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eZthewashingtonpost.
friday,april3,
2020Chris Vigilante opted to shut
down his two cafes, no takeaway,
no customer interactions.
“What if somebody’s working
at my shop and they get sick
because they’re at w ork?” Vigilan-
te says. “How am I going to feel? I
didn’t think that was a pill I
wanted to swallow.”
Sanitation and social distanc-
ing are a priority with all the shop
owners I contacted. Ta ke, for in-
stance, Peregrine. Co-owner ryan
Jensen has borrowed an idea
from Nick Cho, the third-wave
pioneer who used to operate
murky Coffee out of the Capitol
Hill storefront where Jensen now
runs one location of Peregrine. At
his Wrecking Ball cafes in San
francisco, Cho converted his
front doors into takeout win-
dows, using a table and a sheet of
clear polycarbonate plastic to
separate employee from custom-
er. The dark irony here is not lost
on me: Ta keouts used to install
bulletproof glass to protect oper-
ators from robbers. Now they
have shields to protect them from
an invisible invader.
“I think customers get it,” J ens-
en says about the barrier. “I had
one of my s taff members who just
said, straight up, ‘I feel 100 times
better being at work.’ ”
Coffee shops long ago morphed
into something separate from
their origins as places where lo-
cals gathered to share news, gos-
sip or conduct business. In recent
years, they’ve behaved more like
caffeine stations and de facto
WeWorks where latchkey free-
lancers plug in their laptops and
treat the shop as a rent-free office.
The pandemic has forced owners
to rethink their business plans:
many stores have turned into
carryouts, a Yum’s for lattes,
espressos and flat whites. Some
have added household items, in-
cluding that rolled gold known as
toilet paper, serving as both cof-
feehouse and convenience store.
one has even added new respon-
sibilities to its to-do list: Compass
now produces hand sanitizer for
local governments.
All these pivots are ways to
keep the wolves at bay, to recoup
sales declines of 40 or 60 percent
or higher. Some shops will, very
likely, not survive this outbreak.
But for the ones that do, owners
hold out the hope that their shops
will not return to the isolationism
of the pre-coronavirus era when
customers practiced social dis-
tancing even before they were
required to do so. Wolter, for one,
hopes all the forced isolation re-
minds customers of the impor-
tance of social engagement, per-
haps right in her shop.
“In a way, it might bring us
back to what coffee shops and
hospitality are really about,” she
says. “Hopefully something posi-
tive comes out of this. I don’t
know if I’m right. That’s m y hope.”
[email protected]Swing’s Coffee roasters has
shut down its two D.C. locations,
but it is still selling drinks and
beans for takeaway at its Del ray
Coffee Bar in Alexandria (501 East
monroe Ave.). owner mark War-
muth, like others in his position,
has had to rush to add an online
ordering system, his via Square.
The Del ray shop, he emphasizes,
does not accept cash.
Qualia Coffee is trying to re-
main open but has been strug-
gling with a staff shortage at its
Eckington shop (at the corner of
Eckington Place and Harry
Thomas Way NE in the Gale Eck-
ington apartments); both that lo-
cation and the Petworth store
(3917 Georgia Ave. NW) are open
for takeaway drinks and beans,
but only the beans can be ordered
online. Social distancing hasn’t
been much of a problem at the
stores, says owner Joel finkel-
stein.
“To be honest, our traffic isn’t
that much,” he says. But just to be
safe, finkelstein has marked
spaces outside the busier Pet-
worth shop, “so people can know
that they’re six feet apart,” he
says.
one business, however, has de-
cided to lock the doors for now:
Vigilante Coffee, the small roast-
ery based in Hyattsville, is only
selling beans online. founderand drinks for takeaway at six
cafes, including four in Washing-
ton (1535 Seventh St. NW; 1921
Eighth St. NW; 4850 massachu-
setts Ave. NW; and 1351 Wiscon-
sin Ave. NW) and two in Arling-
ton (1201 Wilson Blvd. and 4100
Wilson Blvd.)and a barista will bring your
coffee to the outdoor table. Like-
wise, the owners of Compass Cof-
fee are working to add online
ordering, which they expect soon,
but for now, they’re selling beans
coffee from 12
Photos by Laura Chase de formigny for the Washington PostToP: Sweet Science coffee
owner Sandra Wolter wears
gloves while serving a
customer. ABoVe: Wolter
gives a gloved thumbs up to
Rachel June-Graber at the
NoMa coffee shop.