Barefoot Coffee will rise again

[andynewbom]

Like a phoenix Barefoot rises from the ashes!
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 by Barefoot

sunsetToday Barefoot encountered an opportunity that allowed our rockstar staff to shine. Our
much-loved Probat L12 roaster developed a smoking problem that led to a bit of a fire. Do
in no small part to the effort of Paul, who led our roasters and café staff in the fire brigade, minimal damage occurred.

However we had to close the café today to take some time to clean up.

While our roaster will be up and running as soon as possible the AMAZING people over at Ritual Coffee Roasters have agreed to let us use their roaster in order to keep our coffee coming. We appreciate everyone who is lending us their support in keeping Barefoot going while repairs are being made.

Just like the phoenix, expect the Barefoot Cafe to emerge from the ashes sometime Wednesday ready to rock!

[gabelucas]

Hey,
I was more than happy to help when I could. and I am happy that everyone got out safely and your place did not go up in flames. Makes me definitely be more aware of what i am doing while I am roasting and I would rather be paranoid than anything else.

I am sorry we couldn't be of more help, and that you would have needed more time in my personal workshop called "how to roast on a backwards roaster". Ha. I had fun while you guys were down here, and as always learned a whole lot more than I imagined from the short while your kids were here.

let us know how everything goes down there for you.


best,
Gabriel

[Mike Paras]

Andy, are you willing to give details about what happened- what exactly caused the fire, how it was put out, etc?

If you are not comfortable getting into it (insurance or other reasons), I can understand. I just have an interest in fire protection, so I find this stuff fascinating (and maybe it would be helpful to other roasters).

[trish]

Andy and Eugenia,

Some old crusty coffee guys used to always try to tell me that you aren't a real roaster until you've had a fire. I always told them that was total bullshit, and they should shut their pie holes.
Still, a fire can be good event to learn from. I know that y'all have an L12, and that those muthers have like a million nooks and crannies. Sometimes you just can't clean every possible smolder spot. And even if it's clean, you can't be sure.

Happy to hear that you'll be up and running soon.

(watch out for the PTSD...no joke, it really can happen. Get back on the horse)

[Mark Inman]

Hey! Didn't I tell you that once, Trish...I am not that crusty- but I would never turn away a good slice of pie!

Mark

[andynewbom]

The whole Barefoot team is in tears of joy and love for how much support, encouragement and love we got from the whole Bay Area coffee freaks! The outpouring of love, and support and offers from roasters to allow us to roast on their babies was amazing. A special thanks and bow down to the wonderful cats at [www.ritualroasters.com]Ritual Coffee Roasters![x] And a special thank you to the man Gabe at Ritual for being the host of the year and letting us invade his cafe and sling green everywhere.

The Bay Area coffee family is amazing. We are proud to be a small part of this amazing group of people we call coffee family.

And as a special thank you to Ritual we are serving their kickass Red Flag espresso as our Guest Espresso all this week. Come down and try it. We think it is syrupy, devinely lemonasticlyy sweet and loads of summer berries with super thick heavy butterscotch notes. Tell us what you think!

As of Wednesday night our sweet little Probat roaster is completely back in business! We have been roasting all night and day since with no signs of stopping. Shout out to the Barefoot roasting crew!

[trish]

Hey! Didn't I tell you that once, Trish...I am not that crusty- but I would never turn away a good slice of pie!

Mark

nope you're decidedly smooth...I was talking about Rob Stephen.

[Mark Inman]

Yeah, Rob is pretty crusty...

[aaronblanco]

[Can't get the images added here correctly.]

Here's a couple images from Barefoot on "the day after" (as well as a couple shots from Ritual, Intelly L.A. and The Coffee Vein) from my recent foray out west:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18632240@N00/page6/