Philadelphia Coffee Culture Vol 2: @bodhicoffee

Bodhi Coffee is part of the young pantheon of great independent coffee shops in Philadelphia. We started out with La Colombe, but in the last two years our coffee offerings have expanded rapidly, and we can now sip some of the best offerings from national roasters like Stumptown (Bodhi, Shot Tower), Counter Culture (Odd Fellows Cafe, Spruce St. Espresso) and PT’s Coffee (Elixr), along with local roasters like Rival Bros. Coffee.

In this video Bodhi co-owner Thomas Henneman prepares an Ethiopia Duromina (red fruit and intensely floral aromatics. Tastes like: raspberry and asian pear flavors with a smooth, macadamia-life finish.) Hand poured coffees are prepared to order and take about 3 min or so, I can’t emphasize enough how worth the wait they are. Specialty coffees have really complex flavor profiles that tend to be low in acidity (so you can drink them black) and change as the coffee cools. A certain coffee might start out more fruity when it’s warm but as it cools it might develop a more creamy and chocolatey taste. They are a true pleasure to sip from start to finish, no sugar needed!

My favorite Stumptown offerings are the Ethiopia Mordecofe (tastes like: chocolate and hops counter notes of peach and pink lady apple in a cup sweetened by caramel and honey with an iced tea finish), and Indonesia Gajah Acen (tastes like: plum, blackberry, toffee and earth, finishing sweetly with buttery caramel). Two really impressive coffees that will make you more open-minded about consuming coffee for more than just a caffeine kick.

Bodhi

410 South 2nd St., Philadelphia

Mon - Fri: 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Sat: 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Sun: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Previously: Philadelphia Coffee Culture Vol 1: Elixr Coffee

Elixr Coffee: Year One

Today marks the one year anniversary of Elixr! I go on about this coffee shop a lot but it’s not without reason. Check them out in the action in the above video. Each Philly coffee shop has their own preferred method of brewing hand poured coffees and Elixr is known for the Chemex. The first time I had a cup of coffee prepared with this method I felt like I had drank REAL coffee for the very first time. A good quality coffee plus a great prep method creates a really beautiful and delicious experience.

I caught up with Elixr’s owner (also featured in the video) Evan Inatome to get his take on being an entrepreneur and the Philly coffee scene.

On what advice he’d give to young entrepreneurs

“People say I speak with a lot of passion about coffee and I think that helps to sell the product. I completely believe that we’re trying really hard to do better […] we’re trying hard to be our best. When your customer actually believes that you’re trying to give them the best […] That passion it’s kind of addictive, people wanna be around people with passion, people wanna buy coffee (or whatever it may be) from someone that’s passionate about it.

As long as you’re young you might as well try something, the worst that can happen is that you lose the little money that you had. And the best that can happen is that you start something big.”

On the close relationship between the Philly coffee shops

“[When] Bodhi had just opened, I was hanging out a lot there, they’ve become my good friends, friendship-wise they’re our closest ally I guess you would say. We’re so close to Spruce Street, we’ll borrow cups from them, they’ll borrow coffee from us. Same thing, we’ll borrow chocolate from Ultimo. The other thing with Philly is almost everybody […] is Counter Culture, and then you have Bodhi with Stumptown.  Spruce St does the clevers; our method we do the Chemexes, Shot Tower has La Strada, a sweet machine. If I had more time I’d hang out in all those places. Everyone has each other’s back. Everyone wants everyone else to succeed and it really is close, there is enough room for everyone to succeed. Everyone needs to up their game, including us. Keep moving that bar, keep doing experiments.”

On what’s next for him and Elixr

“I think now’s a pretty big time to be in coffee, I wanna get as big as we can in the next few years so we can be a player in coffee; and then I wanna use that to do cooler things. Like, right now we’re partnering with this non-profit that essentially consults inner city kids about college, and tries to get them into college. This organization is called 12+, one thing that we’re gonna do is help them start off ‘cause they’re a small company. We’re gonna match donations up to a $1000 for this charity.

I’m certainly not trying to get rich, I’m trying to build bigger things.”

If you’re in Philly tonight, stop by Elixr for the Philly TNT-a barista competition-starting at 8 pm! 15th & Walnut St.

Philadelphia Creatives-At Work- @NoseGo

I got the chance to shoot NoseGo while he was revamping his mural on 5th & Bainbridge. He added some new flavor to the piece with his new arsenal of characters. His style of work has a very West Coast kind of vibe in the painterly aspect, super bright colors and (often times) very cute characters. On his work he says,

I’m actually highly inspired by many West Coast works, but I’ve found my style after going through traditional training and then later merging it with a more contemporary style. There are many artist I find inspirational, to name a few Sean G, Scotty Albrecht, Ishknits, Royce Bannon, Chris RWK, and Hilary White.

There’s a nice bit of joy and whimsy in the piece, and I think it reflects his personality quite well. He’s one of the sweetest people that I’ve ever met. To his fellow creatives he says,

Stay true to yourself, and never try to be what you think is expected of you. If you want to do something, visualize it, plan it, and follow through. If things don’t go according to plan just learn from your mistakes, and try again.

(Source: iphotophilly.com)

Rainy night, wandering down tiny Philadelphia alleys covered in leaves.

Re-posting this since it fits the rainy evening we’re experiencing right now.

Betty Lertdarapong Weaving Demonstration

Art in the Age Fabric of Philadelphia Exhibition

Shot and edited by Swabreen Bakr.

(Source: iphotophilly.com)

November Rain

Another tiny movie, this is from earlier in the evening when it rained. Between the two short films I made today you got a nice feel for how the day progressed huh?

Making these is fun, one of my dream jobs was to be a cinematographer. The theme in this video is light, the rain added a nice mood. Shot with iPhone 4 and edited in iMovie.

Tiny Movie: South Philly Birds

Despite the rain, the day actually started out really beautiful. I got the iPhone4 and had some fun testing out the video feature and put this together in iMovie. I want to do more of these and keep experimenting, it’s fun. Watch the HD version on vimeo.