Full announcement after the jump:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC – September 22, 2011

Mid City Caffé to Close October 1, 2011

Logan Circle’s Mid City Caffe has announced that it will be closing for business.

The final day of normal operation will be September 30, 2011 with limited hours of operation on October 1. The café was opened in 2009 by a pair of entrepreneurs who turned the interior of the former auto-body shop into a comfortable environment for the neighborhood’s residents to work, relax and socialize.

Unfortunately, the second-story location outside the downtown core proved underperforming. Limited accessibility restricted morning commuter and daytime foot-traffic, and while the café was blessed with a coterie of dedicated regulars, ultimately the volume simply was not there.

Known particularly as a gathering place for the neighborhood’s freelancers and creative professionals, Mid City Caffe proudly served coffee from Counter Culture

Coffee and Caffe Pronto prepared by an expertly trained staff. The café’s closing will leave a gap in the expanding, but nightlife-focused, Fourteenth Street corridor.

It has been a pleasure to serve the Logan Circle neighborhood and to be apart of the city’s burgeoning specialty coffee scene. While the ownership and staff are excited to move on to other opportunities, they will miss their devoted customers.

Contact:

Jeffrey Lamoureux

General Manager

Mid City Caffe

1626 14th St, NW Washington, DC 20009

Email: Jeffrey@midcitycaffe.com

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Photo by Tijuana Brass/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

An alumnus of Tryst and Baked & Wired and a graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine's pastry program, Visser is serious about his drinks and sweets. Like the other top-shelf cafes in the area, Counter Culture Coffee will be brewed here. Well, not just brewed.

Visser proudly pantomimed (see right) his signature pour-over technique that non-hurried customers can enjoy. "Coffee is like wine with very complex flavors," Visser explains. And this method, "as wine people would say, allows more of the tannins and terroir to come through," he says.

Instead of pouring hot water over coffee grinds to make a large pot of coffee, customers can order just a single pour, which is essentially one cup brewed just for you. While this can take three to four minutes, this cup of coffee will be the best you can get, as it hasn't been sitting losing flavor.

Even though he's a trained pastry chef (having worked at 1789), the space didn't allow for a kitchen, so Visser carefully sourced his treats: croissants from Hawthorne Fine Breakfast Pastry, bagels from Whatsa Bagel and biscotti from Chez Hareg. All of its afternoon desserts, such as cookies and bars, will be vegan friendly. (While not of that dietary model himself, Visser received plenty of Facebook messages requesting soy milk from his soon-to-be vegan neighbors. )

Visser will be creating all of the flavored syrups from natural ingredients: expect vanilla, caramel (vegan), hazelnut, almond and peppermint to spruce up your drinks. Of course you might not want to mask the coffee's inherent flavors after you waited almost five whole minutes for the single pour.

Flying Fish Coffee and Tea, 3064 Mt Pleasant St, NW, 202-299-0141

Photo by Stefanie Gans

Much will depend on the mechanical inspection tomorrow, according to publicist Simone Rathle, who is also Guas' wife. If Bayou Bakery passes the mechanical check, it can quickly move into the next round of county inspections and could possibly open by Saturday, Nov. 13, or Monday, Nov. 15. If it fails the inspection, the opening could be pushed back, Rathle says.

In the meantime, Guas, the former Passion Food Hospitality pastry chef and a New Orleans native, is finalizing the menu for his 60-seat restaurant and bakery at 1515 Courthouse Road. Though it could change before opening day, the menu will likely include homemade pimento cheese, Catahoula hot dogs (boiled in beer and served with Creole mustard and Vidalia-onion marmalade), a "Creole Pilgrim" sandwich (shaved blackened turkey, arugula, smoked Gouda, and Dijonaise), chicken and sausage gumbo, lemon ice box pie, Bayou brownies, and three different kinds of cupcakes (red velvet, chocolate and caramel, and lemon).

Guas will also offer a small selection of wine and beer (including Turbo Dog, of course) as well as Counter Culture coffee (including, perhaps, a special chicory blend that's in development).

