Just an anecdote from your humble blogkeeper:

So a few Saturdays ago, I was working the morning shift at our busiest location. This is a weekly pleasure for me, a chance to get on bar and interact with customers, a chance to reassure myself that the kid’s still got it, at least in terms of espresso and steamed milk! There is also a simple pleasure in making things, in getting lost in the bar service for a little while, exhausting as it sometimes is.

Well, we have somewhat recently begun asking customers for their names during busy times, to allow the baristi to ensure that the right people get the right drink, to help us learn peoples’ names, etc etc. And for whatever reason, at the moment when my mindset was most vulnerable, when the crowd in the store was the thickest, a drink ticket printed that gave me a moment of pause.

TO-GO - SM LATTE - WHOLE MILK - SCOTT

In retrospect, I recognize that my sudden increase in heart rate was absurd. But it was one of those situations where you are able to talk yourself into it. Sure, sure, he was up in Canada now, and yeah, his last book was specifically not about espresso, but… it seemed like something the author of The Professional Barista’s Handbook would order, right?

I kept my eye on that ticket, and I scanned the cafe, and I was suddenly 200% more aware of each of my usually assured movements - After all he used to work in Massachusetts, right? That’s not far from Providence - and I’m not sure I’d recognize him even if I saw him, honestly, so I just did my darnedest, made one helluva latte, and called it out. The moment of truth.

It wasn’t him, obviously, of course. I was able to hide my disappointment from The Wrong Scott.

But now whenever I work bar I have a new mantra: make every drink as though it were for Scott Rao.

- SAO