Bean battle: Four Suncoast coffee shops that are defying the odds in the battle against Starbucks

Hello. My name is Dennis Maley, and I’m a coffee snob.

I was going to say “aficionado,” but that always seemed like something a snob calls himself, kind of like miserable people who describe themselves as “dissatisfied.” I’ll just stick with snob.

Like many people, I am about two I.Q. points above the magic number of 70 without my fist cup of this magical little potion, but aside from being an unapologetic caffeine junkie, I genuinely love the experience of sipping good coffee. I guess what makes me a snob is that I so utterly abhor bad or even mediocre coffee that I will go to extreme lengths to land the right cup of joe, every single time.

I am fortunate to work primarily from home. That means on most days I have the luxury of my own stash of high-quality beans, the option of the French press, esspresso pot, or Turkish ibrik, and no one to argue with over how loud I listen to Warren Zevon on the iPod dock. It’s when I have to be out and about that things get hairy.

First disclosure: I hate shopping at publicly traded, multi-national conglomerate-owned chain stores. Second disclosure: I hate standing behind Botox-enhanced, collagen-injected, desperate housewife wannabes, carrying the keys to their fashionable SUVs in one hand and a Daniel Steele book in the other, deciding whether they want to bastardize this noble beverage with cream, soy, skim, vanilla, or mocha, then arguing with the poor barista over how many shots are in a quad.

In a nutshell, I’m always looking for a sensible alternative to Starbucks.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to find. Ever since the Seattle-based coffee house chain virtually redefined the coffee experience, we can find a consistently average coffee beverage of every imaginable variety, available virtually anytime and anywhere. On the other hand, Starbucks’ domination of the market has given the company an utter monopoly, making it nearly impossible to compete on smaller economies of scale. Which begs the question: Are we witnessing the death of the local coffee house?

It is only fair to admit that many independent coffee houses need no help from the crowned mermaid in going belly up. The failure rate for restaurants is high, and many less experienced entrepreneurs find the smaller scale and investment of a coffee shop less daunting than a full-service eatery. Their operators are often retired professionals rather than experienced retailers, and the inexperience shows. For better or worse, Starbucks has raised our coffee expectations. So, if you can’t do it better than Mobil on the Run and you don’t sell gas or have a Subway kiosk, good luck. Still, plenty of local cafés have gotten it right, only to succumb to the power of the big green monster and their partially recycled cardboard sleeves.

Betsy Nelson’s Metro Coffee & Wine in Laurel Park was a perfect example. There is an art to diversifying a business’s revenue stream without getting away from its identity. Metro had a limited, yet diverse menu, catered to the local arts, offered free wi-fi (Starbucks will clip you $7.99 a day/$29.99 a month through T-Mobile), added the perfect evening complement of wine to the formula, and got an A for atmosphere. Still, despite a passionate following, they closed their doors in February 2008 due to financial difficulties.

The much-lamented loss of Sarasota News & Books, a good coffee shop inside a small, but potent indie bookstore tells a similar tale. Perfect location, great ambience, two profit centers and strong community ties, yet not enough suburbanites standing 10 deep to order venti, triple, no-fat, half-calf, vanilla soy lattes with two and a half Splendas at five bucks a pop. It closed its doors at the end of August.

Meanwhile, in the last few years Starbucks has opened new stores off I-75 on State Road 70, in both Westfield malls, two stores on Manatee Avenue, a second on Cortez, and one on Main Street in Lakewood Ranch, avoiding a single local closing amid the 600 stores the behemoth shuttered in 2008 and bringing the Sarasota/Manatee total to 17 (20 counting licensees). The Starbucks formula is simple and streamlined. They acquire great leases at visible, high-traffic locations. They favor drive-through-capable stores off interstate exits, near hospitals, medical centers and corporate parks, rather than high-cost downtown locations that often have limited parking and fewer high-traffic hours.

Starbucks is not just a retailer, either, but also a coffee roaster. So unlike the others, they buy from themselves after sourcing the beans direct from Third World countries. They don’t sell books from local writers or host open mic nights. Instead, they publish books and CDs, engage in exclusive partnerships with other massive corporations like Apple, and then market their vast array of products to a captive retail audience.

They sell their beans, processed drinks and ice creams in supermarkets and have exclusive domain in Barnes & Noble, as well as Borders, via their subsidiary company Seattle’s Best Coffee. Two local Targets house licensed mini-stores, as does Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

With all of these advantages, does an independent coffee shop stand a chance? CL looks at four feisty locals who are defying the odds.

BISTRO DU MONDE
5119 N. Tamiami Trail, Ste. 7, Sarasota, 355-1114 or bistrodumondesrq.com

This quaint little café on the North Trail has quickly built a loyal local following willing to stand in line for moist muffins and delicious coffee. Steve and Maureen Gillum are lifelong restaurateurs who understand the nuances of the industry and it shows. Coffee amounts to only 5 percent of their gross business, but its painstaking selection and preparation is the foundation of Du Monde’s success.

A true connoisseur, Steve tried four local roasters before settling on CCM out of Tampa. His Americano is as good as any you will find and his self-made pastries leave Starbucks in the dust. Despite its limited capacity, they do a very brisk lunch business with a small, but distinct $6-$7 menu, anchored by the best muffaletta this side of New Orleans.

Maureen Gillum has transformed the failed Cool Beanz location into a Paris-like café with authentic décor and extra touches like linen napkins and upscale restrooms. The warm atmosphere is elevated by her husband’s own surprisingly good paintings and it is no wonder that Du Monde is a popular complement to the museum crowd that often stops by after a tour.

“We go to France a lot,” says Steve, “and there is a perfect little café in every neighborhood. We live behind our place and our goal was to be just that for this community. We get a lot of students and staff from New College, Ringling and the East West [College of Natural Medicine]. We get the people who live close by. They know that we’ll go that extra step and give them exactly what they want and fix it if it isn’t right. When they go to Starbucks they’re dealing with a machine.”

The Gillums hope that the current economy will spark a renaissance in local congregation and commerce. “For years, everything has been about getting more for less and now we’re starting to see the price for that,” Steve says. “I think people are deciding that they want to be involved in their communities again. They want a place where they can gather with their neighbors.” Bistro Du Monde is just that and more.