Tea & coffee focus: Espresso evangelist
Louie Salvoni has not had a great morning, so far. On the way to meeting up with The Publican at a pub in the City of London, he has popped into a chain coffee bar.
Checking out the quality of the alleged coffee specialists is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect one of the UK's foremost authorities on authentic coffee to be doing with his mornings. But in this instance, Louie is far from impressed.
"It was awful," says Louie, with a passion which one hopes would make the assistant who drew the short straw of serving him bow her head in shame. "She wouldn't meet my eye, there was no enthusiasm. It was a mediocre cup of coffee, served in a paper cup, and I had to drink it sitting on an uncomfortable stool."
As we sit back on the comfortable sofas of the Counting House, one of Fuller's City pubs, Louie visibly relaxes. A tray of coffees, served in proper cups, arrives. "This is so much more relaxed. This is why pubs have the potential do so much better with coffee than the coffee bar chains," he says.
If anyone knows what they're talking about, it's Louie. A born-and-bred Londoner of Italian descent, his life's work has been to bring some of the theatre and passion seen in Italy's cafés to the UK coffee market.
In that context, you'd think he would welcome the seemingly unstoppable Starbuckification of the UK. If so, you'd be wrong. "Cafés in Italy don't just sell coffee, you can get a meal and a beer. It shouldn't be like a fast food outlet," explains Louie.
However, no-one would confidently argue that the pub trade has the hot drinks market cracked. Admittedly, it's far easier today to find a pub with a reasonably good-quality coffee machine sitting on the back-bar. That's something Louie, through previous business ventures, has played his part in, working with a number of national pub groups and individual operators to install high-quality equipment and, just as importantly, to train staff to understand the difference between a cappuccino and a latte.
However, the sheer number of coffee companies combined with high levels of takeover and consolidation has given Louie a new mission. "There is some great coffee equipment out there in pubs," he says. "But in many cases there's no maintenance taking place, companies aren't using the right coffee, and nobody working behind the bar knows how to work the machine."
Espresso Service, the company set up by Louie two years ago, aims to fill that gap. The company provides consultancy, service and training for pubs looking to make the most of the their coffee business. Which is how Colin George, manager of the Counting House, comes to be getting an impromptu coffee masterclass from the best in the business. "Why don't you have the coffee menu on display out front?" asks Louie. "If you stand here, customers can see you making the coffee - it adds a touch of theatre. Why don't you open at breakfast time? What about an after-dinner menu offering a coffee and cognac at a single price?"
The questions and advice fly freely, leaving Colin much wiser, if a little shell-shocked. "We do sell a fair amount of coffee," he says. "But it's clear talking to Louie there's much more we could be doing. I'll be discussing some of his ideas with my area manager."
For Louie and Espresso Service, the crusade continues. The company has just launched a new on-site descaling system, reducing the time and costs involved in a process which is very necessary to maintaining quality. "If pubs can get the service and quality right they can beat the coffee chains hands down," says Louie.
Espresso Service: 0870 850 211, www.espressoservice.co.uk
