Espresso Fundamentals Class

Hello!
We are proud to announce the first offering of our Espresso Fundamentals Class to be held at our Union Market coffee bar on April 16. For years we have wanted to offer classes open to our customers and we are happy to be able to utilize our Union Market space while the market is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Our first class will be Espresso Fundamentals, covering the basics of brewing espresso, texturing milk and how to combine the two. This class will be offered at least monthly and additional dates will be added soon. We hope to develop additional classes in the next few months so stay tuned for other offerings.

Sign up for the first class here. We look forward to seeing you.

Team Peregrine First at America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition

This past weekend, three of our staff traveled to New York to compete at Coffee Fest’s America’s Best Coffeehouse Eastern Region competition. After competing Friday, they advanced to Sunday’s final round and were awarded first place, beating out Mudhouse from Charlottesville, VA, and Muggswigz from Canton, OH, in the finals.

During the competition, each team was given an hour to set up their cafe (15 mins), serve customers (30 mins) and clean their station (15 mins). The teams were judged on a number of factors, including beverage quality, customer service, teamwork, communication, cleanliness, efficiency and knowledge. We were proud to send Jeremy Sterner, Dawn Shanks and Emily Doenlen to represent Peregrine and they clearly performed very well.

Coffee Klatch of San Dimas, CA, took home the Western Region title in the fall with a team featuring two-time United States Barista Champion Heather Perry. The Central Region competition is coming up this summer in Chicago.

For more on the competition, read this article on WTOP’s website, this blurb on Barista Magazine’s blog and the competition rules on Coffee Fest’s website.

Team Peregrine Heads to America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition

This weekend, three of our staff are heading to NYC to compete in the America’s Best Coffeehouse competition held at Coffee Fest New York. This is the first year for the competition, which debuted for the Western Region in the fall at Coffee Fest Seattle. Of the applicant cafes, only seven were selected to compete this weekend and will each have an hour-long competition time including 15 minutes of setup, 30 minutes of customer service and 15 minutes of clean-up. The teams are judged on beverage quality, customer service, cleanliness and teamwork. We’re excited for the team we are sending (Jeremy, Dawn and Emily) and we’ll be sure to update here and on Twitter (@peregrinedc) as the weekend progresses. Also, Jeremy Sterner will be competing in the Latte Art World Championship Open.

Also happening this week- our very own Lindsey Kiser–2012 Southeast Regional Barista Champion–is traveling in Costa Rica with a group of barista champions visiting coffee farms and learning all about the intricacies of coffee production. We can’t wait for her to return to share her experiences, knowledge and pictures. 

2012 Year in Review

It’s January!

As we enter the new year, it seems appropriate to take some time to look back at the year that was and its highlights:

SERBC (#1)- We sent a wonderful team to the Southeast Regional Barista Competition in Atlanta in February and came home with a regional champ in Lindsey Kiser. This was our second regional championship in our four years of competing (Jeremy Sterner won in 2010) and we enjoyed getting to spend time with our friends and colleagues from throughout the region.

USBC- In April, Lindsey Kiser and Travis Beckett traveled to Portland, OR, to represent Peregrine in the annual United States Barista Championship. For the first time, DC placed a competitor in the Finals at the USBC (Travis Beckett) and we were proud to see Katie Carguilo of Counter Culture Coffee (our coffee provider) take home the title of United States Barista Champion.

Union Market- We were thrilled to join the exciting food community at Union Market as we opened our third coffee bar there in September. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the other great vendors and sell coffee alongside other wonderful high-quality products. Recently, Union Market was cited by the New York Times as one of the top reasons to visit Washington, DC, and was also featured in the February issue of Food and Wine.

SERBC (#2)- In late November, we traveled again to Atlanta for the current season’s SERBC. Not only did Travis Beckett make the finals round of the SERBC but Judith Mandel made the finals round of the Southeast Regional Brewer’s Cup. Both Travis and Judith will be representing Peregrine Espresso at the USBC/Brewer’s Cup in Boston this April.

Sustainability- We are proud to continue in our sustainability mission, utilizing a compost service for a majority of our waste, purchasing wind power through Clean Currents and using Trickling Springs Creamery milk from grass-fed cows and sustainably-grown and sourced coffee from our friends at Counter Culture Coffee. We look forward to introducing new measures in 2013 to reduce our impact and take greater steps in this mission.

Staffing- We are so thankful for the great people that choose to work for us and move into 2013 with a really great team. Of the 11 people on our staff in September 2008 when we started, five of them still work for us (three in management positions) and of the 29 people now on our our payroll, 10 of them have been with us longer than two years and 16 of the 19 staff working for us a year ago today are still with us. In my 13 years in the coffee industry, I’ve never experienced such a dedicated and warm group of coffee professionals and am so hopeful for the year (and years) ahead.

Customers- New and old, we appreciate you. Eastern Market, MidCity, Union Market, we love you. Happy new year and we hope to see you soon.

Ryan and the Peregrine Team

Holiday Hours

Due to staff travel during the holidays, our store holiday schedules are as follows:

Eastern Market:
December 24: 8-1
December 25: closed
December 26: 8-3
December 27-30: normal hours
December 31: 7-7
January 1: 8-8

MidCity:
December 24: 8-1
December 25: closed
December 26: 8-8
December 27-30: normal hours
December 31: 7-7
January 1: 8-8

Union Market:
December 24: 11-4
December 25-26: closed
December 27-30: normal hours
December 31: 11-6
January 1: closed

Sorry for any confusion. See you soon.

Looking for Gifts and Gift Cards?

Click the Shopify Store in the bottom left of the Peregrine homepage. Or go here: http://peregrine-espresso.myshopify.com/

It’s that simple.

Take care,

Peregrine

Union Market Expansion and Thanksgiving Hours

Hi!

Since opening our coffee bar at Union Market (1309 5th St NE), we’ve greatly enjoyed meeting our new neighbors, getting to know our neighboring vendors and eating lots of great food. Starting this week, the Market transitions from Friday-Sunday to Wednesday-Sunday hours and we will be adjusting our hours as well. We will be open at 8am every day the Market is open so come see us Wed-Sun 8-8 from now on.

Except next week…

Thanksgiving time offers an opportunity for people to wow their family and friends with new and interesting culinary finds. The vendors at Union Market have decided to offer expanded hours during Thanksgiving week:
Monday 11-5 (Peregrine opens @ 8)
Tuesday 11-8 (again, we open @ 8)
Wednesday 11-8 (we’re there @ 8)
mostly closed Thanksgiving except for some special order pickups
Fri-Sun (normal hours)
Come explore Union Market and pick up some delicious food for you, your family and friends. Grab some coffee, too.

Also, on Thanksgiving Day, our Eastern Market and MidCity shops will operate from 8am-1pm.