JJ In House Comps - Final Round

A week after the first round, the second commenced and it became obvious right away that all the performers had taken the week to up the ante. Performances seemed more polished, and everyone (including myself) knew exactly what to look for and do this time. The contenders all seemed a bit more nervous this time round, you could just feel the tension floating aimlessly though the air.

I’m not going to bother going into what happened step by step, Robert Csar already wrote a perfectly good recap on his blog.

The barista who really stood out to me was Mike LaRoy, who was so relaxed during the pre competition - as well as in his routine - that you had to wonder if he was on some kind of tranquilizer. I even took this picture of him just minutes before the competition started.

calm before the storm.

He had a line during his performance that got the whole room laughing: [sic] “When asked the age-old question ‘How do you like your coffee?’, the decades-old answer was ‘I like my coffee crisp.’ He finished in lightning speed (13 minutes) and even re-pulled 2 shots. I guess that’s what working on Main Street does to you.

At the end of the night, however, it was Spencer who would go on to steal the show. He not only dressed the part, but also delivered sans re-shots or going over time, all while keeping the bar in such a way that would make Mr. Clean proud.

With Spencer taking 1st, that left 2 more slots open. Robert was number 2, with Grady coming in 3rd place. Now the 3 will train for the next 2 months together, and one of them will be chosen to represent JJ in the Western Regionals.

The famed Reg Barber was also in house for this one, and as a gift to all the judges and the top 3 baristars, we all got custom tampers. You can see the one I got in the title picture - super pink, super heavy, and a C-Flat curve. I’ve been using it since Tuesday and really like it. It’s gotten plenty of attention from fellow staff and customers alike, naturally.

Congrats guys - much luck to the one who moves on.

Post Edit:  Turns out that Grady has since taken himself out of the post competition training and given his spot to Mike LaRoy.  I guess I wasn’t the only one who saw something special in his coolness that night.