Hollister resident Evan Morris stepped up to the table with a small cup of espresso and poured milk in steady, meticulous layers while the crowd waited.
Morris, a 23-year-old barista, was among about 20 contestants bonding with attendees over coffee, beer and pizza Thursday evening in the county’s first Latte Art Throwdown at Vertigo Coffee Roasters in San Juan Bautista.
“It’s the first one here—the first one in San Benito as far as I know,” said Dmitri Fridman, who owns the business in the Mission City where Alfred Hitchcock filmed parts of the 1958 movie, Vertigo.
The goal of the event is to pour steamed milk into the espresso in sweeping dollops to create symmetrical chains in the kind of forms that those with coffee lingo call tulip stacks, hearts and rosettas. Contestants demonstrate their skills in pairs, with the winners advancing to the next phase of competition until the end when one barista is named champion.
“What you really look for I’d say is symmetry, contrast and the overall difficulty of the pour,” explained Judge Sam Fabila, 34, recently selected to be a barista for Apple, Inc.
Contestants came from coffee shops in Santa Cruz, San Jose, Palo Alto, Los Altos and San Francisco to participate in the showdown. Samantha Vigil, 23, and her roommate Abby Reynolds, 23, drove about two hours from Pinole to soak in the hipster vibe.
“I’m just an observer,” Vigil said. “This is my first one.”
The girls were supporting one of their favorite baristas, Billy Ancira, an employee at their local East Bay Coffee shop.
“It’s just really intense,” Vigil said. “It’s like a culture of its own. People are committed to perfect latte art.”
Ancira is well known for his latte art at the coffee shop, according to the girls. Reynolds, with a large camera hanging around her neck, recalled coffee drawings of “bears and cats.”
“He does a swan,” Reynolds said. “He did a swan for me once.”
As Ancira, 27, stepped back from a winning design with a tulip pattern, he reflected on his art form. Making cups of coffee can be an impersonal experience but a little art makes things special, he explained.
“It’s the one thing you can do during your shift that makes it fun and makes every cup unique,” he said.
Although this “latte throwdown” contest was unofficial, there are regional, national and worldwide competitions, explained Fridman, the owner of Vertigo Coffee Roasters. This particular event was timed to honor the shop’s opening of a new patio area where alcohol and everything else the store offers can be served outdoors.
“All these guys are into coffee and they dream coffee,” Fridman said. “It’s just about sharing your art and your passion for coffee.”
Fridman and his wife started the coffee shop as an online business selling roasted whole beans in 2006, he said. Within four years they had moved the business to the shop’s current site at 81 Fourth St. near the post office. Since those opening days, the business added a wood-fired pizza oven and several sections of patio.
“I love coffee,” said Fridman, who first tried the drink in Italy. “And it’s been love ever since.”