Don't know about you, but Y&H is already drooling.

In recent months, the Dupont Circle neighborhood has added a sports bar (Maddy's), a French bistro (Bistro Bistro), a coffee house (Filter), a taco stand (Tomatillo Taqueria), and not one but two burger shops (BGR: The Burger Joint and Rogue States).

Now it's about to get a taste of Argentine gelato. Violeta Edelman and Robb Duncan, the husband and wife behind the Dolcezza shops in Georgetown and Bethesda, will open their Dupont store on April 15. That's Tax Day, for those still sweating it, a nice way to reward yourself after you kiss that return goodbye.

On paper, the Dupont location sounds slightly more user-friendly than the other two Dolcezza shops. The 800-square foot space, located directly in front of the Dupont Metro stop, will feature a communal table, window seating, patio seating, and an antique wood coffee bar first used in a Buenos Aires cafe, circa 1940s.

As much as I adore Dolcezza's silky, hand-spun gelati (I've been known to continue eating the lemon ricotta cardamom long after my appetite has passed), I suspect the new shop's coffee program will be an equal draw in Dupont. Check out this information from Dolcezza's press announcement:

While coffee has always been a well-crafted component of the Dolcezza experience, the gelato company is utilizing the Dupont Circle opening to expand offerings. Dolcezza is pioneering the way for cleaner-tasting, expertly brewed coffee by introducing the latest pour-over technology, the V60 from Hario, which has been touted as one of the most superior pour-over systems on the market. Dolcezza’s v60 coffee bar was custom built by Ritual Roasters in San Francisco and will be used to feature coffee beans from four or five different coffee roasters, always following the coffee that is currently in season. The pour-over method of coffee brewing is a slower, more personalized process and involves pouring hot water over freshly ground coffee. Pastries from Bonaparte Breads will brought in every morning to accompany the coffee.

Dolcezza’s coffee menu will rotate monthly and include freshly roasted beans from artisan roasters such as sustainable Counter Culture Coffee, San Francisco-based Ritual Roasters, local Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters, and Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. Coffee from the pour-over bar will be available in 1 size only, 12 ounce. Dolcezza will also offer traditional espresso beverages including macchiato, gibraltar, cappuccino and latte, all served in one size only. The coffee program at Dolcezza’s Dupont Circle location will be led by Head Barista Liz Fedden, previously the head barista at Baked & Wired in Georgetown. Fedden recently participated in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition and will bring her passion and knowledge of coffee to Dupont Circle customers.

The Dupont Dolcezza will celebrate its official grand opening on Sunday, April 25. From noon to 6 p.m., the Dupont shop will be serving up free gelato, bluegrass music, and a whole smoked hog from Bev Eggleston with EcoFriendly Foods.

Mmmm, smoked pig and ice cream.

One of the better things that's happened to our area is the quiet spread of Counter Culture coffee. Yeah, sure, Counter Culture is another one of those companies with all its PC boxes checked—direct trade? check! organic? check! shade grown? check!—but it also produces some terrific java, which you can sip at Tryst and all three Busboys & Poets locations. Today, I found another spot that serves Counter Culture: the DeJaBel Cafe in Wheaton, located right next to the freshly reopened El Pollo Rico.

Named after owner Eddie Velasquez's three daughters—Daniela, Jasmine, and Isabel—DeJaBel is barely a month old. It's a welcoming neighborhood spot with lived-in chairs and tables, local artwork on the wall, and friendly staff, but it's also a work in progress. The place is still trying to find a good source for bagels, for instance. But you can trust the coffee. Trust me.

I ordered a 12-ounce cup of Counter Culture's "21st de Septiembre" from Zaragoza, Mexico. The drink had more complexity than any cup I've had in recent memory: It delivered a nice jolt of acidity on first sip, which quickly turned to some spicy flavors on the palate and then resolved into a bittersweet, almost chocolate-baking bar flavor on the finish. It's the kind of coffee that makes you remember why you like coffee so much.