Even at this ungodly hour, the \u201cDave Cave,\u201d the garage-size space at the rear of Shenandoah Joe on Preston Avenue in Charlottesville, is already alive with light, an Allman Brothers song on Pandora, and\u2014oh yes\u2014the cobweb-clearing aroma of roasting coffee. For this is where Fafara does his thing, roasting every bean used by Shenandoah Joe\u2019s three coffeehouse locations, plus a long list of local restaurant and retail clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t used an alarm clock in 30 years,\u201d Fafara cheerfully declares as he launches into the rhythms of a morning\u2019s work, clad in a surf-shop T-shirt, khaki shorts, and canvas sneakers (no socks), despite the chilly weather. Yep, Fafara is also the kind of guy who makes cheerful declarations at 4:15 a.m.[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery type=”parallax_image_grid” images=”398,399,400,401″][vc_column_text]\n
Pallets stacked with 150-pound sacks dominate one side of the space. Bulging burlap bears stenciling that identifies the contents as products of coffee-growing lands including Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sumatra, and Java. Fafara first opens a sack from El Salvador and scoops 10 pounds of the green-gray beans into a bucket labeled \u201cgreen organic only.\u201d On the plant, these beans started as red, juicy \u201ccoffee cherries.\u201d Once picked, they are fermented, dried, and milled to extract the raw beans that Fafara eventually receives.<\/p>\n
Like most of the sacks, this one has a special, and even personal, origin story: A finca (farm)\u2014named Siberia for its unpredictable weather and remote locale high in El Salvador\u2019s mountains\u2014produced only nine sacks of this particular variety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a buddy down there,\u201d says Fafara, \u201cso we split the order and got it all.\u201d He perches on tiptoes to transfer the beans to the conical funnel that sits atop his roaster, where they spill down into the heated, rotating drum.<\/p>\n
A word about this vital piece of equipment: Manufactured in Nevada, the San Franciscan model roaster strongly resembles a scale model of a vintage steam locomotive\u2014especially when it occasionally belches a few puffs of smoke. Weighing in at 1,350 pounds, built of powder-coated steel, and able to handle 25-pound batches, it combines industrial utility and artisan craft in the hands of an attuned user.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis roaster is a freaking workhorse,\u201d Fafara says with unmasked affection. \u201cThey\u2019re like the old VW Bugs, you can always get them running. I beat the crap out of this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this moment, though, he is carefully monitoring a timer and a digital thermometer attached to the roaster. \u201cThe temperature of a smaller batch has a tendency to suddenly take off on you,\u201d he explains. He sneaks a quick peek at a sample scooped from a miniature porthole in the roaster drum, then yanks a lever that releases the now dark, shiny beans into a circular bin equipped with a sweep arm to help them cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do everything based on time and temperature,\u201d Fafara says as he immediately loads another batch into the roaster. \u201cThe whole process depends on me determining what looks and smells right. I\u2019m using my senses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, it\u2019s tempting to dub Fafara the \u201cCoffee Whisperer\u201d\u2014except for the fact that whispering is contrary to every fiber of his being. Whether one encounters him manning the Shenandoah Joe booth at the Charlottesville farmers\u2019 market, collecting toys as president of the local Toy Lift philanthropy, or sampling craft beers while listening to a band at Lockn\u2019, he is always a ball of extroverted energy who raises the spirits of those around him. And that ain\u2019t just the caffeine talking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”402,403,404″ image_grid_loading=”default” layout=”3″ item_spacing=”default” gallery_style=”7″ load_in_animation=”none” img_size=”400×600″][vc_column_text]\n
FAFARA WAS BORN AND RAISED near the stockyards on Chicago\u2019s South Side, and still has the streetwise accent to prove it. Somewhat incongruous to that environment, he excelled on his high school diving team. \u201cIt was good for someone with a short attention span, and girls seemed to like it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He also dove competitively in college, but had to quit and go to work after his father died. In the early \u201980s, the Chicago boy moved to sunny California to coach diving at the high school and collegiate levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were in California, we used to surf in the morning, then stop at a coffee shop,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where my fascination with coffee started. I\u2019d find myself thinking that I\u2019d love to open up a coffee shop when I retire because I could surf in the morning, and then drink coffee and bullshit all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously, the surfing dreams took a hit when he and wife Kristi relocated to Charlottesville in 1988 for a job with UVA\u2019s swimming and diving program. \u201cAfter we moved here, I still was ordering coffee from California because there wasn\u2019t a lot of good coffee in Charlottesville then,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But one Sunday morning in 2000, when he was perusing the newspaper classifieds (to \u201clearn what\u2019s really going on in a community\u201d), Fafara spotted a local coffee business listed for sale. Its name was Shenandoah Joe. \u201cI went to just take a look at it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I came back and told Kristi, \u2018We\u2019re gonna buy this company.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, the operation consisted of just a small roaster, a few wholesale clients, and some odds and ends in an industrial space. One employee agreed to stay on long enough to teach the Fafaras the ropes.<\/p>\n
