National Poll Says Local Shops Best

I spend a lot of time looking for articles, info and frankly anything that is out there that speaks about local coffee shops, flavors and trends in the Specialty Coffee area. There are tons of great companies out there, especially in the Las Vegas market.

Recently, there was a huge article released by Business Insider that listed the Best Coffee Shops, by State. In our beloved Nevada, out of the literally 10's of 30's of coffee shops from N,S, E, and West Grouchy John's from Las Vegas was listed as the Best Coffee Shop in Nevada. Congrats to JJ and John.
Now while we celebrate the listing of Grouchy's in the article, the more important thing was really just below the surface of this article.

In our locale, there are over 300 coffee shops. Only 20+ of which are Independently-owned shops. That means that over 80% of the shops in Las Vegas alone are either a franchise or a strip hotel shop, which is also a franchise. Nothing wrong with franchises at all. We all aspire to expand to a point where we can have a franchise, myself included. The point here is that the vast majority of shops in Las Vegas and the State of Nevada are huge national franchises.

OK that being said, the coffee shop that wins as the best shop in the state is a small mom and pop operation. Not only is the shop a small mom and pop store but you would expect, being named the best shop in the state, that the roaster for this operation would be an Illy or Pete's, or some other national roaster. Not on your life. The roaster that Grouchy's uses is a local company, as a matter of fact they are so small that they have only been in business less than a decade. In the scheme of coffee roasting that means they are barely out of the crib.

Here's where I am going with this whole thing. The vast majority of people who drink coffee, settle in at a Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or some other huge chain store coffee company. And bless their hearts they are content at slugging down that stuff. But the BEST COFFEE SHOP in NEVADA isn't a Starbucks, CBTL or any other huge company, it is a little ole shop on the East side of town, who gets their beans from another little ole roaster in Boulder City.

That is huge folks.

In the final analysis, yes, there is something to be said for micro-roasters. So the next time you are thinking about getting a really good cup of coffee, don't settle for less than the best.