America’s Best Coffeehouse Western Region Setting the Field: Who Will Be in the Top Twenty?
Calling all Elite Coffeehouses. Does your coffeehouse serve world class beverages top to bottom of your menu? Do you provide unparalleled customer service, have amazing ambiance and teamwork?
If so, Davinci Gourmet’s America’s Best Coffeehouse (ABC) competition has a place for you.
October 4-6, 2013 are the dates for Coffee Fest’s second annual Western Regional Championships of DaVinci Gourmet’s America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition. Applications to compete are being accepted from Coffeehouses throughout the Western Region until August 6th.
Coffee Fest partnered with DaVinci Gourmet and worked closely with Design & Layout Services, Selby Soft, Mahlkonig and Fresh Cup Magazine as well as many other respected industry veterans to develop and produce the vehicle to determine and acknowledge the best coffeehouses in North America. All coffeehouses in the U.S. and Canada, individual units as well as major chains are invited to apply to compete. The Coffee Fest Seattle Championship Oct 4-6, 2013 serves the Western States and Western Canada; Coffee Fest New York March 7-9, 2014 serves the Eastern States and Eastern Canada; Coffee Fest St Louis May 30-June 1, 2014 serves the Central States and Central Canada.
• A maximum of twenty coffeehouse applicants will be selected from all applications received for preliminary field qualification for Seattle 2013 ABC on August 6th. The 20 semifinalist will each be visited by secret shoppers during the following 30 days. On August 8th six finalists will be announced by the ABC selection committee and each will be invited to compete on site with a team of three in the fully stocked and functional coffeehouse to be built at Coffee Fest Seattle. Each of the six teams will be assigned a sixty minute competition time either on Friday October 4th or Saturday October 5th.
• Throughout each teams hour long competition segment they are evaluated on teamwork, hospitality, aptitude, professionalism, knowledge, skill, presentation and limits. Coffeehouse teams are judged by 15 carefully selected customer judges and two executive level special technical judges. Coffeehouses each have 15 minutes to set up, 30 minutes of competition/customer service time and 15 minutes to clean up.
• After the final team has finished on Saturday the scores are compared and the top three move forward for a final competition hour on Sunday. The slates are clean and each of the Sunday finalists has an equal opportunity to win the 2013 Championship and a seed in the 2013/2014 Grand Championships at Coffee Fest Portland. ABC rules, regulations and the application to compete can be found at www.coffeefest.com or www.americasbestcoffeehouse.com.
Coffee Fest Seattle 2013 ABC prizes are:
1st place $2,500 and the ABC championship trophy
2nd place $1,000 and a second place trophy
3rd place $500 and a third place trophy
4th place through 6th place receive ABC semifinalist certificate
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
At Coffee Fest Portland, October 17-19 2014, the Davinci Gourmet America’s Best Coffeehouse 2013/2014 Grand Champion will be crowned when each of six regional champions will come together in Portland at Coffee Fest for what is sure to be the championship competition of the ages.
Coffeehouses that have qualified to compete in the 2013/20014 Grand Championship include.
Klatch Coffee Ontario CA – Seattle 2012 Champion
Peregrine Espresso, WA DC – New York 2013 Champion
Ipsento Coffee, Chicago IL – Chicago 2013 Champion
Available seed – Seattle 2013 Champion
Available seed – New York 2014 Champion
Available seed – St Louis 2014 Champion
Coffee Fest is a trade show catering to the specialty coffee and gourmet tea industries. For more details about our shows or on the winners of our competitions present and future, visit www.coffeefest.com or become a fan at www.facebook.com/coffeefest.
