Metropolis Coffee Company
To demonstrate, Metropolis co-owner Tony Dreyfuss pulls a fresh shot, decants it into a white porcelain cup, and pours in milk in a quick, thin stream, jiggling the pitcher as he goes. With a few shimmies of his wrist, he creates an intricately scaled pattern, with white tendrils delicate yet distinct against the caramel-colored coffee. If the customer drinks carefully (and doesn’t stir), the pattern will stay put all the way down to the last sip.
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The designs aren’t just for show. If the espresso doesn’t have enough crema or the milk isn’t steamed properly, the pattern won’t turn out. “It forces the barista to pay attention to the variables that go into a good drink,” Tony says. And, of course, it pleases the customers: “You hand it to someone, and instantly they recognize it’s not McCoffee.”
He and Tony have an additional mission in mind: to introduce Chicagoans to a different standard of coffee. “We’re a small-batch artisan roaster,” Tony says. “We pay incredible attention to the minutiae of roasting. We roast each bean directly to its sweet spot. Starbucks, they just roast the hell out of it.” Recently Tony got the chef at Ethiopian Diamond to teach him how to pan-roast beans the Ethiopian way. He hasn’t done it at Metropolis yet, but he’s tried the method out at home. “It was really cool,” he says, “but it really gets the house stinking. My stuff smelled even more like coffee than usual.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/A. Jackson.
