Conscientious Coffee with Barista Parlor Owner Andy Mumma

After years of experience and diligent loyalty to the coffee industry, Andy Mumma built his own coffee shop, Barista Parlor. Mumma tells us how he developed one of the most popular destinations in East Nashville.

What inspired Barista Parlor?

My mom. She always encouraged me to open my own place and follow my dreams. I worked in specialty coffee 16 years before I was able to open Barista Parlor. She knew it was my passion, and I will always remember her loving words and smile when I told her I was going to make Barista happen one way or another! Unfortunately she passed away before I was able to open, but I know she's proud of me and would love what BP is and what it has become. 

How has your upbringing influenced your intentions as a business owner?

Growing up Mennonite definitely taught me to work hard. When I do something, I do it all the way or not at all. Growing up on a farm taught me to appreciate local, handmade goods and appreciate other people who are talented at what they do. I try to support all my friends that create quality products and integrate them into BP. I love Tennessee and the South in general; it's my home. Hospitality goes hand in hand with our location. It's important that people have a special experience overall, because that's what I want it to be--more of an experience rather then just a caffeine and breakfast fix. 

What do you hope the aesthetic of the shop conveys to your customers?

I want people to walk into Barista Parlor and realize we do things differently, that they can come in, have an amazing cup of coffee and a biscuit, have a great conversation and be relaxed by the environment. Everyone who is a part of BP is extremely detail oriented and works very hard to make sure the way BP looks and feels when you walk in is inviting. My goal was to create a space that is inspiring for others too and encompassed all of my passions: coffee, art, design, and vintage transportation.

Do you ride a motorcycle?

Yeah! All the bikes in the shop are mine. The one I ride the most is a black all original BMW 1967 R69S. I'm really inspired by transportation in general and love the freedom it gives me. Going on a ride on some back roads to clear my head is the best thing ever! It can be on my bike or truck (1950 Ford F1).

How did you source all the varied materials that lend Barista Parlor its distinct aesthetic?

The furniture is made from various types of wood, all from Tennessee, and all over 100+ years old and sourced by us. Holler Design made a lot of our furniture at their family farm workshop. Local craftsman Aaron Rosburg, Martin Cadieux, Josh Nava and others also built great pieces in our space. Bryce McCloud from Isle of Printing made our menus and "Alpha Boy" wooden table markers. He also created our letter-pressed mural of "The Prussian,” a ship that sank in the 20's, which also had the largest payload of any vessel at the time. It's actually the world's largest iPhone enhanced letter-pressed mural! We have great partnerships with local friends and makers like Emil Erwin, who on top of making amazing bags makes our waxed canvas aprons, Otis James makes our caps, and Imogene + Willie makes our jeans. 

How do you choose which coffees, teas, food products and menu options to carry?

We focus on carrying the highest quality coffees, offering a range of origins that are in season. All of our products are as fresh as they can get. We get our sausage from Porter Road Butcher, who are literally our neighbors. We don't want any preservatives or fillers in our food. Everything is house-made, including our biscuits, jam and pickles. I guess it's another result of growing up on a farm and seeing my mom canning every year. Craft chocolate is also something we enjoy pairing with our coffees. We carry almost a dozen of the absolute best American craft chocolate makers in the USA!

Where do you stand on fair trade certification vs. direct trade?

Fair trade is definitely a good thing in the industry, but direct trade is all about relationships with the farmers. We want to know the people we'll source our beans from, visit their farms and pay them above and beyond what the "fair trade" minimum is. That's why we work with the roasters we currently do—because they directly trade with farmers and have unique coffees that are only available to them. We will begin roasting our own coffees when we open Barista Parlor Golden Sound this spring, and our goals with our coffee sourcing will be the absolute 99.9% highest quality micro-lots, separation lots, direct trade, seasonal, sourced from either organic producers or those working with sustainable practices coffees.

What role do you want Barista Parlor to play in the community of East Nashville?

We love East Nashville. We love Nashville in general! Barista Parlor is here to serve the neighborhood and city and continue to give national spotlight to our wonderful craft! We are a shop filled with coffee professionals who love to have fun but take this very serious in our approach. It's a career choice not a part time job. Customers know that and trust what we make them, they will love. I've lived in this neighborhood myself for over a decade. I want to have a place that I'd be proud to have in my neighborhood. We want the people that live here to have a place to come hang out with their friends and feel inspired by having an exceptional product, whether it be coffee, chocolate, pastry or biscuit.

