bred the obsession for the brew.
In 2001 they decided to just do it. And the rest, as they say, is history. On December 21st, 2003, Metropolis Coffee Company opened her doors to the public. Some dreams turn to dust, others to gold, but the dream of Jeff and Tony Dreyfuss turned to a Mondo mug of Metropolis Coffee.
The Metropolis Café: Metropolis Coffee Company
It was our vision, in creating Metropolis Café, to institute a community staple through empathetic service, quality coffee, community service, and pleasing aesthetics like local art and great music.
We opened the café in 2003 and since then, we’ve worked hard every day to make a positive difference in the lives of our customers, our staff, and our community. We believe that a neighborhood café should spark conversation, be a platform for art and culture, and play a crucial role as a safe space within a community for anyone and everyone. A great café should be a mirror for the community.
Our café sees hundreds of customers a day from all walks of life. The intersection of so many different kinds of people is beautiful, satisfying, and central to our coffee philosophy:
Great Coffee for Everyone!
When you come to our café, you can expect to be treated with kindness, care, and empathy, you can expect a beautifully crafted beverage, and you will see all sorts of people in an aesthetically pleasing space filled with gorgeous local art. When patronizing Metropolis Café, you can feel good that Metropolis is 100% family owned, that the workers have great pay and benefits, and that we support our community in many ways throughopportunity, donation, and volunteerism.
Our café has been named Best Café in Chicago many times by publications like the Chicago Reader, and our coffee has been called the best in the city by publications like the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine,as well as several national and international publications.
EVERY BATCH OF METROPOLIS COFFEE IS ROASTED TO ORDER.
To preserve freshness, we don’t keep an inventory of roasted coffee on hand. Instead, we wait for your order, then roast, bag, and either ship it out the same day, or deliver locally the next day. Because of this, most of our customers receive their coffee the day after it's roasted!
All of our roasting is done by hand on small-batch Probat Roasters. Our seasoned roasting team has a minimum of a year as an apprentice roaster before being considered a card-carrying member of the keepers of the flame.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
We triple-check every batch for consistency. First, during the roast, we make sure that we hit all of our spec benchmarks in the right way at the right time. Then, a sample of every batch is laser color analyzed to make sure that it is roasted to exactly the right degree. Finally, we cup (taste) each coffee in order to make sure that our spec is still appropriate. Coffee changes over time, so we make incremental changes to the way that we roast each coffee. These changes are sometimes barely perceptible to the consumer, but help us realize each coffee’s potential as it evolves.