The turning point came when they decided to set up as a vendor at City Market on Saturday mornings. \u201cThat got bigger and bigger, and then we started selling some retail bags from the warehouse,\u201d Fafara recalls. \u201cWe also let people put money in a jar and pour a cup of coffee at the warehouse. Some people would put $20 in the jar on Monday and drink for the rest of the week. Whoever drank the last cup had to pick a roast and brew the next pot, that was the rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
With demand swelling, the Fafaras moved into their flagship coffeehouse on Preston Avenue in 2007, and have since opened satellite locations in Ivy and on the Corner. A fourth outpost is coming soon to Harrisonburg.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”406,407,408,409″ image_grid_loading=”default” layout=”2″ item_spacing=”default” gallery_style=”7″ load_in_animation=”none” img_size=”400×400″][vc_column_text]\n
\u201cARE YOU READY FOR A CUP OF COFFEE YET?\u201d<\/p>\n
Fafara poses the question with a sly grin because he already knows the answer, just as he knows that the smell of roasting coffee being pumped from a vent pipe in Shenandoah Joe\u2019s back wall will soon make the surrounding neighborhood crave a cup too.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still too early for even the morning shift to be on duty, so after he loads the San Franciscan with a new batch, he hustles up front to use a grinder and a French press. The steaming mugs sit for a few moments after he pours. \u201cIt should cool down just a bit to drinkable temperature,\u201d he advises, \u201cto taste all the characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n
What are those characteristics? He takes a sip. \u201cA little red fruit, subtle chocolate, good mouthfeel.\u201d The concept of terroir, the qualities of flavor imparted by the environment in which a food or beverage is produced, is every bit as important to coffee aficionados as it is to a wine-sniffing oenophile.<\/p>\n
Fafara sidles back up to the roaster, where 25 pounds of Brazilian beans are being transformed into one of Shenandoah Joe\u2019s signature coffees, Smoky Mountain. He times an espresso roast (longer than a light roast, shorter than a French roast), then closes the damper for 90 seconds so that the roast smoke sits on the beans. When he finally yanks the release lever, the beans spill out with a rush of smoke that tips off the nose to how this coffee will taste when cupped.<\/p>\n
Truth told, Fafara treads softly on the French-roast end of the coffee continuum. \u201cThere are certain coffees you can dark roast and some you can\u2019t or you kill those characteristics the coffee farmer worked so hard for,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like cooking a good steak well-done. I will never take a single-origin coffee and burn it.\u201d<\/p>\n
One can safely assume, then, that such a fate won\u2019t befall the particular beans that are Fafara\u2019s current pride and joy, a crop from Honduras. He\u2019s made good friends in various coffee-producing regions, and in turn, those friends know Fafara\u2019s tastes. So it was that a Honduran coffee miller sent Fafara a sample of beans grown by a lone farmer named Marzo Mu\u00f1oz. Using a small sample roaster that is an exact miniature of his big San Franciscan, Fafara conducted a test roast. \u201cA sample roaster is a luxury, but it\u2019s important to me,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when I\u2019m roasting a sample for the first time, I don\u2019t want anyone near to distract me.\u201d The results wowed him. The total crop was just 900 pounds, so Fafara bought every last bean.<\/p>\n
His personal connection with growers doesn\u2019t stop there. Every winter he travels to far-flung coffee-producing regions to meet them and participate in the harvest season. Last year he visited Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Ethiopia. \u201cThat furthers my working relationship with those farmers, which helps me to continue getting their crop,\u201d says Fafara, who refers to it as \u201crelationship coffee.\u201d This face-to-face style, favored by Fafara and other small, artisan coffee roasters, is nothing short of remarkable when you consider that coffee is the second-most-traded commodity in the world\u2014behind oil.<\/p>\n
Fafara has even sent roasted beans back to the very farmer who grew them in the first place. \u201cThese guys never get to drink their own coffee,\u201d he says. \u201cThey put a lot of time and energy into growing a product for us up here, and I want them to experience what I\u2019m doing with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, his top priority is sharing his craft with folks right here at home. \u201cWe try to teach our customers that each coffee doesn\u2019t have to taste the same,\u201d he says. \u201cYou wait in line for 20 minutes for a Chipotle burrito, you can wait in line four minutes for a good cup of coffee. I tell people to just wake up five minutes earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sun is now up, and baristas out front are busy cupping an array of coffee preparations\u2014drip, pour-over, French press, cappuccino, espresso, latte\u2014to a steady stream of customers, while another staffer transfers fresh-roasted beans into paper bags labeled with the names of familiar restaurants such as C&O, Orzo, Rapture, and Red Pump Kitchen. Fafara has been roasting for hours already, and will continue for several more before he finishes 27 separate roasts totaling 650 pounds of coffee, a process he repeats several times a week. For the moment though, while he monitors a batch in progress, he\u2019s also able to take stock of his role as one of the area\u2019s foremost coffee gurus.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know you\u2019re doing okay when you see the same people coming in every morning for a cup of coffee,\u201d he says. \u201cTruth is, I\u2019m even more excited by coffee now than I was when I started. One day I\u2019m gonna get a business card that says \u2018Coffee Roaster and Legal Drug Dealer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_color=”#efefef” scene_position=”center” top_padding=”53″ constrain_group_1=”yes” bottom_padding=”53″ left_padding_desktop=”50″ constrain_group_2=”yes” right_padding_desktop=”50″ text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”15px” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” advanced_gradient_angle=”0″ overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n