San Juan resident serves traditional Italian coffee drinks at
new shop
There is one thing that becomes apparent after just a few
moments of conversation with Dmitri Fridman, owner of Vertigo Cafe
in San Juan Bautista. He is really passionate about coffee.
Friday morning, after a short rush of customers, Fridman talked
with two customers about a new blend he tried recently, a Maui
mocha. He ordered a sample batch of the coffee to try out at
home.
San Juan resident serves traditional Italian coffee drinks at new shop
There is one thing that becomes apparent after just a few moments of conversation with Dmitri Fridman, owner of Vertigo Cafe in San Juan Bautista. He is really passionate about coffee.
Friday morning, after a short rush of customers, Fridman talked with two customers about a new blend he tried recently, a Maui mocha. He ordered a sample batch of the coffee to try out at home.
“It’s the smallest beans I’ve ever seen and it was hard to roast,” he said. “Out of four batches, I ruined three but one was perfect.”
Fridman and his wife, Kitty, opened their shop in June and are slowly building up their clientele at the Fourth Street location. The shop offers traditional Italian coffee drinks, drip coffee varieties that change day by day and pastries from Le Boulanger. But more than that, Fridman offers an education in what makes a great cup of coffee.
The colors inside the shop reflect the coffee drinks on the menu – the walls are a cappuccino color, the couches and loveseats are a creamy latte hue and the redwood bar is stained dark, like a cup of espresso, with a red tint to it.
The bar, refinished from a raised garden bed in Fridman’s yard by the furniture company behind the shop, overlooks the centerpiece of the shop. Less than two weeks ago, Fridman moved his roaster into the shop, along with a dozen burlap sacks of raw coffee beans that sit on wooden pallets in one corner of the store.
“People can sit here and watch me roasting,” he said. “It’s quite a show and people get a big kick out of it.”
Table top to commercial roaster
Fridman started roasting his own coffee after moving to San Juan. He said it was hard to find restaurants or cafes locally that roasted their own coffee. He first bought a small table-top roaster that could handle a few ounces of beans, or enough for a cup or two. From there, he bought a roaster that could handle three-quarters of a pound of coffee beans.
“Then I graduated to 26 pounds,” he said, of the roaster now housed in the cafe.
He saw it for sale on Craigslist and initially resisted buying it. A year later, it was still available and he gave in.
Since 2008, Fridman has roasted coffee from his garage, bagged it up and sold it over the Internet. He shipped it to customers, sold it locally at Windmill Market in San Juan and Marshall’s Market in Aromas, and even hand-delivered it to some locals. He said the key to coffee beans is to use them when they are fresh. They need two to three days to age after roasting and are optimal up to 10 days after they are roasted.
Mary Isaksen said she has always liked using freshly roasted coffee beans. She discovered Vertigo Coffee when Fridman participated in the 50th celebration of the movie “Vertigo,” in San Juan. He offered Scottie’s blend, named for the main character played by James Stewart.
“It’s really the best,” she said. “He has a gift.”
She comes in every couple weeks to pick up some coffee beans, and noted that Java, is everyone’s favorite.
“He clearly loves what he is doing and is very passionate,” Isaksen said. “It shows in the results.”
He and Kitty worked with students at Anzar High School to create a special blend called Hawk’s blend that is for sale in the shop. A portion of the proceeds go to the school.
“The idea was planted as soon as I got this guy,” Fridman said, pointing at his roaster, of plans to open a coffee shop. “The idea popped in my head that it would eventually happen.”
He used his coffee bean sales to build up the name, which he coined after the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Vertigo” that was partially filmed at the San Juan Mission.
Menu reflects tradition
The menu includes traditional Italian-style drinks such as cappuccino, lattes, mochas and macchiatos. But the menu also has some other unique drinks, such as the hammerhead, which Fridman says is a cup of drip coffee with two shots of espresso. He has another drink, called the Chernobyl in honor of his home country, which is not yet on the menu. It is a cup of drip coffee with four shots of espresso.
“We listen to what the popular requests are,” Fridman said, of the menu. “It is a combination of what we want to serve and what they want to drink. It’s pretty flexible. That’s why it’s written in chalk.”
While customers can order a large cup of coffee, he said that the shop tends to serve the smaller sizes used in traditional Italian drinks.
“We serve traditional Italian espresso,” he said. “It’s smaller but gives a lot more flavor. We offer the large size on request, but we don’t push it on our menu.”
The most popular drinks are the latte, cappuccino and a drink called a Cubano. Fridman described it as a cappuccino made with brown sugar.
“You don’t mix in the sugar so you don’t deflate all that good foam,” he said.
Teaching the perfect cup of coffee
He started collecting equipment for the shop, and had most of it in storage when he decided to open in June. He said the most challenging thing has been training his staff of five in the proper way to serve coffee and steam milk.
“It gets hectic behind the bar,” he said. “It is still a learning process – the logistics of making multiple drinks, getting pastries and making a smoothie. It’s just the flow of things getting efficient.”
To draw in the commuter crowd – the coffee shop is just off the Alameda, near Hwy. 156 – the shop opens at 5 a.m. on weekdays. Fridman said his wife is at the shop “24-7,” noting that she gets up at 3:45 a.m. to get to the shop and prep everything. He works in the mornings until noon, when he heads to his full-time job with the Valley Transit Authority.
His clientele so far is a mix of his coffee bean customers, San Juan residents and tourists visiting the Mission city. One of the benefits of a small town with small businesses, he said, is that some of the shop owners refer visitors to his coffee shop when they inquire about where to get a cup of coffee.
In selecting the location, Fridman and his wife looked at places in Hollister and San Juan. He actually had his eye on the Fourth Street location in San Juan, which was being used to display the finished pieces of the furniture business housed behind him.
“It was the spot, I really wanted all those years,” he said. “I saw the potential.”
He approached the owners who initially declined to give up the space. But eventually they contacted him and he started plans on the shop.
“I’m getting really good reviews online at Yelp,” Fridman said, mentioning one posted by a visitor to Fremont Peak. “It really feels rewarding that people are noticing the difference (from chain coffee shops). Sometimes it gets so tiring, but then I read something and it’s worth it.”
Fridman roasts about 100 pounds a week for sale and for use in the coffee shop. He has a unique blend for espresso that includes hints of chocolate, caramel and nutty flavors.
“The espresso machine exaggerates everything,” he said, noting that he generally keeps the espresso blend the same. “But I’m always looking for different blends. The drip coffee is constantly changing.”
Vertigo Cafe
81 Fourth Street, San Juan Bautista
623-9533; www.vertigocoffee.com
Staff will serve free coffee drinks for the grand opening Aug. 14 and 15
Hours: Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