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Story by Jodi Cash

Photographs by Emily B. Hall

A Real Tonic

A few years ago I started drinking vodka-soda for the first time. I’d never had much vodka. If I did drink any clear liquor, it was usually gin. Gin and tonic. I loved gin and tonic. It was the first drink of spring and perfect for a hot summer’s day. It was good for Christmas, the juniper holiday. It was the classic drink from America’s British heritage. So when I started drinking vodka-soda, I was puzzled. What had changed? Why was it so good? Where had I gone astray?  

It all started at a wedding. It was July in South Carolina, one of the hotter summers I remember.  And the reception was outside in the afternoon. Not surprisingly, the night before I’d been on gin and tonic, drinking in a dingy, smoky pub. I woke up with cottonmouth, hot and clammy, and I knew something had to change. It was the tonic. The bar-gun tonic. The plastic Schweppes bottle tonic. This was the culprit. The fake sugar flavor and the hangover it caused were too much with the heat. I couldn’t do it anymore. So that afternoon, post-wedding, still hot and hurting from the night before but ready for a drink, I ordered my first vodka-soda.

Now, I don’t want to knock the vodka-soda. I drink them from time to time to this day. But as I further understood that my change of preference was not so much the vodka for the gin but the soda for the tonic, I thought I’d reached a point of no return. That was until I heard about a remedy—an invigorating, refreshing, and restorative agent: a real Tonic.

The first Tonics I tried were the hip premium brands like Fever-Tree, which were doing the same thing as Schweppes, except better. I had a few specialty mixes in fancy cocktail bars in New York that were unique if overdone, but at least they were fresh. When I moved back South, I had the Jack Rudy cocktail syrup made by Fig’s barman in Charleston, Sc. This stuff was a great reminder of what Tonic could be, and it was more fun to work with, almost like a simple syrup.  Most importantly, these variations helped me recognize the potential for Tonic. I was seeking the bitter, slightly sweet flavor that made you feel good, even the morning after.

By this time, I had returned to Athens, Ga., to work alongside Chris Luken, the barman who’d shown me the ropes at Five & Ten and brought me along to The National six years ago. We were determined to take on tonic ourselves. I don’t think either one of us knew how good it could be. We worked up the bare bones of a recipe, tried a few different versions with the same ingredients and then added some new ones.  The result made us thirsty.  

The first step was quinine. Quinine is found naturally in the bark of the cinchona tree, native to South America, particularly Peru. The indigenous people there historically used it as remedy for fever and chills. As is well known, the birth of the Gin & Tonic occurred when the British began to mix their tonic pills with gin in colonial India to “fight” malaria. The natural bark, usually in chopped or preferably powder form, is indispensable to any real Tonic. Not only does it taste better; it seriously makes you feel better.

After the cinchona, we added a variety of citrus zests and peels and leaves and grasses. Lemongrass and lime leaves were first, then zests of those fruits and dried peels from oranges.  We also rediscovered the importance of the grapefruit. Years earlier, when The National first opened, Chris and I had made a simple cocktail with grapefruit, bourbon, and Blenheim’s spicy ginger ale in a pint glass. We called it The National Tonic, oddly prefiguring what was to come. Experimenting continued from there with a variety of herbs and spices, rosemary and mint, rosebuds and petals and hips, hawthorne and juniper berries and, in late fall and winter, star anise. 

The results have been strong, and even the weaker versions have taught us a thing or two. For example, some of the dark red cinchona can be overwhelming, whereas the slightly reddish brown powder seems to impart the desired flavor without making it bite too hard. Good citrus is crucial. Rose buds are really fun, but mostly for color. If you choose the right gin, which is to say dry English gin, you may not need the extra juniper. Always use star anise in moderation, even for the fall and winter versions, which tend to invite more. Citric acid helps it keep. A little salt makes everything better. And so forth and so on.

So here’s the process—the exact recipe is top secret, but really, as with most good things, the process is as fun as the product. 

Get the key ingredients together: cinchona powder, lemon and lime grapefruit zest and juice, grass and leaves, herbs and spices and berries. Add an appropriate amount of water—roughly a gallon per cup of cinchona—and bring it to a boil. Remove the mix from the heat, cover and steep. The steeping is important. The longer you are able to steep, the better your bittering flavor. If we’re talking rules of thumb, 3-4 hours is reasonable, but at least one hour, even overnight. Then strain off all the goodies using a fine strainer. Don’t be scared to use a cheesecloth or coffee filter. The cinchona doesn’t dissolve well so you’ll want strain off as much as possible after you’ve done the boiling and steeping. Keep in mind that a real Tonic is going to have a reddish color with suspended powder no matter what, but there’s no need to overdo it. Finally, add some sugar to sweeten. This is where you can really go wrong. Remember how the whole idea was to feel good? To make some something invigorating, refreshing and restorative?  A real Tonic? Well, too much sugar makes you feel like shit, both immediately and the next day. My guide has been to measure the amount of steeped and strained liquid and add one-quarter to one-third of that measure in sugar. Always err on the short side of sugar. 

