Rick Evans accepting Good Food Award for Ethiopia Yirgacheffe
Randy and I had a fun-filled, highly caffeinated, and glutinous weekend at the Good Food Awards in San Francisco. We arrived thursday morning and enjoyed a nice dinner in the Corona Heights district with our friends that live there. Friday morning we toured the following cutting edge roasters: Sightglass, Four Barrel, Ritual, and one of the Blue Bottle outlets. We were particularly impressed with Sightglass. Their facility is amazing- exactly what one would develop for a roaster/retail location if money were no object.
Friday evening was the Good Food Awards Ceremony and Reception. We had the opportunity to meet and listen to keynote speaker Alice Waters, culinary pioneer and founder of one of San Francisco's most famous restaurants, Chez Panisse. <http://www.chezpanisse.com/about/alice-waters/ It was thrilling to be honored on stage alongside some of the most respected artisan coffee roasters in America. Following the formal awards ceremony was a reception which was one of the best meals of our lives. Top San Francisco chefs prepared dishes made with ingredients from all the award winning winners: charcuterie, cheese, preserves, pickles, spirits, craft beer, confections, and my personal favorite, chocolate! The quality of the food was truly amazing. We ate dinner, then gorged on chocolate, then dinner again, followed by more chocolate. Randy enjoyed some amazing beer and spirits as well.
The weekend concluded with a Saturday morning marketplace tradeshow at the beautiful San Francisco Ferry Building, with all the winners sampling and selling product. With the Fancy Food Show in town at the same time, our coffee was introduced to many sophisticated 'foodies' as well as wholesale buyers. Even with the other fantastic coffees available, our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe was very well received. All in all this was great exposure for Evans Brothers Coffee and a good kick start to our year.