Philly: Thursday Night Throw-Latte Art Competition

My friend Sara and I have a favorite coffee shop in Merion Station (Main Line Philadelphia) called Town Hall which we go to when we have the time. This place has first class coffee and reminds me of my favorite shop back home.

I ran into Sara and she told me that our favorite Barista Rory had invited her to a "Latte Art Competition" at the shop on Thursday night. He said free food, lattes, and beer. We were in.

The spread was actually pretty nice: pita, lettuce cups, hummus, olive tapenade, cucumber tomato salad, cheese. I was happy. And the free beer helped.

Apparently this competition, known as Thursday Night Throwdown, is a monthly event sponsored by several Philly Coffee Shops and counter culture coffee which travels to a different coffee shop each month where baristas compete with the Latte art.

This was definitely the infamous Philly hipster crowd and while we were a little out of place, but eventually we blended in.

I had no idea how competitive and intense the latte-art scene could be. There is a metal for the best barista, prize money, and of course...bragging rights. Did you know there are actually international latte-art competitions?

Apparently the DC scene has a rivalry with the Philly scene and they sent an intimidating video dissing Philadelphia. I believe a rebutal was being created.

With 16 baristas they filled a full bracket and began the competition.

The competition was based on how well each barista could master the standard 3 latte designs:

1. The Heart

2. The Flower

3. The hardest of the all is the Rose, but I couldn't get my hands on one.

Honestly, I got pretty lost, but here are some of my action shots:

I think this is a pretty intense shot of a barista confrontation.

 

Our favorite Barista Rory, smashing the competition.

Steve, one of the most intense baristas who reminds me of Sheldon (Jim Parkins) from The Big Bang Theory. He is super nice though and even kept extra beers cold for us.

At first they started pouring out the lattes but eventually with our lead we grabbed them before they got poured out.

The tension gets to some people...

Sara's second latte, she just got in there!

The coordinated pour...

The guy in the bow tie with huge gage earrings is named Chip. Love it.

The backhanded pour....skills.

Ahh swerve in the knick of time! For what? Steam?

Intense...

Overall it was a fun night with some really cool people, I think we might have to follow the competition to the next shop in October, hey free food of course.

Wishing you a beautiful cup of coffee with the people you love.                                                                    

 Enjoy!                                                                                                                                                         

Love,                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                             

The College Cuisiner