Play around until it tastes good and feels right. That’s why we started down this path in the first place. 

How to drink:

• Fill a rocks glass appropriately with rocks
• Add 1¾-2 oz. dry English gin and ¾-1 oz. Tonic syrup
• Top with soda water.  Garnish with a slice of lemon or lime.

Fight your fever.

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Story by Hunt Revell

Photographs by Paige French

Young Urban Farmers

High school students taking root in business and agriculture.

Eight Classic City High School students spend four days of the week at the West Broad Community Garden in Athens, GA.  For school credit in a vocational course, they are being trained not only to be urban farmers but to be entrepreneurs.

The Young Urban Farmer Development Program reaches out to a generation of students who are largely disconnected from their food. At one time, agriculture ruled the South and the school calendar was built carefully around the planting and harvest seasons. Today, the ideal of the family farm is increasingly distant, but the YUF Development Program students are offered the rare opportunity to learn a skill that defined civilization.  

Each week, these students engage in hands-on experience in every realm of small-scale commercial agriculture.  On Mondays, they focus on farming as a business.  Local experts teach them about marketing plans, finances, banking and budgeting.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they start the day in the garden, getting their hands dirty learning about the upkeep of a plot. They practice the tasks that are constant for an urban farmer--harvesting plants, sowing seeds, weeding, composting, mulching and building structures like rain buckets and raised beds. To get a taste of the sales side, they also assist in the set-up and breakdown of the West Broad Tailgate Market, at which local farmers come out and sell their products. On Saturdays, they learn to cook.

“The main objective is to have them become the future farmers market vendors,” said Bantu Gross, the YUF Development Program Coordinator.

The program is empowering for the at-risk students it employs, endowing them with the drive and insight it requires to succeed as a farmer and business person, as well as an opportunity to become connected to the community and land from which their food grows.

Each student earned his or her right to work in the garden.  The application process to gain a spot in the program is involved. Classic City High school students, many of whom struggled in the traditional classroom setting, are asked to complete a lengthy application packet followed by an in-person interview at the garden with other students in the program and the leaders. 

“Some of the students that we selected were really good on paper,” said Gross, “And some of the students, we were like ‘I think they have potential, so we’re going to give them a shot.’”

The program is only in its second year of existence, but so far, it has produced results. Gross, who has a background in counseling, has been particularly pleased to see the kids benefit mentally.

“One of the students has expressed that he feels so free out there,” Gross said.  “I think it’s really beneficial that he sees that.”

Even students who don’t plan to make a career of farming benefit from digging their hands deep into the soil.  In the face of a curriculum that is based around touch screens, computer skills and navigating the Internet, the program offers a welcomed respite in the fresh air.  

The hope is that the program will become sustainable and that opportunities for peer leadership will arise as well.  

“In an ideal world, it would be staggered to where one group graduates and another group would come in and there would still be some there to mentor the new group, and once they graduate, the new group would mentor the next group,” said Gross.

Gross predicts that the program, which is sponsored by the Athens Land Trust, may someday extend to include students from other schools, but his main focus is helping the students that the program was developed for in the first place.

“I see those Classic City High students all the time,” he said, “and they get a bad rap, so we have this program that’s tailor fit to them, where they can be themselves and excel in other areas as well.” 

Markus Peek is a returning member to the program.  The Classic City High School senior began last year after his principal, Mr. Gurtz, approached him about the opportunity. Peek had never had a job before, and he didn’t know what to expect from a program in its inaugural year.  

But Peek became quickly became invested in the work.  He helped plant and harvest and even initiated projects that would span longer than the first school year.  His interest in seeing the fruits of his labor brought him back for a second year tending to the garden.

“I had so many things that I started out here my first year,” said Peek, “and I just wanted to see it get done.”

He helped make mushroom logs in his first year that hadn’t yet sprouted, and he wanted to come back to sell a harvest he’d taken ownership of.  For Peek, harvesting is his favorite part of the job.

“I mean, you come out here, turn all the dirt and do all of this work, and it wouldn’t be a very rewarding job if you didn’t get to see the final product” he said.

Peek is starting to think like an entrepreneur.  Last year, he made a business of building and selling bird houses.  He took pride in his work, making a product by hand that could also result in profit.  This year, he hopes to launch a business building raised beds for Athens residents.

He and his classmates are crafting a largely lost skill set that can be profitable and marketable. They are being armed with the knowledge to become business owners.

“Basically they just prepare you and set you up to where you can start your own business while you’re in the program, and when you’re out of the program, you can just kind of pursue your business in whichever direction you would like it to go” said Peek.

Peek’s sense of community has also grown with the YUF development program. In the time that he’s participated, he’s grown closer to his peers as they learn and grow together.

“Getting to know people that you haven’t known before is really one of the most exciting things that came out of this program” he said.

He hopes to stay in the farming business after graduating high school in the spring, and because of the program, he has the means to do so.

“I never thought I would love farming so much-- I never thought I would have the opportunity to come out here and farm and learn what I do, and I’m really thankful for the knowledge that I’ve gained from this experience.”  

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Story by Jodi Cash

Photographs by Paige Beasley

The Bigger Picture: The Pastures of Rose Creek

The Pastures of Rose Creek farm in Watkinsville, Ga., has been a family farm for four generations. Now run by Will Powers and his sister Francie, the land that was once worked by their great-grandfather is now home to 100 grass-fed cows and 150 free-ranging chickens.

Will began farming in January 2011. He had just returned home from working as a raft guide in Colorado. Francie joined him a year later after quitting the job on Capitol Hill she’d held since graduating college. They came home to begin something bigger, to contribute to an effort that was stitched into their very DNA. 

Their tasks were just as physical as Will’s adventures out West, if not more. They began spending their days dedicated to a garden, working hard to grow while following Certified Naturally Grown practices despite the heat-and-insect-ridden morass that is inescapable in the South. 

“I really didn’t enjoy going out at three in the morning and weeding because it’s too hot at 12 in the afternoon,” says Will, whose emphasis has now shifted to the cows and chickens he raises on the land. “But two years later, we had beef to sell, and it really made a difference on the turnaround of what we were deciding to do.”

With the first hundred head of cattle, Will practiced herding them from one portion of their 180 acres of pasture to another. He has perfected this process, developing a system that he now likens to using his land like a person would eat pizza. He keeps the cows in one slice of the pastures at a time and rotates them after they’ve essentially depleted the grass in that area. The cows are limited to those acres (but still given substantial space to roam) by temporary electrified fences that he moves with the herd. This allows each "slice" of grassy pasture to recover as the cows are moved from one section to the next. 

Will and Francie work tirelessly to make sure that their cows are given the best possible treatment. “I spoil these cows,” Will says, “they are spoiled rotten. The worst part of their lives is the trailer to the [slaughter], and that’s the hardest part of my job, too.”

Will and Francie made their process more holistic by bringing in chickens. The chickens rotate behind the cows to clean up after them, scraping the piles of cow pies and eating the bugs that could otherwise wreak havoc on the cows. It's a delicate process, because to put the chickens behind the cows too soon would allow them to eat the bugs that the soil needs, like dung beetles. Typically, the chickens are moved onto a section of pasture three days after the cattle have moved over. This eliminates the need for chemical insecticides. It’s ultimately beneficial to the chickens, the cows and the consumers of the Pastures of Rose Creek products. 

“In order to get those orange yolks, like you guys want and like we would like more of … [the chickens] have to free range,” Will says. “You can’t put them in a pen. They have to go around and eat the bugs in order to get the nutrients to produce the yolks like that.”

After years of intensive work and the occasional harsh reality alongside daily victories, life at The Pastures of Rose Creek is becoming systematic. Their output is growing. The farm now sells its cattle, eggs and produce not only to restaurants, at the Athens Farmers Market, the Oconee Farmers Market and at their Sunday farm stand, but now they are also offering the option to buy their beef in bulk. Family packs that contains a chuck roast, a sirloin, New York strips, cube steak and ground beef can be reserved via email (pastures1051@gmail.com). For those with less space in their freezers, a smaller pre-selected grouping of their favorite cuts, priced to save bulk shoppers $1 per pound, is also available. 

“I could have had an easy, carefree life, but this is the bigger picture,” Will says. “This is more than me, this is the whole family and everybody involved here. Sometimes you gotta think past yourself. And I get to be outside, so I can’t ask for more than that.”

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Story by Jodi Cash - First published in a Flagpole Magazine series called The Locavore

Photos by Paige French